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Honk breathing

lavender91

lavender91

Junior Guinea Pig
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My guinea pig has like honk breathing sounds but is acting completely normal going to the bath room no problem eating no problem running around like normal and drinking water like normal without giving medical advice. Would bene bac or critical care help it sounds like something is in her little nose or throat like how us humans get a hair in our throat
Video does not belong to me it was taken from reddit by the user u/Chuk749
 
Piggies have narrow airways so anything in the nose such as hay dust can produce audible breathing. Usually a piggy will sneeze and such dust will be cured and you won’t hear the noise any more. If it doesn’t clear after a few hours, then you should see a vet.
Any noise coming from the chest or any type of breathing issue which you are worried about then please do see a vet.
We can’t tell you what you are actually dealing with here. I also am not able to view the video.

Benebac is a probiotic which helps replenish depleted bacteria. It wont do anything to deal with a respiratory issue.
It can help a piggy who is on antibiotics or has a gut upset.

Critical care is a recovery feed. It is important to use it to support a piggy who is losing weight and who is unwell. It won’t do anything to cure a respiratory issue.

As the need to breathe comes first, A piggy who is struggling to breath will often stop eating enough hay (even if they at still eating some), and given hay is 75% of their food intake any reduction in intake can have a big effect very quickly.
When you have health concerns, it’s important you switch from the routine weekly weight checks and switch to weighing your piggy daily each morning. That is the only way to ensure a piggy is in fact eating enough hay.
 
I weigh her once every 2 weeks she is drinking water,playing,eating hay,eating her pellet food etc. I feel like it might be allergies it's about that time of year for where I live for allergies to come out and play
 
lavender91 said:
I weigh her once every 2 weeks she is drinking water,playing,eating hay,eating her pellet food etc. I feel like it might be allergies it's about that time of year for where I live for allergies to come out and play
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Once every two weeks isn’t enough - they can lose a large amount of weight within a matter of days so leaving it two weeks could delay life saving intervention. It needs to be done once a week as routine and then once a day if you have health concerns.
You can’t gauge hay intake by eye - they can appear to be eating it but without weight checks you can’t know they’re actually eating enough

Piggies don’t get allergies - true allergies are incredibly rare. They can be sensitive to things though but any breathing issue needs to be checked out given they can deteriorate very quickly.
I still can’t make the video work and only a vet can vet can actually listen and check the chest is clear.

Weight - Monitoring and Management
 
Piggies&buns said:
Once every two weeks isn’t enough - they can lose a large amount of weight within a matter of days so leaving it two weeks could delay life saving intervention. It needs to be done once a week as routine and then once a day if you have health concerns.
You can’t gauge hay intake by eye - they can appear to be eating it but without weight checks you can’t know they’re actually eating enough

Piggies don’t get allergies - true allergies are incredibly rare. They can be sensitive to things though but any breathing issue needs to be checked out given they can deteriorate very quickly.
I still can’t make the video work and only a vet can vet can actually listen and check the chest is clear.

Weight - Monitoring and Management
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I have a nanny cam to watch them 247
 
lavender91 said:
I have a nanny cam to watch them 247
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Please don’t fooled into thinking watching them eat hay on camera means they are actually consuming enough to keep their weight stable, particularly during any health issue - only the weekly, switching to daily, weight checks can tell you that they are eating enough hay in each 24 hour period. Any weight loss 50g or more requires you to step on with syringe feeding to prevent the risk of further weight loss and stasis during illness or sometimes even before symptoms present. You’d never visibly notice 50g of weight loss on a piggy.
We have seen many posts of piggies being seen eating hay but their weight is dropping daily due to not actually consuming enough.

This is all we can advise though, and is our standard advice in such a situation - if sneezing doesn’t clear the nasal passages within a few hours (which it should do if it is just hay dust in the nose) or if breathing is/becomes laboured, then make a vet appointment and switch from the routine weekly weight checks to instead weighing daily to prepare to step in with syringe feeding if necessary.
 
Nobody judges anybody on the forum. Those of us with H&I badges in our signatures monitor this section to ensure the correct care advice is given. All the same information is also available on our guides.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Nobody judges anybody on the forum. Those of us with H&I badges in our signatures monitor this section to ensure the correct care advice is given. All the same information is also available on our guides.
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I'm not directly saying you but in the past when I had another account but I deleted it because of the food choices I made I got judged harshly and to be fair everyone judges
 
lavender91 said:
I'm not directly saying you but in the past when I had another account but I deleted it because of the food choices I made I got judged harshly and to be fair everyone judges
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I’m sorry to hear you have felt judged previously. I’m sure it wasn’t anybody’s intention, sometimes the written word doesn’t come across the way the author intends it and misunderstandings can occur. Our role on the forum is to help owners and to have a fun space to talk all things piggy. We do our best to be a friendly place and as a staff member myself I spend a lot of time monitoring posts to ensure advice is accurate and friendly.

We sometimes find new owners have been given advice but they come here and find out that what they’ve been told isn’t the best thing to do. Prime examples are feeding and cage size - cages which are sold as suitable but are actually too small and people being told to feed items which aren’t ideal. We then aim to point people in the right direction of up to date advice and help them if changes can be made in the interests of the piggies.
 
Piggies&buns said:
That’s good with any luck it was just hay dust and she has sneezed it out
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I’m a few months late to this thread. My 2 year old boar is making a similar sound. Now I definitely sound like a worried mommy. After reading, it does like there’s too much hay in their enclosure, at least at my house. I think early today he was sneezing. About an hour ago I piled up a pile of used hay & I think that caused the loud hooting sound.
 
Annie B said:
I’m a few months late to this thread. My 2 year old boar is making a similar sound. Now I definitely sound like a worried mommy. After reading, it does like there’s too much hay in their enclosure, at least at my house. I think early today he was sneezing. About an hour ago I piled up a pile of used hay & I think that caused the loud hooting sound.
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It’s not possible to give too much hay - they need lots of it all the time.
What you don’t want is too much dust in the hay.
 
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