I might have given my guinea pig a cold...

[saphirarox]

Hi all!

I have had my sweet boys for about a year. So far, they are doing great--I have taken them to the vet once about six months ago and they got a clean bill of health. However, I am worried now that I might have given my Mushroom a cold. I was snuggling with him on Friday night and he was on my upper chest, so I was breathing on him. Then on Saturday morning, I realized that I was coming down with a cold. I did my best to stay away from the guinea pigs once I realized I was sick, but they do live in my room and I'm a college student so I have to stay in my room with them. Anyways, tonight (about 48 hours after I was snuggling with him) I noticed Mushroom sneezing. He is sneezing about once every 10 minutes or so for the past hour. They also have some dusty hay in their cage and it needs a good cleaning, so that might be why, but this is definitely abnormal for him. I'm trying to avoid touching or picking him up since I am sick, but his eyes and nose do not look runny and I can't hear any breathing difficulty--but again this is just from observing him from a distance.

Obviously, I'll keep an eye and take him to the vet tomorrow if he is still sneezing but I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with this or any advice on what I should do right now. I made sure he and his cagemate got their Vitamin C and have plenty of access to food and water. Please let me know if anyone has experience with this or tips. I would hate to have given him a cold!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all!

I have had my sweet boys for about a year. So far, they are doing great--I have taken them to the vet once about six months ago and they got a clean bill of health. However, I am worried now that I might have given my Mushroom a cold. I was snuggling with him on Friday night and he was on my upper chest, so I was breathing on him. Then on Saturday morning, I realized that I was coming down with a cold. I did my best to stay away from the guinea pigs once I realized I was sick, but they do live in my room and I'm a college student so I have to stay in my room with them. Anyways, tonight (about 48 hours after I was snuggling with him) I noticed Mushroom sneezing. He is sneezing about once every 10 minutes or so for the past hour. They also have some dusty hay in their cage and it needs a good cleaning, so that might be why, but this is definitely abnormal for him. I'm trying to avoid touching or picking him up since I am sick, but his eyes and nose do not look runny and I can't hear any breathing difficulty--but again this is just from observing him from a distance.

Obviously, I'll keep an eye and take him to the vet tomorrow if he is still sneezing but I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with this or any advice on what I should do right now. I made sure he and his cagemate got their Vitamin C and have plenty of access to food and water. Please let me know if anyone has experience with this or tips. I would hate to have given him a cold!

Please have him vet checked; persistent several times an hour sneezing should be seen if keeps going on and on.

While guinea pigs like other rodents have a low risk of picking up a virus from humans, including coronavirus (their respiratory infections are bacterial, have somewhat different symptoms and a different order of symptoms to our viral cold and they not infectious for us), the risk is not totally zero and there are also some other bugs affecting the respiratory that can be potentially transmitted. It is hopefully just the hay.

 

[saphirarox]

Please have him vet checked; persistent several times an hour sneezing should be seen if keeps going on and on.

While guinea pigs like other rodents have a low risk of picking up a virus from humans, including coronavirus (their respiratory infections are bacterial, have somewhat different symptoms and a different order of symptoms to our viral cold and they not infectious for us), the risk is not totally zero and there are also some other bugs affecting the respiratory that can be potentially transmitted. It is hopefully just the hay.

Thanks for the reply! Thankfully, he was only sneezing for an hour or two and is no longer sneezing this morning so I think he is totally fine! I will continue to monitor but I think it was just breathing in something dusty as I haven't heard him sneeze in a few hours.

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks for the reply! Thankfully, he was only sneezing for an hour or two and is no longer sneezing this morning so I think he is totally fine! I will continue to monitor but I think it was just breathing in something dusty as I haven't heard him sneeze in a few hours.

If it is just a one-off sneezing fit, then it was likely just some dust gone up his nose.

It is extremely rare that piggies catch a respiratory bug from us, and then it is generally not a common cold.

Sneezing is also not a common symptom for the onset of a URI (bacterial respiratory tract infection).

Take good care of yourself and just use good normal hygiene (hand-washing before and after handling piggies and refraining from cuddles until you are over the acute cold).