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Laboured Breathing.

breakawayfromme

breakawayfromme

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi one of my piggies is showing signs of labourbred breathing.
Ive never dealth with a URI and looking at syprtoms this is the only one he has.
I coniceidently weighed them both this morning and no worries there.

Do you think this can wait until tommorrow or should I take to emergency vet?
I don't want to sound like I don't take this seriously (I am) but the emergnecy vets charge me £160 just to get a piggie through the door and i'm supposed be working overtime tonight so If it could wait until morning that would be the better option but of course his health comes first.

Thanks
 
breakawayfromme said:
Hi one of my piggies is showing signs of labourbred breathing.
Ive never dealth with a URI and looking at syprtoms this is the only one he has.
I coniceidently weighed them both this morning and no worries there.

Do you think this can wait until tommorrow or should I take to emergency vet?
I don't want to sound like I don't take this seriously (I am) but the emergnecy vets charge me £160 just to get a piggie through the door and i'm supposed be working overtime tonight so If it could wait until morning that would be the better option but of course his health comes first.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Hi

If your piggy has heaving sides in order to breathe, then please see a vet as an emergency; this is serious. It could be a sign of acute heart failure or pneumonia.
List Of Life And Death Out-of-hours Emergencies

Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

PS: I am only too aware of what the out-of-hours vets charge, having had to race my Morwenna for an emergency pts there Sunday before last. :yikes:

All the best!
 
So were back, entire journey I heard nothing from him which was strange, vet does all the checks and calls to tell me she can't find a single concern
She said to keep an eye just incase its the start of an issue but that its most lileky not as these types of things arent on and off.

I was thinking maybe it could be something at home but I don't use any sprays around them and delebritley only burn candles when i'm taking a bath for this reason.

So right now its a mystery, a £190 mystery.....
 
breakawayfromme said:
So were back, entire journey I heard nothing from him which was strange, vet does all the checks and calls to tell me she can't find a single concern
She said to keep an eye just incase its the start of an issue but that its most lileky not as these types of things arent on and off.

I was thinking maybe it could be something at home but I don't use any sprays around them and delebritley only burn candles when i'm taking a bath for this reason.

So right now its a mystery, a £190 mystery.....
Click to expand...

Ouch! Piggies are so good to repress any symptoms when out of their comfort zone. Been there, done that with piggies of mine. :(

I hope his breathing is still OK back home?

PS: Please do not burn any scented candles in the same room as piggies.
 
:agr:

I’ve had a couple in the past that developed URIs, yet at the vets hid their symptoms pretty convincingly! Typical prey response.

Please do keep a close eye on your piggy. Hope all continues to be well 🤞🏻
 
One of my boys hurt his leg, limping round his cage clearly in discomfort. Got him to the vet and he walked across the consulting room floor perfectly fine. Got home and he went straight back to limping. Luckily the vet knew he was probably hiding it and prescribed a painkiller anyway.

Definitely do keep an eye on him. I hope he is ok
 
Sorry, I can hardly hear it but it sounds rather raspy and a bit rough.
 
My usual vets are only open for 4 hours over the weekend but I will call them tommrrow and see if they can see him
What if he acts fine again when i'm there and they say what the last vet said, she can't prescribe anything for a issue that isnt there?
 
Piggies&buns said:
Show them this video (although I can’t see any visual, only hear a slight sound) as there is definitely something not right with his breathing
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This. I had to do something similar with Comet once - I knew something was off, I had no idea what, and he was presenting just fine when the vet saw him. The vet couldn't find anything obvious but she said if I said something was off, I was probably right (and I was). They're just very good at hiding these things, especially in the vet where they're scared. Let them hear the video, even grab another one with more audio if you can. "See, this is how he was breathing on Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday" etc.
 
Thanks I will show them

After I got home from the emergency vet yesterday the issue had seemingly disapperaed and then this morning when I get home from work (there is someone else in the house who can check on him if needed) he was fine so I didnt take him today but then I woke up earlier his breathing was bad again

I will call tommorrow and hope they can fit me in
I had hoped if my usual vets can't see me tommrrow I could call the vets I have to use in an emgency and get an appoitment there but turns out there only open for 4 hours also
 
I have an appontitment for monday (the earliest I could get without an emergency)

They said they were fully booked today but I could send them a video and if they feel they need to see him they will get in touch but I had no call/reply

Of course if anything gets worse before then I will have to take him to the emgency vet again but hopefully that doesnt happen

I'm trying my best with the options I have
 
As if I wasnt worried enough now his freind has decided he wants to be boss
Not sure if he knows something is wrong so trying his luck or his age as he is younger
I just hope someone surrenders soon
 
I had this with my first 2 boys. My dominant pig developed a condition that wasn't going to get any better so I did have to separate permanently and just have bar-contact. But if you can get your boy sorted you might be in with a chance of re-bonding... as long as nobody is holding a grudge! It's a sign that you were right with your original suspicion that something is wrong and it's worth mentioning what has happened to the vet tomorrow. Best of luck x

PS I can't hear sound on your vid (because Mario Galaxy is on full blast!) but you can clearly see that he moves as he breathes... he's making enough effort that it's moving his head and body. They don't normally do this - you have a keen eye, lucky for him.
 
Free Ranger said:
I had this with my first 2 boys. My dominant pig developed a condition that wasn't going to get any better so I did have to separate permanently and just have bar-contact. But if you can get your boy sorted you might be in with a chance of re-bonding... as long as nobody is holding a grudge! It's a sign that you were right with your original suspicion that something is wrong and it's worth mentioning what has happened to the vet tomorrow. Best of luck x

PS I can't hear sound on your vid (because Mario Galaxy is on full blast!) but you can clearly see that he moves as he breathes... he's making enough effort that it's moving his head and body. They don't normally do this - you have a keen eye, lucky for him.
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Thank you

Provided the vet dosent tell me anything terrible on monday that would make a re-bond to stressful for him I plan on giving it another try

I no blood was drawn (accidently or otherwise) but there intial bond was pretty perect and they have had 0 issues since today so I am going to try again soon
 
Try and get your boy well first or his friend will keep challenging him and he'll get stressed which won't help. Once he's well you can see whether a simple nose-raising competition reaffirms the hierarchy. My Harvey had started to lose his balance which made defending himself impossible! It was hard not to resent Caspar at the time for causing trouble but it's just nature's way of maintaining strong leadership. And they still enjoyed each other's company at the bars.
 
Hi seen vet today
Again, no obvisous issues, heart sounds fine etc

He said it could be allergies or dust so to restrict hay to just eating (i.e. not bedding)
He also mentioned dampning the hay, I didnt question this but ive never heard of doing this for piggies only horses

I do get hay by the bale from a farm but ive been doing this for years and sure sometimes its a little dusty buts its nothing abnormal and the bale were going through right now is not dustry at all really.

Basically I have to do this and moniter, if anything gets worse go back
Should I seek a second opinion or just wait it out? thanks
 
That's a tricky one because if your vet couldn't hear anything wrong with his lungs etc then there's nothing to say that another vet will be any different.
Have you had a look at the list linked in on the green bar above to see whether anyone on that is near to you? (your location is not marked in the side panel which is fine - but if anyone on here is in your area they might be able to recommend someone you see)

I've not heard of dampening hay before but I've only ever had pigs so maybe that's why! Perhaps you could try a bag of bog standard Pets at Home compressed piggy/rabbit hay and see if that makes any difference on your next clean out? It's dust extracted - not perfectly, but start the bag from the top and leave the last bit alone when you get down there. I inherited some hay from a neighbour once after she lost her last piggy but ended up throwing it out - it had gotten damp and the whole lot smelt 'mushroom-y' which isn't going to be a good thing. It made me wonder if her poor old girl had been eating that or whether it had happened in between her passing and me going over.

Other than that all you can do is keep an eye on his breathing, eating and pooping by monitoring his weight once a day and output of poops in terms of quantity and shape. If he loses weight, slows pooping or eating it's more serious. But he's obvs not that happy in himself at the minute or his cage mate wouldn't have taken his chance... as I say, tricky one. I've never had a piggie with allergies so I wouldn't know where the line is.
 
Thanks
I will buy a bag of hay and switch to that tommorrow and then continute to moniter weight etc and see how it goes this week

Does anyone here no if soaking hay is a thing for piggies or if its even safe for them? not trying undermine my vet its just ive never heard it mentioned in regards to pigs
 
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