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Sick guinea pig or just hiccups?

cinnymonroe

cinnymonroe

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
May 22, 2019
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Location
Rolla, Missouri
Hello all! I have a very scary situation happening with my one year old guinea pig. She suddenly went in her hut and started to have clicking to her breath and she occasionally has a low wheek and jumps a little with each wheek. It kind of sounds like hiccups, but when I pet her she wheeks abnormally, almost sounding like she’s in pain. She acts very reclusive and wants to stay in her hut. She’s also been sneezing lately, but I thought maybe it was just a pollen allergy. Is my guinea pig okay?
 
Hi there!
I am not 100% sure but definitely get an appointment with the vet ASAP. Piggies can be very prone to respiratory infections and breathing problems and if she is clicking while breathing I would definitely get it checked out ASAP! Is she eating and drinking?
I hope she is okay wee soul, but definitely get a vet appointment. Hope all goes okay
 
Thank you so much for responding! Its almost 1 AM here and no vet clinic is open at the moment, but one opens at 8 AM so I’ll stay with her until I can get her checked out by a vet. I gave her a couple little towels and ran a humidifier for her and she might be doing a little bit better. I’m just hoping it’s pollen allergy or hiccups.
 
Oh no problem at all nothing is more worrying or stressful than a poorly pet, I really hope it won’t be anything serious and hopefully like you say just a case of hiccups or the like! My own guinea pigs do sneeze from time to time probably from hay dust so I’d say that is fairly normal but if she’s clicking and wheezing then getting her checked out is the right thing to do. I am definitely not an expert and I have never had a piggie with a respiratory infection but I just know they can be quite susceptible to them (I hope I’m not making you more worried). Poor wee thing I really hope all goes okay for you both
 
You will definitely get more replies from more experienced members pretty soon I would imagine who will be able to advise on the symptoms more than I can (I have owned piggies for a long, long time but thankfully never had any major health problems so I’m not the most clued up!)
Fingers crossed it is just a wee allergy, and welcome to the forum!
 
Thank you for helping and thanks for the welcome! It really means a lot! She seems to have calmed down on the pained wheeks, they’re still there but they’re rarer now. I hope she’s about to take a nap soon because she really needs the rest. I set a handful of food next to her just Incase she gets hungry because it doesn’t seem like she’s planning to leave her hut anytime soon.
 
No problem at all! The forum is amazing for advice and support. If you have a look through the other posts in the Health and Illness section hopefully you’ll be able to find some more useful information there too.
Bless her, what’s her name? Has she eaten or drank anything since this started?
 
Her name is Meiko, and she just turned one year old. Ever since her little episode she hasn’t ate or drank, and she doesn’t seem like she wants to be petted, but she’s been close to me the entire time. She’s normally a really good eater though, her favourite thing in the world is her pellets and her lettuce. I haven’t changed the lettuce brand or pellet brand since I got her so I don’t think it’s the food.
 
You need to get her to a vet urgently if she isn't eating or drinking as a Guinea pigs gut HAS to be working all the time. Sneezing also makes me think it could be a Uri.
 
I’ll try to get her into a vet clinic as soon as I can. I just wish we had 24 hour clinics close to us. My top priority in the morning is to buy her a small travel cage and rush her to the vet.
I’ll try to urge her to eat and drink more too. Eating is one of her many favorite things to do but now she doesn’t really feel like eating. Maybe I can get her a little piece of lettuce and see if she’ll chew on that.
Thank you all for the help by the way!
 
If you can’t get a travel case just take her in a cardboard box with some hay and towel/blankets or something, the vet won’t mind, hope you manage to get an appointment soon. Fingers crossed she is alright x
 
cinnymonroe said:
Hello all! I have a very scary situation happening with my one year old guinea pig. She suddenly went in her hut and started to have clicking to her breath and she occasionally has a low wheek and jumps a little with each wheek. It kind of sounds like hiccups, but when I pet her she wheeks abnormally, almost sounding like she’s in pain. She acts very reclusive and wants to stay in her hut. She’s also been sneezing lately, but I thought maybe it was just a pollen allergy. Is my guinea pig okay?
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome

Please see a vet promptly for a check up if this is ongoing and not a short one-off. Rodents don't have a vomit reflex; but they can have hiccups, which can be a bit scary, especially the heaving ones.
Guinea pigs also have very narrow and small airways and they can't breathe through their mouths like we do; this means that any obstruction, even a small one, is very audible.
Any guinea pig that is not eating and drinking at all is a very ill guinea pig.

Please switch to weighing daily at the same time instead of the regular weekly weigh-in and health check. Over 80% of the food is unlimited hay, which you cannot control otherwise. Go on alert and step in with offering syringe feeding top up if the weight loss is more than 50g and continuing to help it slow down, but do not force any food down with a piggy that already may have some stuck in the airways. Please always step in with syringe feeding and watering a guinea pig that is not eating and drinking at all ASAP.
Never just squirt food into a piggy as it can end up in the airways if a piggy gets more than it can hold in its mouth and swallow. Rather allow it to eat from the syringe and adjust the speed, volume and flow accordingly. Follow the advice in the guides below.

The guides below are very step-by-step and practical; they have been especially written for owners with no previous experience.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Emergency and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
 
I have an update on Meiko, I took her to the vet early this morning and she got a checkup, a vitamin shot, and we have some medicine for her to take. The vet said that Meiko does have some sort of URI, but should be fine. I’ll try to find a way to help Meiko eat and drink, the vet gave us a syringe to help.
 
cinnymonroe said:
I have an update on Meiko, I took her to the vet early this morning and she got a checkup, a vitamin shot, and we have some medicine for her to take. The vet said that Meiko does have some sort of URI, but should be fine. I’ll try to find a way to help Meiko eat and drink, the vet gave us a syringe to help.
Click to expand...

Can you please tell us what the name of the medication is and how much she needs every day. I assume that it is baytril?
 
Another update, Meiko has passed away just a few minutes ago. She ate a tiny bit and drank a tiny bit from syringe feeding but I think the infection spread way too quickly. The vet said she should start her medicine tomorrow but I’ve been wondering if I should have started it today. I miss my poor little girl, poor thing got sick so quick all of a sudden. The medicine was Albon I think, or that’s what it said on the package.
 
My boy Finn hiccups maybe once every four to five months. He eats veggies three times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He gets unlimited supply of Oxbow hay and some Oxbow pellets. He is a year and a half years old now.

I worried the first time I heard him hiccup over a year ago, but he didn't hiccup after that for many months. I thought I would take him to the exotic vet if he continued to hiccup but he stopped after a couple of hiccups, so I didn't take him to the exotic vet.
In the year and a half Finn has been with me, he hiccuped maybe three to four times at the most. He eat well, popcorns all the time, and sleeps well. He shows all signs that he is a happy, healthy piggy so his hiccups didn't worry me much.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about Meiko. It sounds like you did everything you could have so I hope you do not blame yourself.
 
I’m sure Meiko is in a better place now. She passed away very peacefully, I don’t think she was in pain. I really love caring for guinea pigs so I’ll definitely raise more, but not so soon. Thank you all for the help and concerns! The advice I got went a long way and helped me help Meiko to live her longest life.
 
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