Snuffly guinea pig!

[Pepper&Pip]

Hello!

Our little piggie Pip has unfortunately had the sneezes for the past 6-8 weeks. We took her to the vets as soon as we noticed, the vets suspected a URI as she had some discharge (although it was pretty clear), and we were given a 2 week course of Baytril and some Bisolvon powder to help. Her chest was completely clear which is a relief!

There was an improvement but she was still snuffly so we took her back and she was prescribed metcam for a week which really did help, as they said she just had inflammation in her nose. Since then we’ve noticed that hay seems to be a really big trigger for her, when she’s away from the hay pile she doesn’t sound very congested at all! We’ve tried different hay and found one that seems to make her sneeze the least and we are now using a hay bag. She still doesn’t sound 100% though.

Does anyone have any experience of this and have any advice? I have been trying to find home remedies and I was looking at homeopath nose relief but it seems to have mixed reviews. I was going to ask the vets for more metacam but I have read that long time use can cause other issues.

This whole time she has been eating, drinking and popcorning around the cage. Our other piggie has luckily been completely fine too!

 

[Wiebke]

Hello!

Our little piggie Pip has unfortunately had the sneezes for the past 6-8 weeks. We took her to the vets as soon as we noticed, the vets suspected a URI as she had some discharge (although it was pretty clear), and we were given a 2 week course of Baytril and some Bisolvon powder to help. Her chest was completely clear which is a relief!

There was an improvement but she was still snuffly so we took her back and she was prescribed metcam for a week which really did help, as they said she just had inflammation in her nose. Since then we’ve noticed that hay seems to be a really big trigger for her, when she’s away from the hay pile she doesn’t sound very congested at all! We’ve tried different hay and found one that seems to make her sneeze the least and we are now using a hay bag. She still doesn’t sound 100% though.

Does anyone have any experience of this and have any advice? I have been trying to find home remedies and I was looking at homeopath nose relief but it seems to have mixed reviews. I was going to ask the vets for more metacam but I have read that long time use can cause other issues.

This whole time she has been eating, drinking and popcorning around the cage. Our other piggie has luckily been completely fine too!

Hi

Some piggies can be extremely sensitive to hay dust. You have done the right thing in finding the hay that is best for her.

Please do not medicate. True allergies are very rare in guinea pigs but they have very narrow and small airways so even the tiniest obstruction in the nose becomes very audible. They are also not much in the way of mouth breathers, which means that you get to listen to the least speck of hay dust; anything in the nose always becomes that bit more audible during eating.
As long as your piggy is perfectly fine away from the hay itself and doesn't have permanent rough/crackly breathing, then you have got your issue down to the lowest impact level. Personally, I would just leave be. She may have a bit of a very mildly bunged up nose when eating hay but it is not impacting on her quality of life or her appetite.

You can try and see whether different levels of humidity in the room would make a further difference. I know of owners of extremely sensitive piggies who washed their hay and dried it again before feeding it but you are by no means anywere near this level of sensitivity that would require that kind of intervention!

I currently have one piggy that has about the same very mild sensitive reaction to hay dust (and not even all the time) so I am just leaving be after ensuring that it is indeed down to the hay and not to an URI. It is hay that has helped a sensitive holiday boarder clear up their own nose twice now while she was staying here, by the way...

By the way - I have fed not dust extracted local hay for a good decade to around 50 piggies over that time and not one ever developed a sensitivity except for one piggy with right at the beginning whose group had to move to a table and stay on pet shop hay for the duration of her life.