Tips for removing snot.

[vargartin]

Hi, my name is Martin and i have a guinea pig, Theodor.

Theodor has started having some problems with his lungs a little bit more than a year ago.

We have been to the doctors multiple times its always been the same, he gets antibiotics daily and we have been told he will need this regularly.

So we moved on and have been okay for over a year, he is eating drinking running around.

Our biggest problem and fear is the snot. He always have snot in his nose, we asked the doctors about it they told us tips, currently what we do is:

- He has a little “water misting machine” to try to make the air a bit more humid.
- We often take him to the bathroom in to the steam
- We have some nose drops to try loosen up the snot
- Then we tickle his nose so he sneeze it out.

But sometimes he cant sneeze it out, and thats the scary part. He has to take antibiotics but he is other than that perfectly fine, a happy little piggy running around the house eating drinking. Hes been gaining some weight as well in the past few days. But the fact that he has times ehen he cant breathe scares us so much we have trouble sleeping. We are scared our basically healthy pig will suffocate while we sleeping.

98% of the days he is perfectly fine just a little snot and he can sneeze it out, but sometimes every technique we know fails.

Any tips what could we do more to help him?

 

[RosieLily]

Hi Martin, welcome! Some more experienced members will come along soon, just offering support

 

[Piggies&buns]

What is the actual diagnosis of the issue with his lungs?
Do the antibiotics actually cure it?
Has the vet taken a sample of discharge for testing in a lab?

 

[Bill & Ted]

Welcome to the forum Martin
Hope you can find some help here for your little boar

 

[vargartin]

What is the actual diagnosis of the issue with his lungs?
Do the antibiotics actually cure it?
Has the vet taken a sample of discharge for testing in a lab?

I am sorry i dont know the actual diagnosis, english is my second language so i have a hard time remember hard words. As i can recall it said its similiar to pneumonia but not that serious, if everything true its kinda common in theodoor's "breed" as the doctor said.

The antibiotics for the lung problem, since he takes it he is not depressed eating and drinking, without that we had those problems. The only problem is it doesn't help with the snot in his nose. We fear he might have got a cold on top of his problems because this is a lot of snot in these 2 days.

I think they took a sample of the discharge and did x rays aswell thats how they made this diagnosis.

I know its sounds a bit bad for my part that i dont know these things automaticly I'm sorry about that, but please trust us we taking care of him and trying to do the best to him. If i would not care i wouldnt be here. I tried calling the Vet office to try get his papers emailed to me and see if i can find more precise information to you about his condition but they did not take the phone, maybe because of Valentine's Day.
As soon as i get more information ill forward it to you here.

I appriciate the concern and that you try to help!
We mainly focusing in getting help to remove snot from his nose because overall he is healthy having fun running around eats and drinks.

 

[Siikibam]

Hopefully once you get the papers it’ll be a bit clearer what the vet suspects he has. But just to dispel a myth (of sorts), guinea pigs don’t get colds like us. But they can get bacterial URIs.

And a couple of questions. How long has he been on the antibiotics? Did the vet ask you to book an appointment to review him? And did the x ray reveal anything?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Guinea pigs do not get colds so his nasal discharge is nothing to do with anything like that. They can get bacterial respiratory infections and would be prescribed antibiotics. The antibiotics would clear it up and that would usually be the end of the issue. What you seem to be describing sounds to be more of a long term issue with him if the vet has said he is always going to need antibiotics?
We are only owners ourselves so only go from our own personal experiences.

You can get decongestants which can help. Perhaps you could ask your vet about them. It’s going to depend on what is actually wrong with your piggy though

 

[vargartin]

Guinea pigs do not get colds so his nasal discharge is nothing to do with anything like that. They can get bacterial respiratory infections and would be prescribed antibiotics. The antibiotics would clear it up and that would usually be the end of the issue. What you seem to be describing sounds to be more of a long term issue with him if the vet has said he is always going to need antibiotics?
We are only owners ourselves so only go from our own personal experiences.

You can get decongestants which can help. Perhaps you could ask your vet about them. It’s going to depend on what is actually wrong with your piggy though

Yes he is on antibiotics for over a year. About the xray they said they dont see anything like cancer or such and thats all.
We have been on follow up 4 times in a year, we planning to go again soon, they changed his dose and gave him different antibiotics a few times.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Yes he is on antibiotics for over a year. About the xray they said they dont see anything like cancer or such and thats all.
We have been on follow up 4 times in a year, we planning to go again soon, they changed his dose and gave him different antibiotics a few times.

Without knowing what his medical condition is makes it difficult for us. He is clearly dealing with something more than an upper respiratory infection to need to be on antibiotics for such a long time.

Ive personally no experience of an animal needing antibiotics for such a long time.

 

[vargartin]

The doctor said he has some condition that sometimes makes pneumonia like symptoms.
And he wont recover from it totally, so every time the symptoms gets back we need to give him the antibiotics. We basically give him antibiotics for 7-10 days when his symptoms appear again or gets worse, and then wait 5-7 days and repeat.

But ill try to call the Vets office again hopefully ill be able to get some more information.

Appriciate all the help!

 

[vargartin]

Thats the diagnosis i believe that we got.
"Radiographs indicate pneumonia as most likely cause of breathing issues, less likely to be cancer. O says he has gotten much better since starting the medications - now more active, eating really well, running around. Advised o that is all good news, important that he eats and puts on weight. My concern is that he may have chronic relapsing episodes as he may be prone to respiratory infections, if so he may need more treatments in future."

The medication we give him not has its name on the bottle just some numbers annd "Sulfatrim liquid" maybe thats what it is I'm not sure. (Its a pinkish, flavored antibiotic.)

Thats the answer we got when i called about the nasal discharge.
"O also reports P nares have discharge, sometimes dried and makes it difficult for P to breathe. Recommended cleaning nares TID. Can steam in bathroom while O showering, or try nasal saline drops (1 drop per nostril SID-BID)."

And we tried all of these things and some more i wrote in the main post, sometimes we make him sneeze in the morning and he is basically good all day only need some help at night, sometimes he starts getting snot in his nose every hour.

All of this is started in 12/2/2021