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Urgent help + advice needed! Guinea pig wheezing after surgery

O

ourpiggiefamily

Junior Guinea Pig
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My 2 year old boy was neutered this afternoon. When we got back (about 6:30), I syringe fed him some critical care to make sure his gut was moving and then left him to recover for 2 hours. He seemed ok and was eating a bit of hay and sleeping mostly. However, when I got him out to do another feed of critical care, I noticed he was making some intermittent wheezing sounds and when I listened really closely to his breathing it sounded raspy. I’m really worried he might have aspirated some of the critical care and I’m scared he might die. Do you think this could be the case? Any advice or information would be highly appreciated!
 
Thank you for your quick reply. I’ll just keep hoping and praying that he’ll be ok. He’s still moving about and eating hay so that’s good.
 
I hope your piggy is OK .

I must admit, since this happened so soon after surgery, I would have taken him back to the vet to be checked .
 
I would take him to a vet. If he has aspirated he may need antibiotics to prevent an infection taking hold. It's always better to be safe than sorry
 
I’m going to ring the vets now. He managed to survive the night, but his breathing is still quite laboured so I’ll see if I can get a consultation.
 
My vet said that because he is still eating and moving about alright, he doesn’t think we should rush him over yet (this vet is about an hour way). He thinks that if he aspirated some of the critical care, he would have gone downhill very quickly and probably wouldn’t be eating and active. He believes that it is more likely to have gone up his nasal passage and might just clear of its own accord. I’m going to monitor him really closely and if he gets any worse and stops eating then I will take him to the vets and see what they can do.
 
Did you mention the laboured breathing? Usually if it's in the nasal passage they just sound a bit snuffly and sneeze it out at some point
 
Thank you for all of your replies. I am very new to this forum, but glad to know that this is such a kind and supportive guinea pig community :)
 
Lady Kelly said:
Did you mention the laboured breathing? Usually if it's in the nasal passage they just sound a bit snuffly and sneeze it out at some point
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Yes, but the vet didn’t seem too concerned since he was still able to eat and wander about. He says it can take some guinea pigs up to 48 hours for the anaesthetic to wear off which means he won’t be quite himself anyway.
 
Well good news that he's up and about and eating hay, but if his breathing doesnt clear or gets worse do pop him straight back to the vets as an emergency. Does he have a post-op check booked with the vets? Our vet likes to see piggies back 24 hours after any surgery then again 3 days later firstly to check they have recovered from the anaesthetic and are eating then to check the surgery wound is healing well x
 
The only time we could really do for a post-op check was next Tuesday, but they said we could bring him sooner if there were any problems.
 
Update: he’s been the pretty much the same all day. Quite sleepy due to the anaesthesia, taking a nap for about an hour and then waking up and having some hay, a few pellets and a bit of veg throughout the day. He’s more awake now and is acting pretty much like normal apart from the little grunty sounds he makes occasionally. The vet thinks this is just a bit of a blockage of mucus or critical care that should clear over time as he drinks more water.
 
Good to hear this news.
It does help having a place like this to voice our concerns and worries to people who really understand.
Glad we’ve been helpful
 
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