Hiitshannah
Junior Guinea Pig
Around 2 weeks ago my 4 year old male pig Nutmeg started making a weird grunting noise - the same noise older piggies make when they clean themselves but repeated for a few minutes at a time, it was only happening while he was eating and occasionally whilst sleeping, and went on for about 6 hours then stopped. The next day it started again, around the same time, then stopped. We took him to the vets, they said they suspected a very mild respiratory infection and prescribed Sulfatrim, which he was on for 2 weeks.
9 days passed with no noise whatsoever, then he suddenly started grunting again really loudly, so we took him to an emergency appointment – the vet checked his teeth, throat, nose, eyes, temperature, heart, lungs, neck (for injury), EVERYTHING he could think of and said he was completely fine, no URI! We got him home and he stopped making the noise, until last night when he AND one of our other pigs Cashew, a 5 and a half year old male (who doesn’t live with Nutmeg but had been in contact through bars and has also been checked up in the past week and given a clean bill of health) started making the same noise, on and off - only whilst eating with his head fully down (snuffling hay on the floor etc) and they are both still making the noise on and off today.
Cashew’s friend Cinnamon has made no noises, and Nutmeg’s friend Butternut who is a 7 week old baby has also made no noise. It's worth noting Nutmeg lost his friend, Pumpkin, around a month ago after he became paralysed (he was x-rayed and had a spinal lesion, of unknown origin, and we went through around 3 months of various treatments for him...) and then suspected Lymphoma. There are no other symptoms, eating and playing as normal, no nasal/eye discharge etc. I have an appointment for both Cashew and Nutmeg tomorrow with an exotics vet, but I wondered if anyone had any ideas of things it could be that I could ask about? I don’t know how worried to be, but it seems if it’s spread between Cashew and Nutmeg then it’s likely all 4 pigs have it.
9 days passed with no noise whatsoever, then he suddenly started grunting again really loudly, so we took him to an emergency appointment – the vet checked his teeth, throat, nose, eyes, temperature, heart, lungs, neck (for injury), EVERYTHING he could think of and said he was completely fine, no URI! We got him home and he stopped making the noise, until last night when he AND one of our other pigs Cashew, a 5 and a half year old male (who doesn’t live with Nutmeg but had been in contact through bars and has also been checked up in the past week and given a clean bill of health) started making the same noise, on and off - only whilst eating with his head fully down (snuffling hay on the floor etc) and they are both still making the noise on and off today.
Cashew’s friend Cinnamon has made no noises, and Nutmeg’s friend Butternut who is a 7 week old baby has also made no noise. It's worth noting Nutmeg lost his friend, Pumpkin, around a month ago after he became paralysed (he was x-rayed and had a spinal lesion, of unknown origin, and we went through around 3 months of various treatments for him...) and then suspected Lymphoma. There are no other symptoms, eating and playing as normal, no nasal/eye discharge etc. I have an appointment for both Cashew and Nutmeg tomorrow with an exotics vet, but I wondered if anyone had any ideas of things it could be that I could ask about? I don’t know how worried to be, but it seems if it’s spread between Cashew and Nutmeg then it’s likely all 4 pigs have it.
I would say it's not from the lungs, but couldn't identify if it's throat or nose. I got a (very cheap) stethoscope and have been listening to them and their lungs/breathing sound fine as far as I can tell as a non-professional, which is also what the vet said on Friday! I suppose it's a waiting game until our appointment tomorrow. I've turned our dehumidifier off in the meantime in case your suggestion of dry air is a factor.