Young Guinea Pig (6 months) seems to vomit and makes strange noises

[Giada]

Good morning everyone, I am new on this forum so I apologize in advance if I do/write something wrong!

My GP keeps making strange noises, like she's trying to vomit. I do know GP cannot vomit, anyway, compared to human babies, the noise she does seems like that of an infant regurgitation, with gurgling. I've already taken my Porg first to a generic Vet ( that however had bred GP for severqal years) and last week to a specialized vet. We did an Xray for Porg but everything seems fine with her. Mouth is fine, belly is fine. She eats and she poops, she jumps around and plays with the other piggy. The vet gave me an anti-inflammatory for one week, but nothing seems to change. She keeps making this sound 5/6 times during the day, and i'm very scared.

Something I've tried is to change the bedding material with recycled paper, that should be less dusty wrt pellet. However, I'm afraid that the problem is stomach-related

I hope someone had my same experience because I am desperate and i do not know what to do anymore... the next step would be an endoscopy under sedation but I still have to set everything with the vet. Honestly, I would prefer not to do it..

 

[Siikibam]

I’m not sure what could be wrong. How is her weight? I would switch to weighing daily for now, while you’re worried about her.

I’ll tag @Piggies&buns @PigglePuggle @Wiebke hopefully they can help you.

 

[Wiebke]

Good morning everyone, I am new on this forum so I apologize in advance if I do/write something wrong!

My GP keeps making strange noises. I do know GP cannot vomit, anyway, compared to human babies, the noise she does seems like that of an infant regurgitation, with gurgling. I've already taken my Porg first to a generic Vet ( that however had bred GP for severqal years) and last week to a specialized vet. We did an Xray for Porg but everything seems fine with her. Mouth is fine, belly is fine. She eats and she poops, she jumps around and plays with the other piggy. The vet gave me an anti-inflammatory for one week, but nothing seems to change. She keeps making this sound 5/6 times during the day, and i'm very scared.

Something I've tried is to change the bedding material with recycled paper, that should be less dusty wrt pellet. However, I'm afraid that the problem is stomach-related

I hope someone had my same experience because I am desperate and i do not know what to do anymore... the next step would be an endoscopy under sedation but I still have to set everything with the vet. Honestly, I would prefer not to do it..

Hi!

It sounds like a swallowing problem. Has your vet checked for an oral thrush (candida) infection, dental overgrowth or a potential issue with the throat, which can cause swallowing problems, the lungs and the nose in case things are back up there when she drinks too much too quickly?

If it was a major blockage in the gut, your piggy would be feeling off very quickly and lose their appetite as a build up of fluid in the gut will happen only after solids can no longer pass; and this build up happens rather quickly because saliva is produced nonstop; your piggy would be salivating by now. Once a piggy can no longer process food, they will refuse to eat. I have lost piggies of mine to a blockage; yours doesn't sound anything like that. An x-ray would have shown any build-up of gassing in the gut and a build-up of fluid in the lungs does usually manifest with heavy breathing and also a loss of appetite with the resulting weight loss (the need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat), so that cannot be it either.

Please take heart that yours is still eating and has plenty of energy, so whatever it is, it doesn't sound like something immediately life-threatening.
I would recommend to try and see how your piggy drinks and whether the gurgling is happening in the wake of her drinking over the weekend; especially you are reporting regular gurgling, which means that it is affecting the drinking. As any other cause would rather impact on the appetite and activity level, this should be your first step in order to investigate the most harmless but hopefully most likely cause as it won't affect the weight/appetite. The drinking style can be very individual.
All About Drinking And Bottles

I would also recommend to switch from the usual once weekly life-long health monitoring weigh-in to weighing daily at the same time in the feeding cycle to see whether her appetite is impacted. When you switch to weighing daily you have to account for the weight swing of 30-40g over the course of 24 hours, which is why I prefer to weigh first thing in the morning when tummy and bladder are both hopefully empty and the weight is at its lowest.
More information on the very important life-long weight monitoring and management: Weight - Monitoring and Management