Hooting then coughing - just started today

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savresrad

Post   » Sat May 26, 2018 2:19 pm


Hi, we have a six month old (estimate based on he was a baby when we got him) guinea pig named Scamper. He is super sweet and affectionate and purs louder and more often than any guinea pig I have ever had.

This morning we woke up to him hooting, I think? It sounded almost like a dove cooing. I thought it was a cute noise he was making dreaming, but then realized it was his breathing. Then he gave a great big hacking cough and it was gone. I wouldn’t be worried except for the fact that he’s done it about 5 more times this morning in the last hour.

He acts completely normal, eating, drinking, purring, squeaking and active. Eyes are clear, nose is not crusty. Seems like nothing is wrong at all until his breath starts whistling/cooing and then he coughs/hacks and it’s gone.

Is he stuffed up? Something caught in his throat?

I cleaned his cage yesterday, but gave the same paper bedding we always use. No change in diet although we did give him some watermelon for the first time yesterday.

Other possibilities — he runs under a dresser sometimes when he’s out for play time and that has made him sneeze before in the past so we thought perhaps it might be dust from going under there yesterday but I wouldn’t think that would cause repeated coughing/hacking the next day? It’s more like he has something stuck in his throat?

Only other idea is our room might be dry so I put the humidifier on today. We also have had the windows open lately, not sure if that would affect him. But again—clear wide eyes, no crusty anything, no sneezing.

I was worried about the heart condition when I read user Mum’s posts about heart pigs (what are heart pigs??) but surely this kind of thing would not just appear overnight all of a sudden?

He has never had this before.

When he was a baby he had crusty eyes and nose and would sneeze a lot even though he acted fine so we took him to vet and he was treated for respitory infection then and has been fine ever since. That was several months ago. I see none of the same symptoms here.

Thanks for your help! I read people’s similar issues on here all the time which is why I knew he probably had a respitory issue when he was a baby.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sat May 26, 2018 2:35 pm


Don't worry about. If it goes away when the pig coughs, it's almost certainly something caught in his throat.

The kind of hooting you have to worry about is the kind that goes on for days at a time.

savresrad

Post   » Sun May 27, 2018 2:38 pm


Hi thanks for your reply. Little guy hooted for a min and then hacked and coughed about 5 seperate times over a period of 1-2 hours and then he finally got rid of it I guess because he never did it again! And he’s still fine this morning. Thank you!

savresrad

Post   » Tue May 29, 2018 5:22 pm


Our guinea pig was doing this again this late morning/early afternoon. A hooting/whistling/loud breathing but not really any coughing. Mostly just audible breathing that is out of the ordinary for him.

I think we have it pegged to the bedding ... we use paper bedding and we've tried both a white and a brown variety (same brand), but I noticed that the brown is much more carboard-y? than the white which just seems like soft paper. Yesterday when I cleaned his cage I noticed the brown bedding was a bit dusty. He was switched to the brown bedding (from white) on Friday and had his first episode (that we know of) Saturday morning, and then again I cleaned his cage and gave him more of the brown bedding yesterday and today he had it again.

Is it possible dusty bedding can cause this? We're taking the bedding back and have moved him to fleece right now and again he seems fine and throughout it all he has continued to act perfectly normal.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Tue May 29, 2018 5:37 pm


Yep, it's certainly possible.

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