Pepe chokes on her veggies

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Coco-Pepe Mom

Post   » Mon Feb 12, 2018 9:25 am


I think there may be some other posts on this, but wondering if some of you have piggies with the tendency to inhale (literally) their food? Of my two rescue piggies, Pepe seems to get super excited about her veggies, and sometimes inhales them, leading to a bout of coughing. Yesterday, however, she started choking on a piece of food, and could not get it dislodged. She was sitting still and not making a sound...then started heaving, trying to get it out. My husband called me over and pointed this out, so I got her out of the cage (which normally leads to her squealing at me) without a sound. I put her on my chest and gently patted her back until she coughed up the offending morsel. Sometimes when she chokes on her food, she will keep eating - making me think she'd just suffocate and keep eating!

Does anyone have advice for future choking? She seems to be prone to it...even though I am careful not to give her any really small pieces of food.

Thank you!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Feb 12, 2018 9:43 am


I hope she learns to take it easy on the eating. Chopping finely may help.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:54 am


Actually, I was going to suggest NOT chopping finely. If she has to bite off something, she may not be able to eat it so quickly. I only cut my pigs' food in enough chunks to make sure each one gets a chance at everything, not in a fine dice.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Feb 12, 2018 3:55 pm


What I remember is my guinea pigs taking bites from large pieces of green pepper I gave them and sometimes coughing lots from eating too fast. I was thinking if it was very fine, that wouldn't happen.

I guess you will have to experiment and see what works best. Let us know!

ClemmyOddieIndy

Post   » Thu Feb 15, 2018 5:28 pm


When Indiana was a alive I got to the point I stopped giving her veggies. She would constantly choke and hack on them. She had special needs, so I'm not sure if that contributed to it, but I tried everything I could think of (small, big, wet, dry, slowly give it to her, give her them all at once). Sometimes she would be fine, but most of the time it was terrifying to hear her. She never had trouble with hay or pellets, so I'm not sure what was going on.

LuckyCavy

Post   » Fri Feb 16, 2018 7:20 pm


My suggestion would be to use large, crunchy vegetables that she has to bite small chunks off of first.If that doesn't work, you could try spoonfeeding her pureed veggies, like I did for my Pippin recently when she hurt her hind legs and wouldn't take anything but critical care and carrot puree.

Coco-Pepe Mom

Post   » Mon Feb 19, 2018 10:50 am


Thanks for the suggestions - I try to keep the piece larger so she has to bite them off and chew. Since our other pig would eat everything and leave her starving, we hand-feed their veggies twice a day. We found it really helps for Pepe if you hold the chuck of pepper (or whatever veggie) for her to bite off. She seems to slow down and not cough as much. This seems like the way to go.

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