Help to stop sneezing

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tphilp92

Post   » Wed Jun 12, 2019 11:12 pm


Hi I have posted here before and it was a major help. My little guy sneezes a lot. We have taken him to the vet many of times. They keep giving him medicine. For a while there the medicine would help. But now it isnt helping so much. So they gave him a new type of medicine. It doesnt seem to be helping now either. We give him a lot of vitamin c like the vet says to do. But no matter what we are trying it isnt helping. I would like some opinions on what to do.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:59 am


Check his hay and bedding. It could be dust. You could take a look at the temperature in the room where you keep him and make sure it's not too cool for him. Other than that, I'm at a loss if the vet has ruled out a URI.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Thu Jun 13, 2019 5:58 am


Is this the same guinea pig that had some issues back in March?
https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewt ... 0#p2294930

If so, is he still on Carefresh? How long has he been sneezing? What medications were given to him, and how long was he on the medication? What diagnostics (if any) were done?

Is your guinea pig having any other symptoms other than sneezing? Is there any noticeable discharge with the sneezing? Signs of an upper respiratory infection would include reduced appetite/weight loss, lethargy or generally appearing unwell, crusty eyes or nose, as well as sneezing. See:
https://www.guinealynx.info/uri.html

Allergies in a guinea pig are not all that common, although dusty hay or bedding can be an irritant. Other environmental irritants can be air fresheners, cigarette smoke, cleaners in or around the cage, as well as laundry detergent (if you are now using fleece).

This thread probably needs to be in the Medical forum, but I'll leave it here for now.

tphilp92

Post   » Thu Jun 13, 2019 8:07 am


Yes it is the same guinea pig that was having issues back in march. We kept him on carefresh. There is some discharge while sneezing and he is sneezing so much that he breaks blood vessels in his nose and he starts to get a nose bleed. Every time we take him to the vet they say that he has a URI. The vet gave him SMZ for it but that wasnt helping so they gave him VIBRAMYCIN and DMG. He is still acting normal he is at a health weight, he is eating and drinking fine.

We try not to use any harmful cleaning chemicals around him. We thought it was allergies at first so we switched his hay from timothy hay to orchard grass and oat hay. The vet said that was good for us to do that as well.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:16 am


SMZ is generally not effective for respiratory infections, at least not on its own. A better choice would be Baytril or possibly Doxycycline, which I believe is the same as Vibramycin. What is DMG?

You didn't indicate what dose and length of treatment he was on, or what diagnostics (if any) were done by the vet. I assume they didn't do chest xrays-? Is this a cat/dog vet who sees very few exotics, or is this a vet who specializes in exotics and sees guinea pigs regularly? It sounds like the original infection wasn't knocked out, and he needs another round. There could be bacteria present that is resistant to Vibramycin and he may need to be switched to Baytril, or possibly the dose was too low to be effective and/or he wasn't kept on it long enough.

If this is not a cavy-savvy veterinarian, I would call around and find one who is. It sounds like he needs to be re-evaluated, preferably with chest x-rays, to see what's going on and get him on the right meds (or combination of meds).

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