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Post by bunchesofjoy on Jul 10, 2015 13:24:54 GMT
Can guinea pigs get respiratory infections from allergies or a home that's dirty? I'm a little allergic to cats, but it only seems to bother me if I'm in a house with a cat for at least 24 hours and the house is really messy. When that happens, it turns into a sinus infection for me. I'm guessing that's why. I only get sinus infections after being in that situation.
Anyway, I tried living with one of my friends in her house, before I moved back to my hometown area and got my own place. She had two cats and she didn't clean up after them at all. She only changed the litterbox once in the two months I was there. That was one of two reasons I had to get out of there. I kept my room clean, and that's where Gabe was most of the times. Sometimes, I would carry him or put him on my shoulder and walk around the rest of the house, but very rarely. Even when I let him walk around, it was in my room.
He had an URI that I couldn't get rid of, when he passed away. He had eye goo that we tried to get rid of a few times. Then, after I moved into that house, he was diagnosed with an URI, because the vet saw nose crusties. He had the eye goo at my old apartment, where he was the only pet, and it was much cleaner, so maybe that didn't matter. Or maybe it wasn't part of the URI.
Sorry about the rant. My question is "Can guinea pigs get respiratory infections from allergies or a home that's dirty?". I plan to never live in a messy place again, but I kind of wonder if it's my fault that he got a URI. He was 6 or 7, I believe.
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Post by Orlaith on Jul 10, 2015 17:26:34 GMT
I dunno about respiratory infections but some older pigs are prone to a type of COPD illness where they start crackling a bit and get chesty. It seems to be due to their age though, rather than anything else, so I would put it down to the fact that Gabe was old rather than anything else. Don't feel guilty!
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Jul 10, 2015 17:32:04 GMT
Thank you. I thought it would be a good thing to know. Every time one of my babies passed away, I've wondered what I did wrong, except with Skittles. Skittles was an adult when I got her, so she must have been very old when she passed. And she wasn't suffering. She was fine one day, then I found her passed away.
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Post by Orlaith on Jul 11, 2015 13:52:56 GMT
I think it's natural to look for a reason when our pigs die and I know that personally I find it very hard to accept that they just died of natural causes, especially if they're young. I often think I must have done something wrong as well. But unfortunately some pigs just die young or are illness prone and I think poor breeding has a lot to do with it.
Besides, you're a great piggy mum, you have nothing to worry about!
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Jul 11, 2015 13:54:20 GMT
Thanks
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Post by lisa21264 on Jul 16, 2015 16:10:06 GMT
I always wonder what Im doing wrong with Terra. He has had a UTI and 4 URI;s since February. I dont know if he will get better. He picks up on the antibiotics just to get sick again. I keep my room and his cage very clean and dust free. I am starting to wonder if he has a heart or lung problem,as he is so sick all the time.
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Jul 17, 2015 13:33:17 GMT
That's how Gabe was with the URI. It was just eye goo that kept coming back, even with eye drops. But he probably should've had more than eye drops. It's confusing because at first, she just saw eye goo. Then, this last time, she saw crusties around his nose. So maybe it was building up. I don't know.
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Post by Orlaith on Jul 20, 2015 13:24:46 GMT
Two of my pigs have had COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), which means they had sort of mucusy stuff in their lungs that made it hard to breathe. But it was more of an allergic reaction than an infection. My vet put them on a long-term course of steroids which helped a lot. I found that different bags of hay made their breathing worse or better, so sometimes I could reduce or stop their meds if they were breathing well, and other times I had to up the dose a little (all on advice of my vet, of course).
I thought that eventually it didn't work that well anymore, but other than trying to find the most dust-free hay I could and keeping their cages really clean to prevent any ammonia from their pee from irritating their lungs, there wasn't a whole lot else I could do. Both pigs eventually died, but not from their breathing issues, and lasted for years after the COPD diagnosis.
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