Cough?

[Newpiggiemom]

Do guinea pigs cough? My pig yesterday made a sound like he was coughing. It sounded like "cack" (sorry, looks dumb but that's what it sounded like). He doesn't have any runny nose, his appetite is normal. He did it several times though.

Any thoughts?

[mommyoffive]

He might have been choking on something? My piggies do that sound sometimes when they woof down their food to fast!

[Duncan]

Did he eat before he made the sound? It may have been a minor choke that he solved himself by making that noise. Duncan does it quite often!

[Newpiggiemom]

Yes, he was eating. First his lettuce and then his hay. Maybe he just wasn't chewing up his food. I haven't heard it today.

[PigWooBus]

I have seen Piglet choke before, or I think it is choking. He sort of rocks back and forth, like a jerking motion, am I right thinking this is choking? He does it when he gets ahold of a stem from basil. I am careful now to only give him the leaves. Basil is a favorite of all my pigs. I have also seen him do it once when he was picking at his cuddle cup and got a piece of fuzz loose. I think he choked on the piece of fuzz and started jerking back and forth and it scared me so bad and then he made the "cack" noise and it came out.

[Ly&Pigs]

Yes they can cough. Often pigs try to eat too fast and food gets lodged in their throat so they try to cough it up. If he was eating when you heard the noise, he was trying to get food unstuck. A couple of my girls do this quite frequently because they try to eat too fast. It's nothing to majorly worry over but do keep an eye on them for choking if you hear the noise.

[newpiggiemommy]

My Nibbler eats too fast and coughs when it goes down wrong!

[PigWooBus]

Piglet eats fast, too. It's amazing how the food just disappears into his mouth.

[Jane_G]

Mine does the same thing. She eats like she hasn't been fed in weeks. My kids always tell her to slow down. She actually looks at them as if to say "No way! I've got parsley here!"

[Cherish]

Yep! Sounds like a bit of his dinner went down the wrong way to me, too!

One of mine in particular does that practically every time he eats... silly boy never learns!

Originally Posted by PigWooBus

I have seen Piglet choke before, or I think it is choking. He sort of rocks back and forth, like a jerking motion, am I right thinking this is choking? He does it when he gets ahold of a stem from basil. I am careful now to only give him the leaves. Basil is a favorite of all my pigs. I have also seen him do it once when he was picking at his cuddle cup and got a piece of fuzz loose. I think he choked on the piece of fuzz and started jerking back and forth and it scared me so bad and then he made the "cack" noise and it came out.

I read something by Peter Gurney once, in which he described exactly the same thing.
Apparantly, when they do that, they're just dislodging some food that's got stuck.
I imagine it looks pretty alarming, but I don't think there's much you can do for them when they do it, except wait.

[fourboys4now]

A couple of my boys do this when eating their parsley or cilantro. They only do it while eating. Glad I'm not the only one who's pigs cough when eating. I notice it every time they do it.