URI/Upper Respiratory Infection Piggie Not Getting Better and Another Question on Coughing

We have a piggie that came down with a URI. He is one of the two Teddy Bear siblings we adopted. When we picked up the piggies, their sister didn't seem sick and neither did the mother who was in a separate cage.

So we have them for a few weeks and I noticed Fitzroy wiping his nose frequently. Right away we were cautious because I have been reading the medical threads daily and separated him into quarantine in another room (which by the way is really depressing him since he has never been away from his brother...but it has to be). He is nearly 3 months old now and weighs 15 oz - 1lb (it's been fluctuating from day to day).

The vet gave us Baytril, 0.2 ml 2x day for a max of 14 days. We have been diligent about giving it to him and have crazy quarantine measures in place. We also clean him completely daily. It has been 6 days now and there isn't much improvement. He still has mucous around his nose and a tiny bit on his inner wrist and we clean that off daily. Also, he loves his medicine. He sucks that stuff down (well it does smell good) and won't let us have the syringe back. Yesterday, I was trying to get him to let go and I pulled the plunger back a little bit while pulling the syringe carefully to get it out of his mouth. It wasn't intentional, but when I was taking the syringe back to the kitchen to clean it, there was yellow mucous in it. I'm not sure if that came from his throat or what, I couldn't have pulled the plunger that hard and it didn't pull out very far because it was my pinky that rubbed it and made it come back, but there it was.

I'm getting worried because I have read on other posts that a URI can be lethal. I'm going to call the doctor if he hasn't gotten better after work today. Have I just not given the medicine enough time to work? Am I freaking prematurely? Could the separation and the depression cause his little immune system to have a hard time clearing this?

He is active, eats all his veggies we give him twice a day, eats pellets and plenty of hay. He is responsive and make verbal noises when he knows I have a treat. His poop is normal, his pee is normal. We listened to him yesterday with a stethoscope and he has the very slightest wheez, but that is improved a lot and can only be heard with the stethoscope.

Any thoughts?



Now the second part of my question. This involves the other pigs. But it might be related to the information above.

I'm going to make a list of my observations of each pig because this is the best way I think to relay this. I'm worried about this because of Fitzroy's URI.

1. My quantine rules are very strict. After touching Fitzroy or anything in his cage or the cage itself we immediately wash our hands with antibacterial soap and a nail brush. If we hold Fitzroy, we change our shirt after. Only my husband and I have been around his stuff and the kids haven't been allowed near any of the pigs for right now. The other pigs are in another room.
2. Now Alton has always had a runny nose - just a little tiny bit of clear mucous on the inside of his nostril. The vet has examined him for it and determined he has allergies. We used to have Care Fresh, then wood shavings and that is when she suggested we try something else. So, it has gotten better since we got the fleece, but he still has the little bit of mucous now and then, a cough or a sneeze here or there, and especially since we have the fans running in the room and the windows open. He seems to get more allergy symptoms if we haven't changed the top layer of fleece after 4 days. The insides of his wrists had one tiny dried amount of mucous on it yesterday, but the days before and the today there is nothing. It was windy yesterday and dust was blowing in the room when we had the windows open during the night, I'm sure.
3. Fitzroy's brother Errol has NO symptoms of a URI, of coughing, sneezing, runny nose, his lungs sound good, his teeth are fine, we looked up his nose with a flashlight and that is fine. So I am not sure how Fitzroy got this thing.
4. Carlton, the 5 month old, is acting fine and has nothing wrong with him, same as Errol.
5. Byron, the 8 month old has been coughing a lot lately. I wouldn't call it a whole lot and some days he does it and some days he doesn't. There is absolutely no running nose or wheeze when listening to him with a stethoscope, and his wrists are clear. It's just that some days he coughs about 4 times during the day and then there will be a day or two and we will hear him again do it a few times during the day (when we are home, I don't know what the status is while we are at work). He isn't eating when it happens, usually. He is active, healthy, eating as usual, etc. But it isn't like him and this has been going on for about 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. To me, it seems he has something stuck in his throat. That is what it is like. I called the vet and she said as long as there is no mucous and breathing problems it is probably okay but to keep an eye on it.
6. Yesterday, I heard Winston the 4 month old cough. Now I got paranoid. I rushed in and he was standing by the pellets and hay. Then last night he coughed again after drinking water. But that was it. Same as all the others except Alton, he has no symptoms and acts normally.
7. We use Oxbow pellets which don't seem dusty, Oxbow hay, and we swept the poos off the fleece twice daily and change all the underpads daily as well. We have fans running in the room at all times this summer to help circulate the cool air by the pigs since it is hot and humid here. At night, we open the windows to save electricity.

So any thoughts on these guys?