Congested Breathing sounds like croaks

[Jelibaen]

Hi,


My 4-month-old male guinea pig, Tofu, has recently been making low-pitched croaking noises. This only occurs occasionally, as most of the time he's running around and eating and drinking like normal. He's still making all his usual guinea pig sounds and I haven't noticed any discharge from his eyes or nose. When this croaking does occur, it's usually when he's crouched in his litter box.


I thought it might have been allergies, since I'd recently temporarily changed their hay to a different brand. So I cleaned their cage out and tried to get out as much dust as possible before replacing their hay with the type I'd been using previously. The next day, the croaking sound seems to have lessened, but he still occasionally sounds a bit raspy while breathing. He doesn't look like he's having difficulty breathing; it's just the sound that I've been noticing.


On exception was last night, which really scared me; he sounded like he was hyperventilating and/or gasping for air. This might've been because I scared him while he was in his hide, but I'd never heard that sound before and I haven't been able to find a comparable video online.


Is this occasional raspy breathing normal? Like having hay stuck in his throat or just dust allergies?


I'll try uploading audio clips of his sounds later (I need to figure out how to first) but I wanted to get this question out there early. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


Thank you.

 

[bpatters]

I'd take him to a vet. Raspy breathing is never a good sign, but gasping for air is really concerning. He might just have something stuck in his throat, but the vet should be able to listen to his lungs and see if that's where the sound might be coming from.