Congested Crackling noise after critical care accident

[alicee]

I was giving Phoebe some critical care because she has a UTI and I noticed her weight dropping, but I went way too fast and she started making a crackly breathing noise. I stopped and haven't fed her anymore. It's been about 2 hours since this happened and after about 30 minutes she stopped the noise and ate with the others seeming fine. Currently she's going back and forth between eating, making a little bit of the breathing sound off and on, and sitting up puffy and uncomfortable, which is something she was doing with the UTI anyway, so it's hard to tell if this has anything to do with it.
This is 100% my fault for getting over confident and not respecting her boundaries enough. I have a tendency to feed critical care way too fast I've just never had any problems, I knew better and I wish this wasn't the way I learned my lesson. I feel absolutely awful and like I've just made her current discomfort and risky situation so much worse and possibly very dangerous. Will she be ok after a good cough? I haven't heard her try to cough or sneeze or clear her breathing. What should I do? I can't get to a vet until Wednesday, which makes this awful situation even worse. (Apologies for the hard to read run-on sentences and errors, I haven't slept and its nearly 6 AM. I'm going to try and get some sleep now, but I'm terrified of waking up to her worse or...)

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Keep a very close eye on her, but you may have dodged a bullet. You've just learned that you have to go slow with Critical Care or anything else you need to force feed.

A good rule of thumb I use is to use a 1ml syringe filled with a large syringe, and then two or three squirts with that 1ml to feed. It takes time, but its safer. In addition, when you put the syringe in the pigs mouth, turn it to the side toward their cheek. This helps ensure that you don't squirt straight down the pigs throat.

If she doesn't appear to be having any more issues she's probably fine but as I said, keep a closer eye on her.

 

[alicee]

Thankfully she stopped making that noise by the end of the day, but I'm currently struggling with trying to feed the amount she needs safely and efficiently.
I started being a lot more careful, giving her around .3 to .5 ml at once and giving her several minutes to chew in-between. But I still noticed her struggling greatly to chew at some points and it worried me, so I slowed down even more to around .1 to .2 of a 1 ml syringe. This makes getting 5 ml in her take about 2 hours, and even going this slow she's been making a weird congested clicking noise when chewing? And sometimes acting like something is stuck in her mouth when even the tiniest drop of food is put in. I'm wondering if she's got critical care built up in her mouth? I've tried looking best I can but I can't really see anything. She isn't eating at all on her own so I'm trying to aim for 50-60 ml to get down her in a day but with how slow I've gotten trying to feed her safely that seems impossible, especially trying to sleep a little in-between.

It would help a ton if she ate willingly at her own pace but I've tried everything from mixing some peaflake dust in the critical care to mixing regular pellets with some peaflake dust and banana slices, since peaflakes and banana are the only thing she has an appetite for. I'm at a complete loss on how to manage this. I've been pushing forward and still feeding her since obviously she has to eat, but the congested chewing noise and difficulty chewing only seems to be getting worse, and I'm just not getting enough food in her in a timely manner. She started antibiotics on Wednesday so I'm praying they start working and making her feel well enough to eat on her own but I'm not holding out much hope, especially if she's struggling so much to chew for some reason. If anyone has any idea what could be going on or how to deal with this properly I'm all ears, I've never had a pig so stressful to feed.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

How old is Phoebe? And has she had her teeth checked? That mouth motion you are talking about I know all too well, and its one indicator of having overgrown molars.

Checking the incisors isn't enough, she needs to be checked by a qualified exotics vet with experience in rodent dentistry. One way you can perhaps tell actually is by checking her incisors. There's a possibility that they will be wearing at an angle instead of straight across. While it's a symptom it may or may not be there.

 

[alicee]

She's around 5. Her incisors look good thankfully.
If it is a dental issue it's sprung up very suddenly, but it would make sense since she hasn't eaten enough this week to wear her teeth down properly. The only reason I wondered if it was stuck critical care building up is because I notice her holding it in her mouth a lot and needing to be prompted to chew, or chewing for only a second and stopping. I figured it was because of UTI pain, but maybe chewing is uncomfortable.

If it's a dental issue I have no idea where to go, our current vet just shoves a tool in their mouth, says something along the lines of "there's too much food in the way for me to see much, but they look fine" and ends it there. I don't think he knows a single thing about guinea pig dentistry, or really guinea pigs in general, he's just the only vet I can find in my area that will see them at all, besides one other that I have a bad history with. I can certainly try to find another again, but finding vets has been a problem I've faced for nearly 5 years now, and finding one for advanced issues like dentistry sounds like a miracle. Which is horrible considering how common dental problems are

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Whereabouts are you located? We (may) be able to help. Just city and state if you're in the U.S.