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Respiratory diseases
Respiratory infections are common in Guinea Pigs. Difficulty breathing (dyspnoea), increased rate of breathing, coughing, sneezing, discharges form the nose and eyes, weight loss are all signs. The animal is usually off it’s food, and in the most severe cases death can result.
There are a variety of infectious agents that may be involved, and sometimes more than one organism is present at the same time :
Viral causes eg adenovirus pneumonia in stressed individuals
Bacterial causes notably bordatella spp and streptococcus pneumoniae and klebsiella. Affected animals often die despite treatment with antibiotics. For prevention of spread an autogenous vaccine has been used successfully in some guinea pigs colonies, but again these individuals become carriers of the disease.
Mycoplasma causes
Respiratory infections are often associated with poor housing conditions, poor nutrition (vitamin C deficiency) and overcrowding. Even if treatment helps an individual recover from the disease it may carry the organisms for a long time, and so act as a reservoir of infection for other guinea pigs.
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