Obstructive airway vs croup

[Rue's Mom]

I've had Rue for 4 weeks now. She is 9 weeks old and has been thriving. However yesterday she got excited and took a big bite of an avocado and lodged it. This is my best guess. It's what she was eating on at the time when I saw her try to wretch and couldn't. She then started clawing at her mouth and hacked a few times and sneezes a few. Then the respiratory strider started. She stopped breathing three times last night and I kept her alive by doing very gentle chest compressions to force air in and out. After two hours she seemed to perk up and started breathing better and acted normally. During the night I noticed some raspiness so started on abx today even though her breathing sounded better. This evening around the same time after eating 7 mos of formula she started acting like she needed to climb something and starting hacking and repeating classsnignts episode. Very much in respiratory distress. Retracting and labored noisy breathing on inspiration and expiration. I bulb suctioned her nose. Gave her Metcam and some yogurt. She continued to breath hard but settled down about five minutes ago. So my question is. She still has a sniff sneeze and a whistle sound that is still present. Is there anything else I can do for her tonight before I can get her to the vet?

[Rue's Mom]

Addendum: a few minutes after this post Rue got super playful. Wanted to wrestle and play and breathing was perfect. Again she has calmed down and breathing sounding bad again and sneezing. 🙁

[stepnstone]

I've had Rue for 4 weeks now. She is 9 weeks old and has been thriving. However today she got excited and took big a bite of an avocado and lodged it. This is my best guess. It's what she was eating on at the time when I saw her try to wretch and couldn't. She then started clawing at her mouth and hacked a few times and sneezes a few. Then the respiratory strider started. She stopped breathing three times last night and I kept her alive by doing very gentle chest compressions to force air in and out. After two hours she seemed to perk up and started breathing better and acted normally. During the night I noticed some raspiness so started on abx today even though her breathing sounded better. This evening around the same time after eating 7 mos of formula she started acting like she needed to climb something and starting hacking and repeating classsnignts episode. Very much in respiratory distress. Retracting and labored noisy breathing on inspiration and expiration. I bulb suctioned her nose. Gave her Metcam and some yogurt. She continued to breath hard but settled down about five minutes ago. So my question is. She still has a sniff sneeze and a whistle sound that is still present. Is there anything else I can do for her tonight before I can get her to the vet?

What part of an avocado do you suspect maybe lodged? Was the inside hard/firm?
Did she eat any of it's peel or seed?

It does sound like she has an obstruction but we just had another member go through something
similar with suspecting a chewed end of nipple being lodged. After vet did an ENT on her squirrel
it was determined there was some sort of infection formed mucus around her windpipe obstructing
it's breathing.

If it is or isn't something lodged maybe just trying to keep her settled so she's not moving around
much to stress her breathing is all you can do until you see a vet. Sometimes with breathing problems
running a hot shower and holding them in the steamy room helps to ease it.

[Rue's Mom]

She was eating the soft meaty part, no seed or peel.

[stepnstone]

She was eating the soft meaty part, no seed or peel.
Thats good at least. If it is an avocado chunk maybe it'll start breaking down where she can pass
it depending on where it's lodged and the size.

Now this is on humans:
Heimlich maneuver
5 back blows. First, deliver five back blows between the person's shoulder blades with the heel of your hand.
5 abdominal thrusts. Perform five abdominal thrusts (also known as the Heimlich maneuver).
Alternate between 5 blows and 5 thrusts until the blockage is dislodged.

I have to wonder (using fingers) if holding her slightly bent over and doing short abdominal thrusts and
a tap between her shoulders as in the Heimlich maneuver if it would help dislodge it enough to bring it up.
I know if one of mine I'd try anything once and twice if it worked. :dono

[pjjere]

I don't have much to add other than we are having a very similar issue with our 4 1/2 m old eastern grey named Tish. Her issues began when she chewed off a piece of the miracle nipple (just the tip) and began wheezing and struggling for air.

We assumed the tip of the nipple was partially blocking an airway but after doing an endoscopy the vet thinks the tip is too large to be the culprit. The vet is baffled re the chain of events but hard for me to believe there isn't a relationship between the nipple breaking and her problem.

She is on AB's and metacam now but is still wheezing. Based on our experience maybe some of the gooey, sticky avocado is partially blocking her airway. Here is a link to the thread and I wish you the best.

http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/showthread.php?55902-Tish-is-not-getting-better