Heavy Breathing

Question
Hi i have had my guinea pig about a month and everything has been going great until tonight i noticed she is making strange sqeaking noises and was breathing rather heavily when i held her to my ear but when shes isn't stressed she seems to breath normally. Other than the noises she is acting completly normal, eatting, drinking and running around her cage. The only notible thing that i've done is i changed the type of bedding from pine shavings to corn cob, just last night. I'm hoping you can tell me if i should take her to a vet or wait it out and she if maybe she was just doing it for no reason.

Answer
It's a good thing you changed the bedding to corn cob because pine bedding isn't good for guinea pigs at all. In fact I don't recommend any type of wood shavings for guinea pigs because they can cause respiratory problems and liver and lung disesase. She may have been having an allergic reaction to the pine and was having trouble breathing because of it. The beddings I prefer for Guinea pigs are corn cob, soft sorbent bedding and carefresh bedding. If it was just a one time thing than I wouldn't worry too much about it but if she keeps on doing it than you will need to take her to a vet.