Woke up to a Sneezing Degu

I am hoping that the sneezing one of my degus has seemingly developed overnight is an allergy to the wood shaving. They have all been sneezing a little here and there but it seems worse in one of them. She keeps grabbing her nose as if something is irritating it.

I must admit that when I first filled the cage the wood shavings affected my own nose something rotten so it's hardly a surprise if this is an allergy. My local pet store doesn't have any Carefresh animal bedding or alternative dust free recycled substrate I can use so until I can get down to Pets at Home I have temporarily filled the cage with straw and hay. I may continue with the straw, as they seem to love hiding in it, and use a small amount of absorbent material beneath it to help with soaking up the pee.

She seems happy enough in herself but I will keep an eye on her just in case.

UPDATE August 25, 2012 — Both the straw and hay were considerably dusty, which I didn't realise, but I have since cleaned them out again with hay that has been shook first. They still have sneezing but the worst one doesn't seem as bad. She sounded very congested but it seems to have eased a little.

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