Advice about dental piggie please

[garfieldette]

Hi

My precious piggy Lara has had dental issues for 12 months now. She has been going back to our vet every 4 weeks for the last 4 months to have her teeth filed back (without GA) but each time she struggles for longer to recover from the treatment and her weight has slowly dropped from 1.1kg to 740g and the time between treatments has got shorter.

She eats her dry food and fresh food but has gone totally off hay in the last month. I have tried supplementing with critical care but she flatly refuses it and the stuff I managed to get into her mouth she spat across the cage and ran and hid.

I have been giving her 0.3ml of metacam each day and she comes to me to take it and some days rips the syringe out of my hand.

The last visit to my vet she said she thinks Laras teeth are growing down into the gums and that she cant do anything to stop it. She basically started to warm me up to the idea of having Lara put down. We agreed that I would give Lara metacam twice a day and see if we can get some weight on her over the next two weeks. She also looked at a bald patch that has started on Laras back and suggested that she is lacking vitamins due to her reduced food intake.

I wanted to ask if anyone has any experience of this or could point me to some info about teeth growing down into the gums. I really need some advice on what the best thing to do for Lara. She is such a special girl, I do not want to drag out her suffering but I also don't want to give up on her if there are other options or things I could be doing to make her life easier.

She looks so frail and spends most of her day hidden away in a hut, but at the same time she is still eating and drinking. She is three and a half years old.

Any advicewould be very very much appreciated.


Beki

 

[Jerrybelly]

Hi Beki. Sorry to hear this. Would you consider getting a second opinion? If you could get there, there is an excellent vet called Simon Maddocks based in Northampton who has been known to work wonders with piggies with dental problems.

It may also be worth having a chat with Furryfriends on here who may be able to offer some suggestions. Debbie is a piggy fairy godmother and has a lot of experience in this area.

Personally, I can't offer any advice for dentals. But from my own experience, my piggies prefer Oxbow Recovery Plus to Critical Care. It may be worth a shot.

C. x

 

[Mamaguineapig]

I had a piggie who had dental problems too. Not exactly the same but it involved him visiting the vet regularly to get his teeth done without GA . One bottom tooth grew faster than the other one and it meant gnawing his teeth down became a problem. He ended up with real eating problems for on average 10 days after each vet dental trip and I had to learn how to hand feed him. He detested the syringe and I had to learn how to feed him another way. I came up with the idea of putting the mush ( pure cucumber at first as that was his favourite food ) in the end of a standard drinking straw and when I put him on my lap I would gently ease out the mushed cucumber and let him eat it that way. After using only his favourite food I could introduce a more balanced mush consisting of his usual dried food and bits of hay chopped up. After the straw stage and to see he was on the mend again I'd hand feed him very finely chopped up soft foods like tomatoes and cucumber by putting them directly in to his wee mouth. He developed this odd tooth problem at about age 4 and lived to almost 7 with eventually losing one of his front teeth . Good luck with the dental ..... And persevere as I found that my piggie really bonded with me when he realised that I would help him. It is time consuming but so worth it.

 

[sport_billy]

Sorry to hear Lara and you are going through this. One of our first piggies was a dental piggie and I know how hard it is.

I can definitely recommend what Jerrybelly as said as regards Simon Madocks in Northampton he is widely acknowledged as one of the best vets around for Dental Issues.

I would recommend regardless of whichever vet you see getting jaw x-rays done ASAP this will show you any root issues, I only say this because this is what our girl 'Pitch' had. Unfortunately its not a great prognosis but well worth ruling out and looking into. In the end with Pitch no amount of dental could take the pressure of the roots that were intertwined above the roof of her mouth and low down in her jaw. But while she was eating and drinking and syringe feeding and happy we kept her pain free on Metacam then vetergesic for as long as we and our vet felt she had a quality of life before having to let her go.

Instead of Critical Care you can try mushed up pellets, some piggies prefer this. If you have any other questions please ask, we are here for you. Love to Lara.

 

[scpiggy]

Sorry to hear your girl is so poorly. I was syringe feeding one of my girls recently and found a recovery food mix that went down very well. I blended some fresh fruit, soft things like melon, berries and bananas with a bit of water and mixed that into the dried recovery mix then added a small handful of oats to the mix which also help pigs to put on weight. My girl loved it so much she would eat it out of the bowl.
Hope this helps and sending healing vibes to Lara.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

I run a Sanctuary for guinea pigs with dental issues, and my vet, Simon Maddock, is fantastic and has really worked wonders with so many piggies here at the Sanctuary. I would be more than happy to have a chat with you and you can find my details on my website www.teasnorthampton.co.uk