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Advice for pig missing both bottom incisors

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Fig

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Aug 26, 2022
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My piggie has had a series of issues lately including one of his bottom incisors breaking off and his molars starting to lean in. He was doing fine with one bottom tooth, but today at the vet, as they were checking his teeth, I guess he thrashed around too much and the other bottom tooth broke too.

Does anyone have any advice on how to care for him? We have critical care, fortunately he likes it so he’ll eat it off a spoon but he doesn’t eat as much as I’d like him to. He absolutely hates being syringe fed and I’m scared if we force him to eat it, he’ll stop liking the taste.

The poor baby keeps trying to eat hay but cannot seem to chew it at all.
 
Aw poor baby. Will he eat the critical care, or maybe some softened nuggets from a bowl? We've got a lethal white who only has one bottom tooth, and this regularly breaks but it does seems to grow back quickly so hopefully your boy's does too.

Perhaps readigrass might be easier for him to chew?
 
Wheekallweek said:
Aw poor baby. Will he eat the critical care, or maybe some softened nuggets from a bowl? We've got a lethal white who only has one bottom tooth, and this regularly breaks but it does seems to grow back quickly so hopefully your boy's does too.

Perhaps readigrass might be easier for him to chew?
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I looked up readigrass, I guess it’s a UK product so I can’t get it here in canada. :( He’s able to eat fresh grass but once it starts snowing, we’ll be out of that.

It broke from the root so it might take a while to grow back, if ever. I feel so bad for him, he already lost weight from his dental issues before this happened
 
Poor boy. Try cutting his veggies into thin strips/sticks. I have seen a photo somewhere but I can't find it of carrot and pepper sticks standing in an egg cup which makes it easier for them to pick up. I assume you feed Timothy Hay in Canada, do you have a softer finer hay, in the UK we have meadow which is more like dried lawn grass, maybe Orchard Hay is an equivalent? I have my fingers crossed your snow holds off until his teeth grow back!
 
piggieminder said:
Poor boy. Try cutting his veggies into thin strips/sticks. I have seen a photo somewhere but I can't find it of carrot and pepper sticks standing in an egg cup which makes it easier for them to pick up. I assume you feed Timothy Hay in Canada, do you have a softer finer hay, in the UK we have meadow which is more like dried lawn grass, maybe Orchard Hay is an equivalent? I have my fingers crossed your snow holds off until his teeth grow back!
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That’s a great idea to get the veggies to stand up, he seems to be struggling the most with picking them up so I’ve been hand feeding. The pet stores here definitely sell softer hay so I’ll try to get some of those. Fingers crossed that he likes it!
 
I had two senior piggies with dental problems. I fed them tiny little slivers of carrot by hand and gave them oatflakes, in a dish or off my hand. I know you're not really meant to feed guineas with oatflakes but mine were very senior so I went ahead anyway. Mine did get back to eating normally on their own.

Good luck with your piggy!
 
Good luck. I hope you can find a solution to help him eat until they grow back.
 
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Mrs Tiggy Winkle said:
If molars are starting to lean in, I think that can only be resolved by a trip to the vet. Let's ask @Piggies&buns
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Indeed, we were at the vet getting the molars trimmed. It was done without anesthetic so he moved a lot and banged his tooth on the tools. It’s nobody’s fault but its hard to bear the thought that he left the vet worse than he started :(
 
I’m sorry to hear this

Thin strips of veg and hold them until he can take them into his mouth - the incisors are used for picking up food so without them he is going to find it harder to manoevre food.
Same with strands of hay if possible; and of course getting as much critical care as you can into him, little and often, with daily weight checks to monitor

Is he on any pain killers
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear this

Thin strips of veg and hold them until he can take them into his mouth - the incisors are used for picking up food so without them he is going to find it harder to manoevre food.
Same with strands of hay if possible; and of course getting as much critical care as you can into him, little and often, with daily weight checks to monitor

Is he on any pain killers
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We weren’t prescribed pain killers. Fortunately he doesn’t seem to be in much pain, he’s still spicy and demanding as usual. I stuck some hay into a toilet paper roll to make it easier to grab.

2 days ago he loved the critical care and now its the worst thing he’s ever tasted. Sigh
 
Can you get a different brand of critical care? I find after a while they get bored with the taste. If you feed pellets you could try mushing some up and syringe feeding them or mixing some of the mush into the critical care to change it slightly.
The toilet paper roll stuffed with hay is a good idea.
 
piggieminder said:
Can you get a different brand of critical care? I find after a while they get bored with the taste. If you feed pellets you could try mushing some up and syringe feeding them or mixing some of the mush into the critical care to change it slightly.
The toilet paper roll stuffed with hay is a good idea.
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he’s very into the mushed up pellets so I’ll try that. I’ll look into other flavours of critical care too… maybe anise will be more appealing to little food connoisseur. It looks like he’s the same weight as yesterday so it’s not going down at least!
 
Fig said:
he’s very into the mushed up pellets so I’ll try that. I’ll look into other flavours of critical care too… maybe anise will be more appealing to little food connoisseur. It looks like he’s the same weight as yesterday so it’s not going down at least!
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I had to syringe feed a piggy for 8 weeks once and he loved his pellets mushed into warm water and rolled into little pea sized pieces which he would eat from my hand 👍🏻
 
Fig said:
he’s very into the mushed up pellets so I’ll try that. I’ll look into other flavours of critical care too… maybe anise will be more appealing to little food connoisseur. It looks like he’s the same weight as yesterday so it’s not going down at least!
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Ours seem to much prefer the emeraid mint flavour over critical care 👍
 
He was doing great until today. Today he has lost interest completely. Hiding, didn’t come to eat veg, didn’t eat veg from my hand either, and I haven’t seen him eat hay. I booked the soonest vet appointment I could but it’s not until Thursday. I'm syringe feeding the critical care now but I'm extremely worried
 
All he’s had today is critical care, but he seems to be having diarrhea. Does anyone have any advice? I am going to call the vet as soon as they open and try to get an emergency appointment but do we keep giving him critical care?
 
Fig said:
All he’s had today is critical care, but he seems to be having diarrhea. Does anyone have any advice? I am going to call the vet as soon as they open and try to get an emergency appointment but do we keep giving him critical care?
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Yes definitely keep giving the critical care.
He needs to see a vet - liquid diarrhoea is an urgent situation due to the risk of dehydration.

Section 5 of this guide explains - Wiebke's Guide to Poops
 
Thank you for this guide. I am not entirely sure what category his poops fall under. The first batch I noticed was similar texture to the critical care mush. Then while I was feeding him, he pooped a tiny bit of liquidy green diarrhea. Now it has firmed up to a playdough texture.

He is still completely disinterested in food though. I am just trying to hold him over until the vet is open (no emergency exotics near me). It is 2am, got about 60ml of cc in him today and gonna wake up at 5 to give some more
 
Thanks so much for all your well wishes. He has not improved and has lost 70g overnight. We left him at the vet hospital where they will try to rehabilitate him. I'm heartbroken to leave him alone in an unfamiliar place, but I can only hope he’ll be responsive to treatment
 
Fig said:
Thanks so much for all your well wishes. He has not improved and has lost 70g overnight. We left him at the vet hospital where they will try to rehabilitate him. I'm heartbroken to leave him alone in an unfamiliar place, but I can only hope he’ll be responsive to treatment
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I'm hoping and praying he'll start to improve - he's in the best place for round the clock care. 🤞
 
So so sorry to hear this sad news. Having been in a similar situation myself I know how awful it feels for this to happen, and in hospital, but you were doing everything you could to try to save him, which is all any of us would do, and that was definitely worth trying. (And if you didn’t do that, you’d probably be questioning yourself then too, so sometimes you just can’t win, if you know what I mean).

Try to take comfort in that they would have made sure he was comfortable, and by then he may not have been very aware of his surroundings.

I’m so sorry for your loss- it’s so heartbreaking and traumatic how quickly these lovely little piggies can deteriorate.

You are clearly a very caring owner who gave him his best possible life with you.
 
Oh no, I'm so sorry 😔 He would have been comfortable and pain free.
My sister is a vet nurse - rest assured they will have been checking on him all the time and giving him lots of fuss and love ❤️
RIP little one 🌈❤️
 
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