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Cant eat ?

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Please can anyone help. My guinea pig has not eaten anything solid for 6 weeks. I know this is incredible but he is only 3 and is surviving on regular syringe feeds of food, water, and diarolyte. He woke up 6 weeks ago and could not eat although he used to go to his bowl and try to pick up food, however even when he managed could not chew it. He has been to the vet and checked, they told me he had no problem visible with teeth or anything else. He didnt improve so was given an anaesthetic and although his teeth were not long they took off what may have been a sharp edge. Still did not improve so he was anaesthetised again and had an x ray which showed no problems with his jaw. I was advised to try Daktarin to deal with a probable thrush infection but he is no better. After starting the daktarin he started to have excessive saliva and frantically grinds his jaw. There is obviously a mouth problem and I think he is in pain despite the prescribed Metacam. I don't know what else to do or try. He is so terribly thin now but does not give in and anxiously awaits his liquidised food (guinea pig food powdered in a grinder mixed with Critical Care and extra Vitamin C). I just keep giving the food and hope that whatever the problem is will get better but he is starving to death and I'm not sure if I'm just prolonging his pain and discomfort. I don't know what is the right thing to do but I love him and don't want to him to be suffering. I will be grateful for any advice or help. I was informed by CCT that he should never have been anaesthetised by the vet but I didnt know this at the time and I had no reason to question the vet when this was suggested. Please can someone help.
 
Sorry I've got no advice, but I hope you can get to the bottom of this. I'm sure someone experienced with piggies will be along very soon. Poor little man, he sounds a really brave pig.

Kathryn
 
I'm going through the same problem with Patch he had an op on his overgrown back teeth saturdaay and I have been syringe feeding him ever since, he wants to eat but cant for some reason, Ia m really worried and wonder if the anesthetic is to blame, I'm wracking my brains as to what to do as this is a very difficult problem to solve as I know over the years its happend a few times to me and is not usually a good sign, any one got any ideas for us both, we are both very worried piggy owners at the moment,
 
I'm so really sorry for both of you and your poor little piggies. I don't have medical knowledge to help, but could you try another vet, if you could find ones with small animal experience? There does seem to be a vast difference between vets in the matter of small animals. Lucinda's wonderful Dr Atkins had dreadful teeth trouble, which re-occured only a couple of weeks after the first operation. She had to syringe feed Doctor, who seemed to enjoy strawberry smoothie as well as all the essential foods. Perhaps smoothie would be a treat for your piggies too. xx
 
I was informed by CCT that he should never have been anaesthetised by the vet but I didnt know this at the time and I had no reason to question the vet when this was suggested.

Have you actually been down to the CCT then you have your piggie seen to, or did she just give you advice over the phone?
If you havent, I would give it a shot... Vedra picked up what was wrong with my Lily within two minutes of her being there.
 
Anaesthetic will not be to blame. These days guineas have the same anaesthetic agents as humans, which have fast recovery times, and do not stay in the body.

I am very sorry about your problem. It is heartbreaking when a piggie will not or cannot eat. Have you tried restoring the gut balance with either probiotic or natural yoghurt?

When Dr was so ill I was syring feeding him every couple of hourse - recovery food and smoothie.

I don't know what else to suggest. I do suspect that teeth may be the problem. I'm so so sorry. I know what you're going through. xx
 
patch is having regular probiotic to restore his gut balance, and is looking bright seems some pigs just give up on eating I'm going to try mashed banana tomorrow you can see he wants to eat it but does'nt seem to know how to eat it whole, wierd!
 
Please contact the CCT and get in touch with your nearest Rodentologist asap. It sounds like your piggie needs urgent specialist help.
 
starshine said:
Please contact the CCT and get in touch with your nearest Rodentologist asap. It sounds like your piggie needs urgent specialist help.

Thats why I was asking before if she had only talked to them over the phone or was actually there, because she wrote:

I was informed by CCT that he should never have been anaesthetised by the vet but I didnt know this at the time and I had no reason to question the vet when this was suggested. Please can someone help.

she has been in touch with them, I am just wondering if Vedra doesnt know, who else could? :(
 
There will be a rodentologist in the area who can actually look at the pig rather than just give telephone advice. It is hard to diagnose a problem over the phone whereas if the pig is seen by a specialist it has the very best chance of recovery. Talking on the phone is fine the the first instance but this pig clearly needs more if it is still not eating.
 
Babsmam said:
I was informed by CCT that he should never have been anaesthetised by the vet but I didn't know this at the time and I had no reason to question the vet when this was suggested. Please can someone help.

Please don't beat yourself up about this, it's all very well the CCT trust telling you that, but few of us have rodentologists near enough to us to be of any practical help. Again, for many more a trip to the CCT is hours and hours away, a round trip of about 8 to 9 hours for us :-\
One of my guineas has had 2 anaesthetics for teeth probs, the vet has done an excellent job trimming and guinea recovered within hours of coming home.

If you can get the the CCT, please do, or try and locate a rodentologist near enough to help. What area are you in? Maybe one of us can recommend a good local vet?
Good luck,
Barbara


Edited to add: While waiting for a second opinion, you could try 1ml of honey twice daily to help keep the guineas energy levels up. Peter Gurney suggested this and I've used it to good effect many times and it's especially good post op in my experience. I like to use the natural, clear wild flower organic variety.
 
Thank you all so much for your kind words and advice regarding Bab who continues to need syringe feeding. I was unable to post any replies as in my distress I spilt lemonade over my laptop and messed up the keyboard. update on Bab, i contacted Vedra who put me in touch with the nearest rodentologist and we took him to have his teeth clipped. He is much more comfortable but still seems to have no strength in his jaw to chew.He is ravenous now and is eating much more via the syringe and looks much brighter and happy. Its sad there are so few rodentologists, we had to maka a 6 hour all round journey to get expert help for Bab but it was well worth it as the lady gave advice and tips to help build him up. I will continue to do my best as he does not appear to have any pain and i think he is enjoying all the extra fuss.
 
I'm so sorry this is still going on. I know what it's like.

Have you tried fruit smoothie in the syringe? It makes a nice treat.

Also, are you anywhere near Bath as I have an excellent guinea vet.
 
Good luck keep up the good work

Keep up the syringe feeding, i also added pureed baby foods to the syringe and this seemed to bulk them up too. Please try to give as many feeds of critical care as you can as there's so many essential vitamins etc in it.
 
I can make a comment here after being lucky enough to yesterday spend a couple of hours with 2 excellent rodentologists whilst another member here (DebbieR) had her piggies teeth seen to, apparently piggies jaw muscles very quickly lose their strength, even after just 1 week of not being able to chew,and it has to be built back up again with regular chewing practice.

Hope he gets better soon, welcome to the forum :)
 
Yes it sounds like your piggy is going through exactly what George is at the moment. Most vets don't even know piggies have back teeth so I would never let a vet near my piggies mouths.

George had his teeth clipped and they are now back to normal. No anestetic (sp sorry) was used. When piggies have had such bad tooth problems they need to be taught to eat again and encouraged to take bits of food. When they have anastetic (oh I don't know how to spell that blooming word) it takes them about 4 days to fully recover by which time the problem is starting to occur again because they haven't been grinding down the teeth. Also,like Bev says, the jaw muscles lose their strength.

He needs to have bulk put into him asap. You can worry about the nutrients later. The main thing is to keep his gut working. I am syringe feeding george with chinchilla pellets mashed with weetabix, (he didn't like the mashed potato after all that Bev), softened in boiling water and mixed into a mush. Also Abidec multivitamin drops. I am also feeding him teeny bits of cucumber putting them into his mouth so he can do some chewing.


Good luck
xx
 
;D Thank you. I was really struggling with that. Did it show? ;D
 
My vet is amazing with teeth. She gives a teeny tiny bit of anaesthetic and then does the work.

Bill was always right as rain after a few hours and he was done every 5 weeks for 10 months
 
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