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Dental Dental advice

ibash

New Born Pup
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Hello great piggy parents!

One of our pigs seems to have had dental problems recently. He prefers to eat food that is well chopped up and even with hey he prefers us to break it up for him.


We previously thought there was a problem with his bottom teeth, but I took a video of him eating and seems like the top teeth are different lengths. I’ve attached photos from the video.

Any advice on what if anything should we do? Should we wait this out? Or does he need to have his teeth clipped to realign them?

Thank you!

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63-DCC9-D1-C835-4550-B1-FC-DAEE99-BD6-BF3.jpg
 
He needs to see a good, knowledgeable vet to have his teeth looked at and necessary treatment performed. It’s not something you can wait out As if there is a problem with any of his teeth (back ones included), then they may never wear down properly on hay and the problem will get worse

please weigh your piggy daily to ensure he isn’t losing weight due to not being able to eat hay properly. If he is losing weight then you will need to step in and syringe feed him

Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
 
We’ve syringe feeded him a couple times as he’s had surgery twice within the last year (once a mass removal, and another time an abscess...).

Was wondering if this is regular maintenance that we can take care of at home, in the states so the last two surgeries were a bit over $1k each.
 
We’ve syringe feeded him a couple times as he’s had surgery twice within the last year (once a mass removal, and another time an abscess...).

Was wondering if this is regular maintenance that we can take care of at home, in the states so the last two surgeries were a bit over $1k each.

you cannot do dental work yourself at home. you could so easily do so much damage and make things worse
 
Made an appointment, soonest one is 1.5 weeks from now. Any advice on things to do for him in the meantime?
 
Made an appointment, soonest one is 1.5 weeks from now. Any advice on things to do for him in the meantime?

as per my original reply, all you can do is weigh him daily (at the same time each day) to monitor his hay intake and syringe feed him. If his weight drops, he isn’t eating enough hay for himself and/or isnt being syringe fed enough.

the guides below give further information

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management
 
Just to keep weighing at about the same time every day, especially if you're a worrier like me, as you can get a bit of up-and-down variation depending on their eating times.

$$$ Wowcher! I'm never complaining about how expensive our vets are again! The last bill I had was my biggest ever but I consoled myself with the thought that if those of us that can (just about) afford to pay for these procedures do so, it means vets gain more experience in guinea-pig medicine and that's to the benefit of all guinea-pigs in the future. That, and with Covid we couldn't have gone anywhere on holiday anyway!
 
Just FYI took him in for dental work and they said it wasn’t that bad, but did trim the excess
 
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