Dental Overgrowth

[marianac95]

Good Afternoon,

I am a guinea pig owner from Portugal, My guinea pig is about 2 years old, and he had is first overgrowth episode about a year ago. However about a month ago he started having episodes every 2 weeks. Between episodes he shows hunger and to be feeling well and I also feed him with a syringe, and he increases weight. After that, he stars eating less and loosing weight, when i take him to the vet he needs to wear them down again.

He normally already does vitamin C every week and he always has hay at disposale. Is feeding consists of vegetable and pellets.
I very kindly ask for your help, support and advise as my vet from here, as only told me if it keeps happening I will need to put him down. As he still is so lively, I am looking for more answers.
Is there any method to incresed theeth wear down that you recomend?
I know it is a recurrent situation, so I am looking for something that helps increase the time between episodes and help him leed a comfortable and happy life with some treatment.


Thank you very much for your help in advance.

Best Regards,
Mariana Cabral

 

[DM030819]

@marianac95 Hay should be a constant in his diet, as that is best for wearing down teeth. You didn't mention it so I thought I would incase you don't feed it already.

Which teeth are the problem? The front ones or the back?

Unfortunately dental problems sometimes don't get better so the pig needs to go to the vet regularly to have them worked on. But many times they do improve over time.

 

[marianac95]

@marianac95 Hay should be a constant in his diet, as that is best for wearing down teeth. You didn't mention it so I thought I would incase you don't feed it already.

Which teeth are the problem? The front ones or the back?

Unfortunately dental problems sometimes don't get better so the pig needs to go to the vet regularly to have them worked on. But many times they do improve over time.

He always has hay at disposale already. The problem are the molars...
I know it will be recurrent, but as the best vet here only does this with anesthesia, I am really worried about the frequency, is there anything else you recommend?

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Sorry I haven't replied to the email you sent to TEAS. I will do shortly. I've been so poorly with vertigo and looking at a computer screen has been difficult.

 

[DM030819]

@marianac95 You could ask your vet to contact Simon Maddock at The Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic in Northampton. He could offer some advice and possibly let you know how likely it is that treatment may decrease in future.

 

[Rusholme]

sorry to hear about your difficulties. Simon Maddock (see post above) has told us that hay and/or grass are very important for keeping teeth ground down. You say he has hay at his disposal, but is he eating it? He may be eating less than he 'should' be. Have you tried giving him fresh grass every day? You might find he eats more of that (piggies seem to prefer it), which could help slow down the teeth growth. We have a piggy with dental problems at the moment and since we started giving him fresh grass he has improved a lot.

 

[marianac95]

Sorry I haven't replied to the email you sent to TEAS. I will do shortly. I've been so poorly with vertigo and looking at a computer screen has been difficult.

Please reply to me as soon as you can, it is still recurring today he is having treatment again, I would very much appreciate if you could give me some advice on give him the best care And chances of getting well. Thank you

 

[marianac95]

sorry to hear about your difficulties. Simon Maddock (see post above) has told us that hay and/or grass are very important for keeping teeth ground down. You say he has hay at his disposal, but is he eating it? He may be eating less than he 'should' be. Have you tried giving him fresh grass every day? You might find he eats more of that (piggies seem to prefer it), which could help slow down the teeth growth. We have a piggy with dental problems at the moment and since we started giving him fresh grass he has improved a lot.

He is not eating as much as he should, I have been changing is hay everyday, and putting on the garden so he can eat some grass, but it happened again and he is wearing them down again today...