guinea pig with molar overgrowth refuses hay
Hello;
I am from the Toronto, Ontario area and am new to this forum.
We have 2, 1.5 year old guinea pigs. One of them, Louie, now has had 2 surgeries 2 weeks apart to reduce his molars that were growing over his tongue. After buying and ordering a sling that didn't fit, and making our own twice to get a better fit, he now wears a sling, but he manages to get it off much of the time.
With each surgery he also requires 1-2 weeks of medication 3-4 times a day and requires critical care by syringe 3 times a day. Fortunately he loves the critical care. He still eats his kibbles.
We have tried several brands of timothy, meadow and oat hay, Oxbow, etc and hay discs-he doesn't eat any of it beyond a rare strand of it. We tried mixing it with his critical care with no success. His sling may help align his bite and keep molars in better check, but we were told that this overgrowth is due to lack of hay. We were told that he may need several surgeries if his teeth continue to grow.
When we explained that we weren't sure we could keep up with the repeated surgeries check-ups and after care due to time, expenses ($1200.00 the first time), and questionable quality of life for him, we were given the palliative care scenario of teeth growing developing sepsis and death-some comfort measures would be the critical care and pain medication. Family is really stressed out by this scenario while trying to keep up with his feedings and meds. We love our Louie dearly.
I am wondering if there isn't any other way to keep the molars in check or if there is any way we can manually file his teeth. Someone suggested a nail file for artificial nails might work.
Any advice on what we can do?
Thank you
