I'm new to the forum and having read a lot online about dental problems in guinea pigs in the last couple of months wanted to make others aware of my experience with my six-year-old GP, Honey, who sadly passed away a month ago. I'm still missing him terribly, as is his life-long companion, Snowball, who is also six.
The GPs had been in small animal boarding while we were on holiday in August and a week or two after we got back, I noticed Honey wasn't able to eat properly. He was trying to eat his favourite cucumber and spinach leaves but his front teeth couldn't seem to bite through the veg. He had lots of classic dental symptoms - drooling, slanting front teeth. I took him to the vet and he had a general anaesthetic and dental work. The vet (who wasn't a GP specialist) did say his teeth didn't appear bad enough to cause his problems but she didn't offer much help as to what else it could be - she'd done some x-rays of his limbs and torso that didn't show anything untoward.
Honey seemed to recover well from the surgery and although he still wasn't able to eat completely normally, he was really interested in food and seemed brighter than before. After reading lots of posts online about people saying similar things about other guinea pigs who had had dental work, I decided to carry on supplementing him with syringe feeding and to monitor and see if things improved.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, he went downhill again after a couple of weeks, this time becoming quite unwell in himself, losing weight. eating less and sitting hunched up. I was struggling to find a vet who knew about GPs but did take him to a practice where a GP specialist worked (although I couldn't get an appointment with the GP specialist). The vet examined Honey's mouth and started talking about the possibility of elongated roots and upped his dose of metacam. A few days later things hadn't improved and Honey had developed what felt like an abscess under his chin. I managed to locate an exotic vet about half an hour's drive away and took him up that day. She thought the abscess seemed consistent with dental problems and arranged to operate a couple of days later (having put him on antibiotics for the abscess in the meantime).
Unfortunately poor little Honey didn't make it through the surgery. His little heart stopped when the op was done and they were waiting for him to wake up.
It turned out he didn't actually have dental problems at all - or none that were causing his symptoms. The vet had done some detailed head x-rays and found that the abscess was from an inner ear infection that had broken out of the ear.
She thought pain from the infection had given him eating difficulties. I feel so bad that he was suffering in this way for so long and I had no idea - nor did any of the vets he saw until the end.
My point is that Honey had no symptoms of ear problems - no discharge, scratching, head-tilt, unsteadiness on his feet. His only symptoms were eating difficulties consistent with tooth problems (along with weight loss, some poo impaction - that resolved after the first tooth op - and being out of sorts, that again seemed consistent with dental problems).
Just wanted to make others aware so that if anyone has a GP with similar symptoms that seem to indicate dental problems, ear infection is something you may want to suggest your vet considers.
Am also unsure as to why Honey got this infection and cannot help wondering if it was something he picked up while boarding (the place he stayed had rabbits too and although the hutch the GPs boarded in was apparently disinfected between boarders I will always wonder...)
The GPs had been in small animal boarding while we were on holiday in August and a week or two after we got back, I noticed Honey wasn't able to eat properly. He was trying to eat his favourite cucumber and spinach leaves but his front teeth couldn't seem to bite through the veg. He had lots of classic dental symptoms - drooling, slanting front teeth. I took him to the vet and he had a general anaesthetic and dental work. The vet (who wasn't a GP specialist) did say his teeth didn't appear bad enough to cause his problems but she didn't offer much help as to what else it could be - she'd done some x-rays of his limbs and torso that didn't show anything untoward.
Honey seemed to recover well from the surgery and although he still wasn't able to eat completely normally, he was really interested in food and seemed brighter than before. After reading lots of posts online about people saying similar things about other guinea pigs who had had dental work, I decided to carry on supplementing him with syringe feeding and to monitor and see if things improved.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, he went downhill again after a couple of weeks, this time becoming quite unwell in himself, losing weight. eating less and sitting hunched up. I was struggling to find a vet who knew about GPs but did take him to a practice where a GP specialist worked (although I couldn't get an appointment with the GP specialist). The vet examined Honey's mouth and started talking about the possibility of elongated roots and upped his dose of metacam. A few days later things hadn't improved and Honey had developed what felt like an abscess under his chin. I managed to locate an exotic vet about half an hour's drive away and took him up that day. She thought the abscess seemed consistent with dental problems and arranged to operate a couple of days later (having put him on antibiotics for the abscess in the meantime).
Unfortunately poor little Honey didn't make it through the surgery. His little heart stopped when the op was done and they were waiting for him to wake up.
It turned out he didn't actually have dental problems at all - or none that were causing his symptoms. The vet had done some detailed head x-rays and found that the abscess was from an inner ear infection that had broken out of the ear.
She thought pain from the infection had given him eating difficulties. I feel so bad that he was suffering in this way for so long and I had no idea - nor did any of the vets he saw until the end.
My point is that Honey had no symptoms of ear problems - no discharge, scratching, head-tilt, unsteadiness on his feet. His only symptoms were eating difficulties consistent with tooth problems (along with weight loss, some poo impaction - that resolved after the first tooth op - and being out of sorts, that again seemed consistent with dental problems).
Just wanted to make others aware so that if anyone has a GP with similar symptoms that seem to indicate dental problems, ear infection is something you may want to suggest your vet considers.
Am also unsure as to why Honey got this infection and cannot help wondering if it was something he picked up while boarding (the place he stayed had rabbits too and although the hutch the GPs boarded in was apparently disinfected between boarders I will always wonder...)
