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Dental Surgery Recovery

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Team GP

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Hi everyone,


Apologies in advance for the rather long post but hoping that you may be able to offer some wisdom :)


My 2 year old boar Sandy had an operation two weeks ago today to file down his back molars as they had become overgrown and he had stopped eating. When filing his teeth down, the vet found a lot of hair stuck between them which we think was from normal grooming as he has no bald patches and hasn’t been showing any signs of stress etc.


Initially he seemed to recover well – we were syringe feeding critical care and he was showing some interest in veg and making attempts to eat soaked pellets. However, after a couple of days he seemed to take a bit of downturn and lost interest in his food. We took him back to the vet who checked his teeth and mouth – they seemed to be fine although she did note he was quite sore in his abdomen so changed his medicine to loxicom and metoclopramide.


However, he is still very up and down with his food. When we put veggies in the run he shows quite a lot of interest and will go round sniffing them but makes no effort to pick them up. On Friday I got him out and hand fed him some leaves – he seemed to realize that his teeth worked and was eating away quite happily, taking them out of my hand. I thought we had turned a corner but the next day it was like being back to square one, he wouldn’t take anything and was showing no interest. He was quite good yesterday and today I have managed to get him to eat some pepper but he is making no attempts to eat hay or pellets. He is being syringe fed every 2-4 hours.


I know recovery from dental surgery can be difficult and take time but I really don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere with him and my vet (who is pretty cavy savvy) is stumped as well. He’s back to the vet tomorrow but in the meantime I wondered if anyone had any similar experiences or suggestions?


Thanks in advance for your help and sorry again for the very long post!
 
Team GP said:
Hi everyone,


Apologies in advance for the rather long post but hoping that you may be able to offer some wisdom :)


My 2 year old boar Sandy had an operation two weeks ago today to file down his back molars as they had become overgrown and he had stopped eating. When filing his teeth down, the vet found a lot of hair stuck between them which we think was from normal grooming as he has no bald patches and hasn’t been showing any signs of stress etc.


Initially he seemed to recover well – we were syringe feeding critical care and he was showing some interest in veg and making attempts to eat soaked pellets. However, after a couple of days he seemed to take a bit of downturn and lost interest in his food. We took him back to the vet who checked his teeth and mouth – they seemed to be fine although she did note he was quite sore in his abdomen so changed his medicine to loxicom and metoclopramide.


However, he is still very up and down with his food. When we put veggies in the run he shows quite a lot of interest and will go round sniffing them but makes no effort to pick them up. On Friday I got him out and hand fed him some leaves – he seemed to realize that his teeth worked and was eating away quite happily, taking them out of my hand. I thought we had turned a corner but the next day it was like being back to square one, he wouldn’t take anything and was showing no interest. He was quite good yesterday and today I have managed to get him to eat some pepper but he is making no attempts to eat hay or pellets. He is being syringe fed every 2-4 hours.


I know recovery from dental surgery can be difficult and take time but I really don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere with him and my vet (who is pretty cavy savvy) is stumped as well. He’s back to the vet tomorrow but in the meantime I wondered if anyone had any similar experiences or suggestions?


Thanks in advance for your help and sorry again for the very long post!
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Depending on the dental issue, guinea pigs can be slow in eating again. You can try grated veg. However, it often takes a few rounds of filing to bring teeth back into a working balance again. The trick is not to wait until things go badly wrong again. Syringe feeding can also mean that the teeth are not fully used, so there is always a greater risk of things going out of kilter again. It can happen quite quickly.
@furryfriends (TEAS) and @MintyAndGarry (TEAS) are our members with the greatest experience in caring for guinea pigs with dental problems, but they are rather busy at the moment.

You may find the tips in our syringe feeding guide helpful; it has a dental piggy care section: Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Have you considered mushed up pellets and grated veg?
 
Thank you for your replies :) We're back at the vets for another check tomorrow so we'll get his teeth checked again and possibly have to look at getting an x-ray to check for any other issues. I've tried mushed up pellets and grated veg but not had much luck - there's no harm in trying again though!

I'll keep you posted on any progress and let you know how we get on at the vet.
 
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