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Difficulty Eating, Bit More Fluffed Up And Sleepy Than Usual

Maddykins

Maddykins

Junior Guinea Pig
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My husband and I have noticed that one of our guinea pigs has seemed to be a bit more fluffed up than usual and seems a bit sleepier more often than normal over the last two days or so. He seemed to be eating fine although my husband thought he was eating a bit more gingerly than usual. When I say seems more sleepy I don't mean completely lethargic or anything, I've noticed that he just generally seems to look sleepier more often than usual but he's still quite active, following us around, eating etc. So we were just keeping an eye on him, however this evening I've just watched him clearly struggle to eat bell pepper, he was taking ages on a small piece and when I held some for him he was clearly having difficulty biting bits off it and only able to take little pieces. This is obviously worrying me in case he's not getting enough food in, I can see him eating hay right now though. I'm worried this is likely to be a dental problem? I imagine it is urgent that he sees a vet as it's affecting his eating? My husband is going to call the vet tomorrow morning and if we can get an appt then he will take him to the vet in the afternoon when he has a break from uni.

We are going to weigh him shortly. Should we give him a syringe feed this evening just in case he's not getting enough in him? Any other things we can do for him in the meantime? He's a rescue so unsure of exact age but roughly 4 and a half and otherwise in good health although he is prone to bouts of wind now and then when he gets a bit of a sore tummy.
 
Absolutely yes. If he is struggling to eat step in immediately with syringe feeding until you can get to the vet and find out what's going on.

It could be dental but it could also be a pain reaction that's affecting his want to eat. Hope you get some answers soon
 
He is eating but slowly and with some difficulty. I gave them their pellets earlier and he was his normal self in terms of being excited and interested in the pellets, and he was eating the pellets, but he would eat one pellet in the time it was taking my other guinea pig to eat 2-3. We will give him a syringe feed now before we go to bed. Poor little thing.
 
You could try softening the pellets with a bit of water as this might make them easier for him to eat.
 
You could pop some syringe mix in a small bowl or similar in the cage too (I use glass containers that I can't remember the name of for the life of me - came when I brought some of those posh GU desserts one time). That way if he's hungry but unable to chew he has access to the mush as and when... Does tend to get messy though lol
 
Lady Kelly said:
You could pop some syringe mix in a small bowl or similar in the cage too (I use glass containers that I can't remember the name of for the life of me - came when I brought some of those posh GU desserts one time). That way if he's hungry but unable to chew he has access to the mush as and when... Does tend to get messy though lol
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Do you mean ramekins @Lady Kelly?
 
Maddykins said:
He is eating but slowly and with some difficulty. I gave them their pellets earlier and he was his normal self in terms of being excited and interested in the pellets, and he was eating the pellets, but he would eat one pellet in the time it was taking my other guinea pig to eat 2-3. We will give him a syringe feed now before we go to bed. Poor little thing.
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Please go from weighing once weekly to weighing once daily at the same time (like before you give dinner or veg) so you get an idea of the daily food intake. 80% of it is hay, which you simply cannot control otherwise. That will tell you how much you need to step in with support feeding.

Loss of appetite is generally connected to a pain issue; whether it is in the mouth or somewhere else in the body.
Have him checked by a vet durin regular hours.
 
We have weighed him and he seems to have lost quite a lot of weight in a short space of time, it is so scary how quickly they lose weight, especially when we thought he was eating fine until yesterday! Good idea about putting some pellet mush in a ramekin in the cage, most weekdays we are both out the house 9-5ish now. He is very interested in food still so his appetite is there, he comes running over and he ate all the syringe feed last night no problem etc which is why I think it's probably dental because he clearly wants to eat but then when he tries it is slow/laborious. Husband going to call the vet when it opens at 9 and hopefully they will be able to squeeze him in this afternoon.
 
He has been to the vet this afternoon as an emergency, I don't know the full details and husband is not home atm but he told me briefly that the vet also thinks it is dental and gave him an injection of pain relief and has sent him home with more pain relief for us to give him over the weekend and recommend we syringe feed over the weekend then he has to go back on Monday and they will give him anaesthetic to check his teeth properly (I guess they were unable to check the back ones today maybe as other vets have been unable to do this in the past too...) and then potentially file down his teeth if necessary. Eek.
 
I feel sad he has a dental problem when he has such a good diet, unlimited hay etc. Like I don't feel there is anything more we could have done to prevented it which is frustrating.
 
Maddykins said:
I feel sad he has a dental problem when he has such a good diet, unlimited hay etc. Like I don't feel there is anything more we could have done to prevented it which is frustrating.
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It's not your fault, dental problems are not overly uncommon. Your piggy will be in good hands just keep up the syringe feeding to keep as much weight as possible on him to help him cope with the GA. It's also not uncommon for vets to have difficulty checking the teeth as usually there's a load of food stored in their mouths. Fingers crossed for Monday! Please keep us up to date with how he's doing
 
Hello, just thought I would update. We thought they were going to put him under a GA at the vets but it turns out they just like knocked him out with lots of opiates and stuff, I presume IV. They said his back teeth were fine and it was his front ones that were funny, we noticed this yesterday when we were syringe feeding him, it was a different vet this time and I'm a bit concerned that the first vet didn't seem to notice when she did check his front teeth! But anyway apparently they were wonky and overgrown so the vet filed them down nicely and he also has a wound in his gum from his teeth cutting into his gum. They said to keep up the syringe feeds and pain relief for 7 days then he's back at the vets again for a review. To be honest though this evening we couldn't really get much of the Recovery down him as he really didn't want it but he was happy to eat his pellets broken up into little pieces, bless him.

Is it ok if we skip syringe feeds if we give him basically extra portions of pellets throughout the day instead if he's happier eating that? The worrying thing is that when we weighed him on Sunday he had lost about 40 grams in one day and then today we weighed him again and he's lost about another 20 grams.
 
Maddykins said:
Hello, just thought I would update. We thought they were going to put him under a GA at the vets but it turns out they just like knocked him out with lots of opiates and stuff, I presume IV. They said his back teeth were fine and it was his front ones that were funny, we noticed this yesterday when we were syringe feeding him, it was a different vet this time and I'm a bit concerned that the first vet didn't seem to notice when she did check his front teeth! But anyway apparently they were wonky and overgrown so the vet filed them down nicely and he also has a wound in his gum from his teeth cutting into his gum. They said to keep up the syringe feeds and pain relief for 7 days then he's back at the vets again for a review. To be honest though this evening we couldn't really get much of the Recovery down him as he really didn't want it but he was happy to eat his pellets broken up into little pieces, bless him.

Is it ok if we skip syringe feeds if we give him basically extra portions of pellets throughout the day instead if he's happier eating that? The worrying thing is that when we weighed him on Sunday he had lost about 40 grams in one day and then today we weighed him again and he's lost about another 20 grams.
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His front teeth will hurt; they are the ones that do the picking up, so any hard food will not go down at first. Cut any veg into fine strips (softer foods like cucumber, peppers or fresh herbs tendto go down best) and offer mushed pellets in a bowl, but keep the syringe feeding going. The weight loss is still in the acceptable range in view of his dental procedure.

Our syringe feeding guide has got a section on dental guinea pigs: Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

@furryfriends (TEAS)
 
Thanks, he is happy to eat his pellets broken up into tiny bits and he's happy eating from the syringe now too. I broke up bell pepper into teeny tiny pieces this morning but he seemed to still struggle and didn't eat any but I've caught him before having a few little munches on a larger piece! He's more active in the cage now, sitting in different places rather than just the one place where he kept sitting before. He runs over for his food every time still just can't always eat it properly, bless him. Hoping he is on the mend and will soon be doing a lot better. Thanks everyone for all your support and advice! It is awful when they are sick, breaks my heart!
 
When I once had a piggy with dental issues, caused by seizures knocking his front teeth out of alignment I put a small bowl with soaked pellets into the cage. He could eat them easily and it helped to complement the syringe feeding.
Hope your piggy is ok soon.
What us his name
 
I don't want to give his name as I think it would make it even easier for people to figure out exactly who I am than it already is :xd: Just gave him a syringe feed and weighed him, he's put on about 25g since yesterday so I am chuffed!
 
Update: Took him to the vets today and he's lost weight again. He seemed to improve at first but then his weight stagnated. The vets kept him to do an xray and seems he has a really big abscess that was the cause of this teeth being misshapen and overgrown. The vet seems to think that the damage is done on the front teeth and so antibiotics is one option to fix the abscess but it won't fix his teeth. The another option is to remove his front teeth, but then he'll be on a liquid diet until he can tolerate a paste and so on until he can chew using his back teeth. Given how food orientated this one is compared to his brother I don't think his quality of life would be good enough under this strict syringe feeding exercise. Another option would be to consult a specialist, the vet didn't suggest what they could do but I presume they mean realignment of his teeth under surgery. And of course the last option is to put him to sleep.

I'm going to call the vet back and find out more info about the specialist and whether putting him on abx in the meantime would be helpful, and if we can get an appointment with them quickly enough!

If anyone has any help/advice now with this new information please let us know!
 
I know others highly recommend Simon at Cst & Rabbit in Northampton as the best possible vet for dental issues.
Hope you can get something worked out.
It must be tough for you coping with this.
Poor piggy.
 
I really don't think we could take him there, I would want to so much as I've also heard good things about it but it's very far away from us, neither of us drive, I work full time and my husband is on an intensive full-time uni course, and I can't do the travel myself due to disability. I just don't see how we could get him there as I don't think my husband could spare so much time off uni for it. I'm hoping the vet had a local specialist in mind that we could take him to. I'm thinking of putting him on the antibiotics and possibly pain relief too if the vet thinks necessary and then seeing what the specialist says? We are in North-West England if anyone has a more local specialist vet to recommend that would be great, I'm assuming our vets has someone in mind.
 
Does anyone know if I called them would I be able to speak to the vet to see if he thinks there is anything he would be able to do?
 
Ok so we have an appt tomorrow at 5 with a vet that specialises in guinea pig who our vet recommended. To see if there is anything much that can be done dental-work wise. My husband will take him after uni as I will still be at work then. If there is nothing much that can be done he will get put to sleep then and there. I am sad that I won't be there if it comes to that but I would probably just cry a lot anyway and my husband will be more calm which would be better for piggy. Then he would need to bring him back to our flat so that his brother can see his body, right? That's what people recommended to me on my other thread last time his brother was really poorly. Then I will be home from work and we will take his body to my parents' house to bury him in their garden. Will his brother be ok to be left alone for a few hours though after finding out his brother has died? If not then I guess my husband would stay with him and I would take him to be buried given I would have missed him being put to sleep.
 
I have decided to try and get this afternoon off work as I do have annual leave to use, then I can come at lunch time and continue his syringe feeds through the afternoon and then go to the vet with him as well later, I hope my line manager will let me. Or if not he would probably let me leave at 4 so I can at least go to the vets with them and then make up the time over the next few days but I'm so exhausted I could do with the half day off to have a nap in the afternoon too to be honest as I have health problems and stress makes them worse :(

Does anyone know what his quality of life would be like if we took all his front teeth out? At first I was dead against it thinking he would need syringe fed diet for ever and that wouldn't be fair on him but then some stuff online seems to indicate he would be able to eat soft vegetables chopped up into tiny pieces, or grated pieces of veg etc, I don't mind doing it if he would be happy still to be able to eat like that but I just don't want him to be depressed for ever and unable to eat the veg he loves?
 
It's not bad news all things considered. Vet was initially very concerned and said there was a significant chance he would recommend PTS but did an x-ray there and then under a bit of gas GA as he thought it an emergency. He then said the x-ray images were not as bad as he was expecting and he didn't recommend PTS. The abcess has filled up again since yesterday but is not super huge and it is affecting one of the lower incisors but again not as much as it could be. So plan now is just pain relief and continue feeding him til he goes back on Saturday morning when vet will lance the abcess and take a culture then when the results come back will recommend a new antibiotic. He does not think he will recommend removing any teeth as otherwise the teeth are all ok. But he has warned us that although he thinks pig will have decent quality of life all things going well, he would need to be on pain relief and antibiotics for the rest of his life. But I guess lots of animals and people are on pain relief for the later stages of their life so if vet is confident this would be decent quality of life I am happy to go with that.
 
Unfortunately things are much the same still. He is not putting on any weight really despite us regularly syringe feeding him and then hand feeding him chopped up veggies etc, it has completely taken over our lives, everything gets planned around his feeds and next week my husband is back at uni and I'm back at work so we won't be able to feed him as often anymore and I don't know how he will cope. We wanted to take him to the vets but it's closed for the Easter weekend and won't be open again until Tuesday, so I don't know how soon we will get an appt that fits around my husband's uni timetable so he can take him. I don't know if the lab results are back yet, we haven't heard from them. It is a really stressful limbo time at the moment not knowing whether things will improve in a few weeks or whether we will go through all this stress and suffering for him and then end up putting him to sleep anyway :(
 
Oh the one extra worrying sign is now he won't take any Recovery formula voluntarily. He would usually take between 5 and 15ml of the formula voluntarily from the syringe at each feed but now he won't take any of it voluntarily so we are having to force feed him which I can't due to disability so only my husband can do it and he's finding this very stressful as I'm sure piggy is as well. He still has his appetite as he comes to eat pellets and veggies (in small quantities and broken/mushed up) but he will no longer eat the Recovery voluntarily.
 
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