• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Eddie Had A Dental Today

Status
Not open for further replies.

biscandmatt

Senior Guinea Pig
Joined
Mar 6, 2009
Messages
6,919
Reaction score
3,018
Points
1,315
Location
manchester
last thing i expected from him as he's such a good hay eater. and scary how fast things happen. noticed he didn't seem himself. weighed him and he was down 170g :( he had a thorough check over at the vets and his lower teeth have over-grown slightly. so he's had a dental and is back home now resting. he's coped really well today and of course had mollie by his side for comfort :luv:

he's already eaten a bit of cucumber, grass and dandelion so that's really good. he's on metacam 2x a day for 5days (0.7ml) so fingers crossed he's back to his usual self soon.
 
Awww poor Eddie glad he is ok........I know the feeling my boy was at the vets a few days ago as he was having teeth problems and he eats loads of hay as well x
 
Awww poor Eddie glad he is ok........I know the feeling my boy was at the vets a few days ago as he was having teeth problems and he eats loads of hay as well x

pesky teeth. hope your little one is doing ok again now. just looking over at eddie now and he's munching some hay so that's brilliant. it's been a long day for him but he's coped so well. x
 
yeah hes fine infact he didn't get anything done to his teeth but today he is back to normal and eating like a horse I mean what was all that about weird guinea pig I have lol
 
yeah hes fine infact he didn't get anything done to his teeth but today he is back to normal and eating like a horse I mean what was all that about weird guinea pig I have lol

:)) they like to worry us! glad he's ok though :)
 
i forgot to mention (:mal:) that he had a build up of 'gunk' on the end of his penis which might have been making him feel uncomfortable. they cleaned it up for him whilst he was asleep.
 
he had us worried yesterday as he seemed tired and didn't want to move from his box. he also started to eat less so we had to start topping him up with syringe feeds. he seemed scared almost to try eating his normal hay and pellets. but thankfully we are now back on track and although he hasn't eaten pellets yet, he has realised that eating soft hay is fine so hopefully now he should gradually start to increase his hay eating again. he will eat his veg and also grass, dandelions and some dried herbs. and he has to be towel wrapped for syringe feeding as he's a wriggler! but doing much better with each feed.

he also seemed a bit uncomfortable yesterday when urinating and because the vet mentioned the possibility that the teeth could be a secondary symptom, i panicked thinking he had a uti and this was the 'real' issue causing him to eat less and need a dental. but happy to report that he seems fine with that today and the vet thought he could just be a little tender from when they cleaned his penis, which appears to be the case.

weight wise, he dropped a little more after the dental unsurprisingly but is now stable and we will adjust his feeds accordingly, depending on what he's eating and what his weight is each day.

he's on pain relief anyway and today has been alot brighter than yesterday so fingers crossed we are back on track again now. x
 
wondering if anyone can offer any advice. eddie seems better in some ways - moving around more, talking to mollie, nibbling food by himself, maintaining a normal temperature - but he's still not eating enough and won't eat much hay and no pellets at all, even mashed.

he's lost a bit of weight again today so obviously isn't getting enough food still. we are struggling with syringe feeding because he hates it. it's taking us about 45-60mins each feed just to get 4-5ml into him. this is with him wrapped up. he has such a small mouth and so getting the syringe into the gap is a bit of a struggle compared to what i remember it being with ches and maisie in the past. he also prefers small mouthfuls aswell so it's going very slowly. we feel like we're upsetting him but then straight after he seems fine and we offer him a plate of different things and he has some of that. he also seems quite content afterwards with cuddles. but he just really doesn't like the feeds. straight after the dental he loved the recovery food. we tried pellets aswell but he didn't like that at all.

we hate stressing him out but obviously he isn't eating enough by himself yet but at the same time, we do think overall he is improving.

he's also drinking from the bottle now aswell which is good and he comes over for breakfast and tea and he eats anything leafy/herbs really well, but still hs to have cucumber and pepper cut up into small pieces. he seems to want more veg but obviously he can't just have that all day.

just looking for some reassurance really and any tips or advice anyone can give. thanks x
 
Last edited:
Poor boy, is it a 1ml syringe you are using?

I see he is already on pain relief, is it a split dose?
 
Poor boy, is it a 1ml syringe you are using?

I see he is already on pain relief, is it a split dose?

thanks for your reply. it's a 1ml syringe with the top cut off. we've just had a break-through and he will take oxbow cavy cuisine pellets made into a mush. but i can't get it to stay the same consistency to get through the syringe. just about to have a major melt-down here :( we're currently crushing up the pellets as best we can to try again, but it only seems to work for the first two syringes and then thickens again and more water doesn't help. :no:

least we have found that he wants this one though and he manages bigger mouthfuls. if i could get it right, we'd be done really quickly and beable to get more in. i know it's just mush but i'm getting upset that i'm letting him down. :(

yes, the metacam is split every 12hours. x
 
we can't do it. just can't get the consistency with them. if anyone can help, it's the oxbow pellets. we've wasted loads trying to make it work with the syringe but we can't :(

will have to go back to recovery food which he hates :(
 
Have you tried rinsing the syringe through with water between each one? Is he eating the mush off the spoon still?
 
Maybe try Harringtons they mash lovely. What dose Metacam is he on?

You are not letting him down, dental recovery can be so frustrating, we have been there...

You are getting some veg into him so that is really positive, we found the only hay Cookie would it was Oxbow Orchard Grass
 
If it's any use I use a coffee bean grinder, I whizz up Harringtons pellets & then I use the powder to make up the feed with a little warm water. Apparently PAH own nuggets also mush up well, as do Burgess. Some pellets don't absorb the water as well as others.
 
just done another feed. had to use the recovery food again. he was worse than ever. to the point where we thought he was going to hurt himself. we're concerned with the stress aswell setting him back.

i don't know if it's possible, but we thought maybe the syringe being pushed in is uncomfortable for him? his mouth is so tiny. i feel like the syringe is rubbing against him. i tried lifting his mouth slightly to make the gap bigger, but he hates it so much. i tried the syringe without the end cut off and that went in better but obviously that blocked up aswell.

he takes the water fine but noticed some dribbles back out (or he spits it)

i rinse the syringe regularly and we've tried excel pellets aswell and the same happens. we've ground them into as much of a powder as we can and that doesn't work. we've used the blender aswell. i don't know what we're doing wrong. :(

he won't eat any of the pellet mush off a spoon either. at first, he would nibble it off a plate in the cage but then stopped.

metacam dose is 0.7ml 2x a day for five days. which means tomorrow night is his last one and i'm nervous about that because he still isn't eating that well.

i've made an order with hayexperts and got a few different varieties of hay to try, and also some critical care to try him with instead. hoping he will prefer it. that order won't come until next week though. o/h asked the local vet if they had any critical care but they don't.

the only positive we noticed today was that he attempted to nibble the stalkier hay a few times, which he hasn't done yet. but not much. the other thing he did was come out into the run part of the cage to sleep in his little bed. he has been staying more in the hay area inside his box most of the time so thought it was good he actually wanted to move around and settle somewhere else.

i wish we could get the oxbow pellets right because he loved them and had no problem being syringe fed that. his little face actually brightened up aswell. then just now when he realised it was recovery again, he got really upset. :(

after syringing, we offer him a plate of cut up hay, softened pellets and bits of veg and herbs and he eats the veg and herbs but then just nibbles the other bits slightly but doesn't really eat them. :(

i have been weighing him morning and night just to keep an extra close eye, and he's up a little bit from this morning but not much.

i was probably being naive, but i really didn't expect this. i thought he would recover really well. now i'm worried we have a long road ahead. :(
 
I know exactly where you are coming from; we are 7 weeks post op & I nearly lost Petal twice since her hysterectomy. Fortunately she was happy to take syringe food during that whole time. I think you need to look at a few things, like although he may not be eating as much, what is his poo output like? Recovery after a GA is slow. Does he need gut stimulants to help the food transit time? If your vet is open in the morning I would suggest you get some Emeprid & Zantac if you can. Has he got a sore in his mouth somewhere, or oral thrush that is hurting him to eat? Can you cut up his veg very small & hand feed him with them? You can also try the softer strands of hay that you can pop into the corner of his mouth to start him off eating it. Mine love the Timothy hay by Alfalfa King, it's readily available in PAH if you can get to one. Is the end of the syringe too rough? Try filing it smooth with a nail file. I assume you have removed the rubber bung inside too? It may be he just needs smaller amounts given more often. I usually sit Petal on my lap & stroke her from the top of her head down her back & gently slip the tip of the syringe into the corner of her mouth whilst stroking her & usually she is happy to take it that way. Hang on in there, hopefully in a few days he will start to eat properly again x
 
I know exactly where you are coming from; we are 7 weeks post op & I nearly lost Petal twice since her hysterectomy. Fortunately she was happy to take syringe food during that whole time. I think you need to look at a few things, like although he may not be eating as much, what is his poo output like? Recovery after a GA is slow. Does he need gut stimulants to help the food transit time? If your vet is open in the morning I would suggest you get some Emeprid & Zantac if you can. Has he got a sore in his mouth somewhere, or oral thrush that is hurting him to eat? Can you cut up his veg very small & hand feed him with them? You can also try the softer strands of hay that you can pop into the corner of his mouth to start him off eating it. Mine love the Timothy hay by Alfalfa King, it's readily available in PAH if you can get to one. Is the end of the syringe too rough? Try filing it smooth with a nail file. I assume you have removed the rubber bung inside too? It may be he just needs smaller amounts given more often. I usually sit Petal on my lap & stroke her from the top of her head down her back & gently slip the tip of the syringe into the corner of her mouth whilst stroking her & usually she is happy to take it that way. Hang on in there, hopefully in a few days he will start to eat properly again x

thanks for your reply. i'm glad you mentioned his poops because that is another positive. they're smaller than they should be but they're definitely better than they were. and there are definitely more of them than there was aswell.

he's seems to beable to eat the leafy things in much bigger pieces than things like cucumber and pepper. he nibbles the soft hay so will try putting that into his mouth aswell.

i made sure to file the end of the syringe so that part should be fine. i didn't remove the rubber part no. everything i read online said to make sure it can't come out the end?

happy to report that our latest feed went alot smoother. managed to get the excel pellets into a good consistency so he took that alot better than the recovery food and we managed 5ml in 30mins which is brilliant for him. he definitely seems to need smaller amounts at a time, and he prefers having alot more water rinses aswell. i would prefer to use the oxbow (which i will attempt soaking for longer next time) but he was sooooo much better with the excel. he didn't seem stressed or struggle much at all.

is it me or do feed times come around so quickly! :roll: i don't mind really. just makes me upset when he is. and he's usually always at the hay eating sooooooooooooooooooo much. we had a feeling his small mouth might cause him issues at some stage. hope that isn't the case but he's only two and a half and that seems young to have a first dental.
 
eddie is doing really well on the excel mush. he can manage 6ml in 20mins now which is a massive improvement.

no vets available today to discuss the gut stimulant but we an appointment for monday so eddie's mouth can be checked to make sure there are no sores etc/check the teeth, and we can get the gut stimulant then and just get him generally checked over.

if he goes downhill for any reason then they have the out of hours team there now and we can take him straight in.

he seems fairly bright today though and has maintained his weight from yesterday which is good news. :)

.
 
That's fab news! I have some pics of my syringe equipment I'll try to upload for you to see, I even have a video of Petal being fed as she is such a model patient :) x
 
DSCF1504_zps92a4f072.jpg
 
That's fab news! I have some pics of my syringe equipment I'll try to upload for you to see, I even have a video of Petal being fed as she is such a model patient :) x

petal sounds like a good girl :luv:

think we've cracked it now with the feeds. he doesn't need the towel around him now. o/h just places his hands either side of eds body and i syringe. i can even lift his mouth up slightly now to allow a bigger gap and he's fine with it. :D i think the max he can manage is 6ml per 20mins. he seems comfortable with that amount.

and even better, we seem to have more movement from the back now aswell :)) he did some poops for us and one was the best and biggest one so far. i think his tummy is starting to move more quickly again. :)

so, so proud of him :luv:
 
Even my vet gave me ones like these, I got these from the CCT many years ago. Without the bung they are so much easier to suck the stuff up in :) Sounds like he is getting better! Try some tiny bits of hay after each feed, just some nice soft pieces :) It is very time consuming & emotionally draining, I had to hand feed Petal for 6 weeks :( She has cost me more than my little car in vet fees as she wasn't insured either & yet now she is like a new piggy, so I am more hopeful of her fully recovering :) Try the stroking from the head along the back whilst feeding, for some reason it distracted her from the syringe lol :) x
 
6ml s in 20 mins is okay because he is eating veg. Don't worry about making it more watery it'll just get more into him and don't worry about excessive veg to much the main thing is you are getting food in. Cookie managed leafy stuff better than things like cucumber. Cookie's carrot, pepper and cucumber had to be chopped up tiny like really tiny as in this photo (excuse my mug) I didn't have a photo of the food separately... It was taking Cookie 1 hr to eat all her veg food during recovery.
IMG_0944.webp

I would advise getting more painkiller from vet (sounds like Eddie is going to need it) and gut stims both Emeprid and Zantac. It may be worth thinking of lining an xray up for mid week next week rule out any root or bone issues... If there is no further improvement. But hopefully this is just him recovering form the dental work. How is his weight? You are both doing so well and love to Eddie x
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top