Dental Food falling out of his mouth

[Little fluffballs]

Hello,
Yesterday morning while our almost 7 month old piggie Fizz was eating we noticed that his pellets were falling out of his mouth. He can eat them without them falling out when we hand feed them to him. This morning we noticed it again. We checked his teeth and we think that his front teeth looked too short and that his teeth weren’t overlapping the way they should be. I have attached a picture I do his teeth. He can eat his pellets, but about every 2 it drops out.
We made an appointment with the vet for tomorrow. He is eating hay too . He doesn’t seem to have lost any weight, I’ll weight him later and see if it has changed since last week. What could this problem be?

 

[DMS260820]

@furryfriends (TEAS)

 

[Little fluffballs]

I forgot to mention that he’s drinking a lot more than usual.

 

[Swissgreys]

With problems like this he really needs to see an experienced guinea pig vet.
It could be lots of things, and only a proper hands on examination will be able to diagnose the problem properly.
It may be related to teeth, but it could also be a mouth infection or jaw abscess.

 

[The Foord Piggies]

Teeth problems in the teeth are very common in guinea pigs and can be fatal. Make sure you see a good vet.

 

[Little fluffballs]

Ok well we have an appointment tomorrow with a vet that correctly diagnosed 2 of our piggies in the past.

 

[The Foord Piggies]

Great

 

[Wiebke]

Hello,
Yesterday morning while our almost 7 month old piggie Fizz was eating we noticed that his pellets were falling out of his mouth. He can eat them without them falling out when we hand feed them to him. This morning we noticed it again. We checked his teeth and we think that his front teeth looked too short and that his teeth weren’t overlapping the way they should be. I have attached a picture I do his teeth. He can eat his pellets, but about every 2 it drops out.
We made an appointment with the vet for tomorrow. He is eating hay too . He doesn’t seem to have lost any weight, I’ll weight him later and see if it has changed since last week. What could this problem be?

Hi!

Please have your vet check the premolar and molar teeth at the back for overgrowth. They are usually hidden in the gunk that is always in a piggy's mouth, but they are the ones that do the chewing and are being ground down by the very abrasive silica of hay and fresh grass, which is their main food source (up to and over 80% of the daily food intake).
The incisors at the front are for picking up and cutting food. They are self-sharpening against each other and they should have even, crisp edges. Any slants, jags or inward looking points mean that chewing is not even and that there is a dental problem.

Please step in asap with syringe feeding fibre and cutting any veg in fine slices. Switch from weighing once weekly to weighing daily at the same time in order to monitor the food intake as you can't control hay intake by eye - and therefore can't control most of what a piggy is eating. Hay is unfortunately the food group that is dropped first by a dental piggy.
Our syringe feeding guide has a chapter on supporting and support feeding otherwise healthy piggies: Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Where are you located? The best dental vet in the UK is located in Northampton. An appointment there counts as essential travel. Guinea pig dentals are sadly not an area that features on a vet curriculum generally; not even on many exotics vets'.
Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic | Northlands Vets

 

[Little fluffballs]

Thank you all for the advice. We live in France, so unfortunately it’s not possible for us to travel to Northampton. I’ll tell you what the vet says tomorrow.

 

[Little fluffballs]

Hello everyone, I realized that I described Fizz’s problem wrong: I thought that he couldn’t pick his food up very well. He didn’t loose any weight and he seemed fine. We took him to our vet this afternoon and he said that his was fine. I am so relived. He is so young and so so so sweet and I am very happy that he’s ok.

 

[The Foord Piggies]

That's so reassuring to hear!

 

[Wiebke]

Hello everyone, I realized that I described Fizz’s problem wrong: I thought that he couldn’t pick his food up very well. He didn’t loose any weight and he seemed fine. We took him to our vet this afternoon and he said that his was fine. I am so relived. He is so young and so so so sweet and I am very happy that he’s ok.

That is great news!

 

[VickiA]

That is good news.

 

[Zanzan]

That's great! I think sometimes we are so watchful for problems occurring that we jump into action at the slightest little change. I've done this myself....it's a lovely feeling when it turns out there's no problem!