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Guinea pig dental issues ?

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Doghouse135

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I was just wondering if anyone had experience of guinea pig dental issues that they could share.

I noticed on Friday that Mojo, my 4/5 year old boar, was not eating. He seemed to be interested in food but not eating much.

On Saturday morning he was very lethargic and not eating at all. I brought him indoors and started syringe feeding him immediately. He spent all day Saturday laying down but didn't appear to be in any pain. On Sunday, he was more alert eagerly eating the syringe food and showing a little interest in food but not eating hardly at all.

After each syringe feeding, he would urinate a little and I made sure he was kept hydrated. Last night, we had very small poops for the first time in 3 days.

Anyway, I went to the vets with him tonight. She examined him and said that she couldn't see anything wrong with his teeth. Checked all round his cheek area and used an otoscope to look in his mouth. She also checked him all over and palpated his stomach etc.

Anyway, upshot is she has admitted that their surgery is not equipped/experienced enough for guinea dentals and IF he needs further treatment, she recommended a referral to Trinity in Maidstone.

She suggested though that we gave him Metacam, Metoclopromide and Zantac and see how he goes.

Has anyone had a guinea that has just lost interest in eating for no apparent reason ?
 
I've got a piggy with dental issues..... but she still wants to eat ... since the vet checked your pigs teeth and they seem okay it sounds different to what mines going through - hope you can get it sorted or someone with more experience comes along soon
x
 
i had a piggy with dental issues but I'm sure he never lost interest in food, just couldnt keep it in his mouth.

i wonder if maybe your lad being middle aged is just having off days or other issues?

I hope he is ok xx

sending vibes x
 
One of my pigs just had some dental issues. His back teeth had overgrown, so I took him to a vet to get them filed. He was drooling a lot before his teeth were filed and he did seem interested in food, but just could not seem to eat. Hope this helps :) Good luck with your piggy
 
Did they give him a GA or did they do it while he was concious ?

Can I ask how much they charged you ?
 
Doghouse135 said:
Mmm - I was told that is often a symptom but he's not dribbling at all - don't know if that's a good thing or not ?/
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Flo my dental girlie never dribbled either. She suffered from reverse maloclusion, her front teeth were obviously slanted and one of her molars became a little loose and had a spur. She had a dentals carried out under light sedation not full GA. Flo was always interested in food, she just couldn't chew it, even if I popped it into her mouth - that was all food, dry fresh and hay. I syringe fed her with critical care and also cavy cuisine mushed up. She could manage baby food from a dish so I would syringe feed her and offer her a plate of baby food and mushed up pellet. She had to have regular dentals, but managed to stay with us for a good six months, always at the front of the cage waiting for her dinner! I found her one morning in her forever sleep under her favourite tunnel, surrounded by her friends, she was about 5 1/2.

Good luck with your little guy. As I said in my reply on RU I have heard that Mark Rowland is supposed to be very good (no personal experience) but my vet does send him referrals.
 
Thank you very much for all your advice. We're heading down to Trinity surgery this afternoon so hopefully they'll be able to shed some light on my little man.

I'm syringe feeding him SO much, he's not losing weight thank goodness. The only time he wiggles to get off my lap is when he needs to have a wee - at least he's hydrated :))
 
It is possible that his mouth is sore, he may have fungal infection in his mouth. You can give oral daktarin for this, I *think* the dose is 0.4ml per day. Please search around and make sure this is correct. You get it from the pharmacy but tell them it's for yourself.
If your vet has to look at the back teeth under GA then perhaps you could contact the CCT (Cambridge Cavy Trust) and see if there are any rodentologists in the area.
Hope he's feeling better soon x
 
Thanks all

I took Mojo to Trinity this afternoon. They xrayed him and found 3 small bladder stones.

The vet couldn't see his teeth properly as he had so much food still in there so they've admitted him in order that they can flush his mouth out and examine his teeth tomorrow.

They're also going to sedate him in order to take more xrays of the bladder stones - they could only take one from above while he was awake.

Poor little man - on the plus side though he's not lost any weight
 
Operating is an option but they were taking about fluid therapy which I should have asked more about but didn't mallethead

I got the impression they would rather not operate if they could resolve it other ways.

Is it possible to flush stones out depending on size ?
 
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