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Guinea Pig Not Eating Properly (another dental thread)

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Addie

Our Guinea Pig Mojo hasn't been eating properly and lost a lot of weight. We took him to the who said his back teeth were very long and cut them down.

Since then we've been watching him more and think that the teeth growing is more of a symptom then a cause.

It's hard to describe but it appears as if he can't 'bite' his food or pick it up properly and I think.

If i give him some parsley stalk he can eat it (struggles a bit with the leaves) but he can't pick anything up out of his bowl very well and trys to stand on hit with his front feet. I hand fed him some celery and he was chomping it and making marks on it but didn't see to be able to bite much off.

He really wants to eat and trys anything you give him but is really struggling.

Is it his mouth or tongue or something?

He lost an eye last year when he got an abcess and picked the top off it...

Any advice would be great.
 
The only advice, of any value, is to suggest that he is looked at by someone who understands what they are doing. Whereabouts are you?
 
Near Hull.

We've taken him to the vet last week (vet was missing from the first line of my first post!) who took his back teeth down and we are taking him back for a check up but thought I would ask advice here to see if anyone had experianced anything similar.
 
It is a very common problem.
How old is Mojo?
Did the vet give your pig a general anaesthetic, how did he look at the teeth?
It might be worth giving Vedra a call at the CCT to ask if she knows anyone in your area who is experienced in dental treatment for pigs.
 
There's been a similar thread recently - piggie with dental treatment that had problems eating afterwards....

Unti recently my piggies had always recovered immediately following dental work ...but recently Gromnie on his last treatment with a new vet wouldn't/couldn;t eat for at least two weeks and needed Critical Care feeding until his teeth grew back and he was able to pick up food. (i.e. his teeth were done too short!) It was scarey at the time - and required a lot of time and effort on my part - but he is now compeletely chipper - just needed lots of time and attention.

By all means seek another vet - but immediately you need to feed your piggie critical care/Recovery - he may be able to eat it off a spoon but if not you may have to syringe feed him. Every 2-3 hours during the day and at least every 4hours at night for the first few days to keep his guts moving and maintain his weight. Total per 24 hours is at least one sachet of Recovery.

After this time youripiggie should be able to last 6-7 hours during the night providing you feed them enough before you go to bed. Keep weighing your piggie and if you can get them some grass this will help stimulate them to eat of their own accord as it is easy for them to chomp. Also try pellets rehydrated with warm boiled water and Vit C powder.

If his mouth is sore and you think Daktarin oral gel will help, there are other threads on here with the dosages (and you need to have a fictitious child to get it over the counter from the chemist)

This is not an unusual situation following dental work by a (possibly slightly overzealous) vet....and the good news is that your piggie CAN recover - providing you are able to give them the nutritional input they need at regular intervals.

Annoying, distressing...and possibly avoidable...but unfortunately many of us do not have access to a completely cavy savvy vet or rodentologist..and have to go with what we have available..so as i said - sadly not uncommon.
Once he starts taking liquid food - start to introduce veggies cut up really small.....baton-shape!

x
 
It should be very much the exception, rather than the rule, that a pig has problems after dental treatment.
 
Hi Addie, welcome to the forum.

How much weight has Mojo lost over what period of time? Is he still losing weight, or is he maintaining it fairly steadily?

One of the logical explanations for discomfort while eating after dental work is that if teeth have been rubbing on the tongue/cheek, then it will take a while for the soreness to ease. Daktarin Oral Gel is invaluable for pigs who've had dental work, in my experience.
 
What maybe I didn't mention is that it's his back teeth that have overgrown rather then his front, which doesn't seem to explain why he can't get a bite out of anything.

We work long hours so unfortunatly we can't be up during the night to feed him or during the day.

We're trying him tonight with very thin long slices of carrot and celery and everything we give him he trys but just can't. It's almost as if he's lost the use of his mouth properly.

His brother weighs 1.4kg as of today and I know Mojo used to be bigger then his brother but now he weighs probably about 800g.

We're hand feeding him some dried food soaked in water now which he's giving a really good go
 
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pig not eating

It might just be worth getting a second opinion from another vet. very similar thing happened to mine after he had his front teeth clipped by one vet and the second vet discovered that the first vet had dislocated my piggy's jaw which explained why he couldn't eat.
Jude
 
Did the vet cut short the front teeth?
I frequently see pigs where this has happened. Most vets do not realise that a guinea pig's upper and lower front teeth are meant to meet when the mouth is closed. If they do not meet the cutting action is lost. It would be better for Mojo to continue with syringe feeding.
Long, thin strips of food are no good to him. Very short pieces may help, ie already cut into bite size lengths, otherwise he will get food, which is too long to chew, in his mouth and he will be unable to swallow anything. (Please note the risk of him choking is minimal)
To summarise, only syringe feed, don't forget to give him water and also get help for him.
You must expect him to take sometime to "recover" from his ordeal, ie at least a week and you must be prepared to devote time to looking after him.
You and others who are reading this are probably thinking that all of this is pessimistic and depressing, it isn't, it is a realistic assessment of his situation.
In the last 6 weeks I have seen 2 similar cases, one is back to normal, I am still treating the other pig.
I have lost count of the total number I have seen over the years.
Get some Burgess Guinea Pig Excel pellets and soak those in water to make a paste, then syringe feed him with that, you can add mashed banana to the mix.
It is all that I use for syringe feeding. The one big advantage over CC or SSR, is that it is a fraction of the cost.
 
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Addie said:
What maybe I didn't mention is that it's his back teeth that have overgrown rather then his front, which doesn't seem to explain why he can't get a bite out of anything.

We work long hours so unfortunatly we can't be up during the night to feed him or during the day.

We're trying him tonight with very thin long slices of carrot and celery and everything we give him he trys but just can't. It's almost as if he's lost the use of his mouth properly.

His brother weighs 1.4kg as of today and I know Mojo used to be bigger then his brother but now he weighs probably about 800g.

We're hand feeding him some dried food soaked in water now which he's giving a really good go
Click to expand...

Grommie had recurrent molar probs - always resolved with no problems following a dental - but the new vet also decided to do his front teeth (quite unnecessarily in my opinion as the old vet never did them) - hence why I think he had the problems eating for a week or so on this occasion.

Keep at it with the rehydrated pellet mush/fluids and then, when he starts to take it more easily, the small thin veggie pieces. Small bits of cucumber are good to start off with (without the skin)

xx
 
When my piggie had dental work done (vet cut tooth too short and caused more problems than we started with, have now changed vets!) he couldn't pick up food so I used the fine side (the side you would use for parmesan cheese) of a grater and grated carrot and broccolli. Because it was so finely grated I could roll it into little balls and popped them into his mouth. They were very soft so didn't require much chewing. Also I took the small pellets out of a g.pig mix, the ones that look like little pony nuts and softened them with warm water. You can either make it soft enough to syringe feed or a little less water will allow you to roll it into balls to pop in the mouth. I found these were accepted far more readily than the g.pig complete pellets. Good luck!
 
Good Luck with Mojo. My Milly(RIP last week) had long term dental problems and responded differently every time her teeth were trimmed by her experienced rodentologist, taking varying lengths of time to recover, laterly only improving rather than recovering between trims. It took a great deal of imagination and patience to keep her eating as sometimes chunks were better than strips. I usually found VERY thin batons of cucumber, grass, spinach stalks more sucessful to start gradually improving to rolled up spinach leaves and rocket.
All the best.
 
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