• 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

Dental Guinea pig will not eat

Sweetpiggums

Sweetpiggums

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
3
Points
125
We recently adopted a 3yr old male guinea pig called JJ from a rescue and he bonded really well with our other pig of a similar age named Thum.

Before we adopted the pig, he had a check up with the vet and there were no issues, although the lady who was looking after him was noticing that he wasn’t eating very much at all. We offer plenty of Timothy hay, rescue grass, dandelion leaves, a varied fresh veg salad twice a day, nuggets, apple, blueberries, but he doesn’t eat anything, only sometimes showing interest in the hay and the veg, but not eating any of it.

After a day or so, we noticed that he was taking interest in the food offered and even attempted to take bites but kept failing, dropping the food, and wouldn’t be able to eat when hand fed either. We took him to 3 other vets in the following days, all of which said there were no issues even after a full check up of the teeth and x rays. We currently syringe feed him critical care and water every few hours and have had him for still just under a week, but are worried as he still isn’t eating as well as our other pig does, and don’t want to separate the two after they’ve bonded so well.

He doesn’t mind being handled and happily runs around the cage with Thum, and seems to be in good shape, not really having lost weight, but compared to our other pig of 1.4kg he is quite light at only 950grams.


Does anyone have any advice or know what the problem could be?
 

Attachments

  • image.webp
    image.webp
    30.8 KB · Views: 5
I'm not so good in this area but I think @Wiebke might be able to help. I hope he gets better though and is back to his normal self. I do have a 2 year old boar who is only just under 900g and eats fine and is quite healthy so maybe they are both just small pigs
 
I am in exactly the same position with my skinny pig Gus. He is very underweight. He will only eat mushy pellets and spinach if I put it in his mouth.
 
Hi. We forgot to mention that he had a sharp spur removed on second visit but this did not have any effect.
2 vets checked for any abscesses and did not find anything.
I’m located in west London near Heathrow airport.
 
I’ve actually spoken to him regarding another guinea pig a few months ago and was considering calling him on Monday.
 
Sweetpiggums said:
We recently adopted a 3yr old male guinea pig called JJ from a rescue and he bonded really well with our other pig of a similar age named Thum.

Before we adopted the pig, he had a check up with the vet and there were no issues, although the lady who was looking after him was noticing that he wasn’t eating very much at all. We offer plenty of Timothy hay, rescue grass, dandelion leaves, a varied fresh veg salad twice a day, nuggets, apple, blueberries, but he doesn’t eat anything, only sometimes showing interest in the hay and the veg, but not eating any of it.

After a day or so, we noticed that he was taking interest in the food offered and even attempted to take bites but kept failing, dropping the food, and wouldn’t be able to eat when hand fed either. We took him to 3 other vets in the following days, all of which said there were no issues even after a full check up of the teeth and x rays. We currently syringe feed him critical care and water every few hours and have had him for still just under a week, but are worried as he still isn’t eating as well as our other pig does, and don’t want to separate the two after they’ve bonded so well.

He doesn’t mind being handled and happily runs around the cage with Thum, and seems to be in good shape, not really having lost weight, but compared to our other pig of 1.4kg he is quite light at only 950grams.


Does anyone have any advice or know what the problem could be?
Click to expand...

Please have your boy's teeth (especially the premolars at the back) checked for overgrowth. Dropping food is a typical symptom for dental problems. Be aware that general vet often do not have much knowledge of how rodent teeth work together.

Step in with syringe feeding asap to prevent his guts from slowing down and him from developing secondary issues. You can use mushed up pellets as long as you cut the syringe tip off as shown in our illustrated step-by-step guide that has been specially written for people with no previous experience. Please take the time to read it. Your home feeding care is a crucial for your boy's survival as any medical dental care. Our syringe feeding guide has got a chapter on dental piggies. The good news is that dental piggies are generally starving and therefore keen to eat.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Administering Medications And Syringe Feed

I most strongly recommend you to see Simon Maddock. He is currently the most experienced dental vet in this country, who does about 15 piggy dentals every week for piggies coming as far as Edinburgh - that is more than most vets in their whole career. You will be in the safest hands possible. It is definitely well worth the extra journey!
It would be good to get your boy in before Christmas.
The Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic
 
Misty said:
Glad I tagged you @Wiebke
Click to expand...

@furryfriends (TEAS) has all the practical experience with dental issues. I can spot the symptoms. ;)

Simon has yesterday neutered my little LLelo. It was well worth a day trip to Northampton by train seeing that Llelo is behaving like nothing has happened to him and has been tucking into his food at home since his return (again by train) once he was safely recovered from his GA.
 
The journey to Simon would be about an hour and a half, and this week they’ve already been on several journeys to vets. Would all of this travelling be causing any stress? We’ve been taking both pigs as we don’t want to break the bond.
 
Sweetpiggums said:
The journey to Simon would be about an hour and a half, and this week they’ve already been on several journeys to vets. Would all of this travelling be causing any stress? We’ve been taking both pigs as we don’t want to break the bond.
Click to expand...

It has taken me nearly that long from door to door yesterday with Llelo and his adult mate Dylan. And it is generally more frightening by train than by car, but this is by far not the first and likely not the last journey I have made with a freshly operated piggy on the way home. So far none of them have had problems with their recovery because of that. Feed them well before you leave, make sure that they are well hydrated, and they will sleep off the journey being drowsy from a full tummy in the first place. ;)

Two weeks ago I brought home by train two new rescue adoptees all the way from April Lodge Guinea Pig Rescue in Sandwich on the Kentish East Coast via London, which was a 4 hour journey with leaving enough time for a walk from St Pancras to Euston station. Piggies travel quite well! I've travelled over 3 hours with piggies from 7 weeks to 9 years old on the train and over 6 hours each way on the car.

The good news is that dental piggies that are with Simon can start eating grated veg and porridge oats pretty much straight away after their first treatment (depending on the severity you may need adjustments later on but the end result will be sustainable, unlike with any full GA procedures where you only treat when things have gone fully awry again), which is generally not the case with piggies treated by other vets. It is definitely worth the trip if you can make it! Simon is a general vet and not an exotics one, so prices are not as astronomical as with another small animal specialist.

Here are our travelling tips: Travelling with guinea pigs
 
Sweetpiggums said:
The journey to Simon would be about an hour and a half, and this week they’ve already been on several journeys to vets. Would all of this travelling be causing any stress? We’ve been taking both pigs as we don’t want to break the bond.
Click to expand...
Guinea pigs travel really well. When I have piggies needing syringe feeding, then I take them everywhere with me. I can't not see my daughters or my grandchildren because of the work that I do for TEAS, so the piggies come along, whenever I visit. In fact my grandson, Jacob, got so used to me arriving with Benji, that after Benji passed and I turned up alone, he was really concerned and told me that he was going to buy me some more guinea pigs! Noooooooo!
 
We travel with Bill and Ted to see Simon from Cornwall 6.5 hour journey and an overnight stay, really worth it, he’s fantastic with dental piggies, I would always “say go for it” travelling is stressful but well worth it x
 
Misty said:
If I'm ever going to be allowed more guinea pigs I think I'll go down to Simon to get Chippy neutered because around where I live there isn't any cavy savvy vets but in an emergency there is a general animal vet
Click to expand...

Make it a journey with overnighting or ask Layla Rumsay from North East Guinea Pig Rescue in South Shields or Stewart Holman from Tees Valley Guinea Pig Rescue in Middlesbrough which vets they are using. They are your closest good standard rescues and have both neutered and rehomed single boars in the past. I think that the Tees Valley vet is pretty good from what I have heard, but you'd better ask @Stewybus .

PS: My Carwyn has travelled all the all the way from South Shields to Coventry after he was bumped back into North East Guinea Pig Rescue, which is very much a comparable journey. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top