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Guinea Pig With Suspected Tmj Help Needed :(

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suzanne barton

suzanne barton

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi there

I'm new to the forum and need advice quickly ...Our GP stopped eating on the 11th of july and he did not look right ..He was eating cucumber but not the rind but he normally loves cucumber so found it very strange ..His teeth looked slightly overgrown so we got an appointment with the vet and took him the same day .

Vet weighed him and he was 650 grams which is not very good he then said he would trim his teeth slightly although he did not think that was the problem and told us he thought he could smell infection off his mouth ..so put him on a course of septrin and gave us some science recovery for hand feeding and asked us to return in 4 days time which was the 15th.

After having his teeth trimmed He would not touch food he would run to us when putting herbs and food in his cage and would pick it up and mouth it but could not eat it although he seemed excited and looked like he really wanted too :( Also after having his teeth trimmed his chin was soaking all the time although was dry before ...We returned on the 15th for the check up and explained about his eating and that he would struggle with the science recovery and turn away it was always a fight to get him to take it so we have purchased some critical care and he was the same ..I told the vet that we had got his ususal pellets and ground them in our coffee grinder and fed him that mixed with water and he took it no problem ...The vet weighed him and he was now 730 grams which he said was great seeing he was syringe fed and to keep doing what we were doing ..I asked could he be in pain and that was stopping him from eating he said maybe and then introduced some metacam for him ...After taking a couple of days of the metacam he once again fought with me over the syringe feeding ?!?!? And was constantly feeding to try get anything into him ...We took him back on friday and vet said he had a bit hay stuck on his spike ? he removed it and trimmed the spike weighed him again and he was down to 680 grams and started explainng he could have tmj or arthritis in his jaw

on saturday there he was still not right and took him back and he was 640 grams i also told him i had noticed a small lump that felt like tissue along his jawline on the left hand side ..he said it could be fatty tissue or a bit jawbone and that he could hear grinding from that side of his jaw when he moved it and thought it was TMJ and would be best putting him to sleep i think as he was not mantaining his weight ..but to discuss it on come back today to see him ..His weight went down yesterday to 626 and dont know how as fed him non stop yesterday ..My son read up on the septrin and said it could make him not want to eat and thought well we have nothing to lose will we withold his dose last night which we did ..when we made up his next batch of syringe food he wolfed it down and has took every hand feed since ..Hes 671 grams just now and have filled his vegetable ball with kale and apple etc and hes trying hard to eat it but cant manage it but can tell he wants it he managed to nibble the apple though...We changed todays vet appointment till tomorrow to see how got on today ..Are we just delaying the inevitable should we have continued with the septrin ? my son thought if they were putting him to sleep today we had nothing to lose by ending the meds and he was on them for last 10 days anyways .

Sorry for the long post i have been breaking my heart all weekend and hardly slept ..Just dont know what to do for the best now :(
 
Hi welcome to the forum. Septrin can affect the gut and the appetite but not as much as Baytril or Marbocyl.

I am tagging @furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary who runs a dental sanctuary in Northampton and takes all her pigs to Simon Maddock who is the best dental vet in the country. She may have some more advice than I can give regarding his jaw. One thing I would say though is that it sounds like he may need stronger pain relief than he is currently on.
 
He is on 0.3ml each day but do these effect him as it was only since going onto metacam he stopped syringe feeding and his weight dropped badly again Its more the fact the vet is very pessimistic now and i cant stop crying with it all ..I forgot to mention he is only 2 and a half also so still a young piggie x
 
That would be great , if you pm me your number I can phone you at a time that suits you , good luck with the 2 piggies x
 
Anymore advice as have vet at 10 and dreading going :( have had no sleep again between feeding and crying :(
 
Were you able to speak to Debbie?

All I would say is that his quality of life is what is most important. Let your vet assess that first before making any decisions.
 
I never spoke to Debbie she was going to speak to me on the phone last night but I think she is really busy and don't want to put anybody out , at the moment all he is doing is sitting in his cage staring about buy happy to see us when in the room and wants out cage etc and when he is out he's taking the syringe feed no problem the last few feeds and crawls up and smuggles into our neck it's heartbreaking he was making a funny noise last night with his teeth also like grinding them together but they were making like a squeeky noise does that mean he's in pain I would hate to think he's suffering :( x
 
I am not too sure, would it be possible for your vet to speak to Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit clinic in Northampton?
I think he definitely needs a review of his pain meds though, he may need more than Metacam.

I know Debbie is manic at the moment with lots of poorly animals.
 
I can ask my vet but about Simon if I thought it would help I would even go and see Simon myself although I'm in edinburgh but could get the train with him , i think my vet is just saying basically as he's not maintaining his weight very well it fluctuated between 626 yesterday morning to 661 last night and was even at 671 last night as was told to weigh him before and after every feed , each day is just blending into another and I'm so confused with all the numbers :( xx
 
Thanks max dawn we have just changed the appointment till tea time hoping to get more advice before making any rash decisions , why is life so horrible sometimes , between my dogs being ill and passing away and now my guinea pig , well it's my daughters guinea pig she is 11 and been in floods of tears non stop too , sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind though but just like to think when it comes to my pets I have done everything entirely possible I can to help x
 
Sending healing vibes your way. I haven't experienced this but just wondered if you could blend his vegetables then spoon/syringe feed it and see if he finds it easier if he doesn't have to chew. Is you vet piggy savvy? Have you thought about looking at the vet locator at the top of the page to see about a second opinion?

Big hugs x
 
suzanne barton said:
Thanks max dawn we have just changed the appointment till tea time hoping to get more advice before making any rash decisions , why is life so horrible sometimes , between my dogs being ill and passing away and now my guinea pig , well it's my daughters guinea pig she is 11 and been in floods of tears non stop too , sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind though but just like to think when it comes to my pets I have done everything entirely possible I can to help x
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I think changing the appointment time was a good idea.
It is always a hundred times worse when you have children. Really hope thing work out.
 
If you could get to Simon then it may help or even discuss his case with him on the phone to start with. I know it is a massive journey though and he is very poorly.
 
Thanks everybody for there input my vet is piggy savvy and is a guinea pig fanatic himself we chose him because he done teeth trimming without anashetic and he was recommended on this forum , maybe it's just me not wanting to let go but I don't want to let him go if he can be treated I would be giving up on him but also at same time I don't want to keep him going if he is suffering , sorry my head is all over the place so probably not making a lot of sense right now xx
 
You make perfect sense. It is such a horrible situation to be in and my heart goes out to you. Will keep you both in my thoughts today and sending lots of healing vibes x
 
Hi @AbiS I could get some or all of the way myself or my husband could on the train I would just need to work out the logistics also with his 2 hourly feeds at the moment , I would hate to think the journey could stress him out anymore and make him even more ill if doing a journey with strangers x
 
I totally understand what you mean. Maybe getting your vet to phone Simon might be the best thing to do initially - it maybe that the journey is unnecessary if you are already doing everything you can. Or he might come up with an idea that your vet is confident to do himself x
 
I will speak to you today. I have two very ill piggies at mo and one is going into the vets today with a very poor prognosis. Just trying to get as much syringe food in before we set off. Then have all my pet care work to do so it will probably be early afternoon before I am free. If you pm me your phone no I will call you as soon as I have a free minute xx
 
Hi Suzanne, If you need any help getting your piggy down to Northampton please let me know. We have lots of volunteers & I'm certain we can get enough together to help & have put initial enquiries on The Piggy Bank facebook page to see if we can get a train going. f it could wait till Saturday, I'll be at The Guinea Pig Forum Meet in Edinburgh & could takeyour piggy down to Teesside which would be about 160 miles of the 350 mile journey. We have a good network of volunteers from there.

Only thing I'd like you to have checked first because from the symptoms I think there could be a possibility of an ulcerated mouth which could be put OK in 24 to 48 hours if your vet prescribes a course of Itrafungol. I may be wrong but the symptoms are very much like Minky's when I took her on the long Journey to Northampton in December. She was back to normal eating in about 36 hours. Some of what you say sounds like possibility of an abscess starting to form. Again this is easy treatable.

If you think he needs to get down to see Simon earlier then please let me know. Even if you've got to get a train to Darlington we will get him down to see Simon.
 
Hi @Stewybus i have an appointment for simon for thursday morning at 11.10 I'm at this moment trying to work out train times as in taking a train from edinburgh to northampton tomorrow and staying at the travelodge overnight ..As for ulcers my vet says he cant see anything in his mouth so I'm not sure whats going on but hopefully its something that cant be sorted .

And i need to say a big thanks to debbie @furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary for speaking to me via phone today and helping me out etc xx
 
That's good, Suzanne. You're taking him to probably the best guinea pig vet in the UK. If he needs to go for ongoing treatment & Debbie takes him in I will help to get him back to you via The Piggy Train. Good luck on Thursday & please keep us updated.
 
Good luck with your piggy - I hope it all works out for you and really think you are doing the right thing. I took one of my piggies (and a couple of others) down to Northampton (from Glasgow) by train a few weeks ago. I know you probably would probably do this anyway but I would say take lots of cold watery veg (if he can eat any veg at all - I had cucumber etc but even cold water on the lettuce helped) and water/bottle if he might take it - the train was roasting when I went down and the piggies were glad of some cool veg on the trip (although only 1 would take a drink from the bottle)..... and not forgetting water for the hooman too :)
Hope you all have a good trip
x
 
thanks @CandyFloss were going down tomorrow we have booked the travelodge to stay tomorrow night ..Did you go down on the same day of your appointment ? the first train from edinburgh does not get us there untill 11.55 but our appointment is 11.10 so having to go tomorrow plus i would worry about any delays going down etc ..Not looking forward to the journey but it needs to be done xx
 
Good luck. Fingers and paws crossed. At least you will know that you have done absolutely everything you could to help him
and hopefully Simon will be to make your poor piggy better. He is a miracle worker!
 
@AbiS got our accomodation booked and train times are flexible ..Need to drop our dog off with mother in law in morning and were set to make our journey down :) Tried to get my daughter to stay with mother in law and just let myself and my partner come down but she is having none of it ..She is 11 and its her guinea pig and she is excited the thought of simon being able to fix her piggy for her :) xx
 
My piggy was going down to stay at TEAS as her teeth looked unlikely to ever be fixed so I didn't have to get to a particular appointment but just pass her and the other 2 piggies to Debbie who thankfully met me at the station. I also had to get down and back in the same day for my other piggies and dog (who my sister looked after for the day). It was a long day on the trains starting at 7am and getting home about 8.30pm but well worth it and all the trains were pretty much on time..... until I got back into Glasgow and tried to get home from there LOL. I think making the journey over a couple of days and staying over is a much better option since you can do it. Hope it all goes well for you - Simon is a piggy legend and you have one lucky piggy being taken to see him.
Very best for you all,
x
 
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