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Help! Signs of malocclusion... what can we do?

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71spud

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When our GP was a year old he started to lose interest in his food and starting losing weight and was not very active. We suspected it might be his teeth and took him to the vet who referred us to a small animal dental specialist. Diagnosis was his teeth were overgrown. $874 bought us the office visit, x-rays, GA, and his teeth filed down. After we brought him home he perked up right away. But his appetite never fully returned. Before he used to love his fresh food (carrots, apples, misc greens) and also his Timothy hay, and GP pellets. After he ignored his fresh food (which we feared he had eaten too much of.... not wearing down his teeth enough) he ignored his Timothy Hay (which we were told should be his primary food to wear down his teeth) and he pushed his pellets around with his nose. He would spend a great deal of time by his food dish appearing to eat, but not eating much, dropping most out as soon as he picked it up. He had not gained any weight back, but has not lost any either. However it has been 7 weeks since the procedure. He drinks water all the time. And he drools to the point his chin and neck are wet. Some light fur loss has been apparent due to the irritation of his neck.

We do our best to take care of him... clean cage, just the right amount of attention, fresh food, clean water, clean dishes... but it is not helping... and he is not getting better. I think we were taken advantage of by the clinic... $874? Sure they broke it down to small parts that are hard to argue with... but when I read that it might be necessary to repeat this every few weeks or months I don't think any of you are paying that much. What can we do? What are our options?

This GP is my 10 year old daughters love of her life... and I feel a great responsibility to both her and her GP. But it seems like for some GP this dental problem can be ongoing and never fully resolved...

HELP!
 
Oh I"m so sorry to hear about your piggie problems. :( I'm not sure what to suggest, it is difficult but I didn't want to read and run.

I also have a pig that had dental surgery 3 weeks ago and it cost us $350. I'm in Canada, so I"m not sure where you are. But almost $900 seems really steep to me.
 
We are in the USA. The dental specialist is the only one in the area, and the only one who will do dental on small animals. The $874 was actually on the lower end of his estimate of what it could cost... so I guess we are supposed to feel good about that.:( We went to him in what was at the time an emergency situation. We were leaving on vacation the next morning. So we were kind of backed into a corner. Later, after reading reviews on the clinic it makes me worry about taking our GP "Skruffers" back....

http://local.yahoo.com/info-16897674-animal-medical-dental-center-oshkosh?tab=reviews
 
I'm sorry your piggie is going through this. I'm in Canada, and finding a vet that has any sort of experience in dealing with small animals can be really difficult. Eight hundred dollars does seem extremely steep... one of my pigs that had malocclusion had her teeth filed plus an abscess lanced for under two hundred. Maloccluded teeth do tend to be chronic and need continual filing, plus syringe feeding and other specialized care- I know there are many dental piggie owners who can give you a lot more information than I can because they are much more experienced. My pig Frenzy had maloccluded teeth, but unfortunately passed away after a dental abscess moved down into her jawbone and caused massive infection. She never did get back to eating normally after her tooth filing, but she also had a major infection that she was trying to fight too. I've never had to deal with a dental piggie without other major issues going on at the same time... I hope someone else can give you some more helpful advice!
 
Wow, that's a serious amount of money. I'm in the UK and to get my piggy's teeth done it was £80 @) Can you ask around and see if you can find anyone else who has used this clinic and see how what they paid compares?xox
 
I agree, 874 is a lot of money! Here in Greece, it cost me 150 euros to get Sergio's teeth done under GA of course.

I wish a quick recovery to your piggie, dental problems get nasty sometimes :(

x
 
I suspect if you were referred to a specialist AND that it was on emergency rate, is maybe why it cost so much. You could ask for a break down of the bill to see what you were charged for, its one of the most commonest things complained about in the UK - the vets I use now state the cost of everything they've used on the bill.

Being so young at only 1 theres a good possibility this'll be a recurring problem for I have the same problem!

I had to have another dental 4 weeks after the first dental. I spoke to an exotics vet and he said teeth can regrow that quickly if they're not being worn down properly. Also by the teeth being maloccluded at such a young age (mine was 2yrs) the teeth had roots of the cheek teeth and probably moved due to the uneven pressure and what not, and they teeth would never properly be in occlusion.

So currently I'm managing the teeth issue and it will never be cured.
I was told to cut right down on the nuggets to the minimum amout recomended, as my pig LOVES nuggest but it doesnt wear the teeth down at all.
I'm tempting her with a wide variety of different hays (timothy, medow hay, ones with dandylion added) and lots grass just to keep making her chew and grind up fibre foods to keep the teeth worn down.
I'm also weighing her weekly and plotting the weights on a graph (its easier to see a trend of weight loss rather than looking at a bunch of numbers!).
Also I'm feeding her corn of the cob everyday (its quite fattening but when she stops eating at least she'll have some reserve energy to get her through the anasthetic and come out the other side hopefully within the proper weight range).

At the moment we've gone nearly 9 months without a dental, but just by stuffing her full of hay! But I think she may need them doing again - I can hear them clicking and grinding :S

But it sounds like the teeth may need to be shortened again.

Why didn't your first opinion vet do the dental?
 
I know this sounds silly, but can you try varying the brand and type of hay? I had older piggies last year and I was fearful of the vets bills if they dental issues. I put a large plastic bowl in the cage (for seven piggies) and every day I would fill the bowl with a different type of hay: timothy hay, oat hay, meadow hay, grass hay, dried grass. Some of these I bought in several different brands. Chopping and changing can stimulate the appetite and if you can find somewhere that sells in small quantities then it can be a cheap way to keep your piggy healthy.

Is your piggy a lone piggy? This could be another reason why it is not thriving. Also, sorry to sound mercenary, but if this piggy doesn't make it then having a second piggy might soften the blow for your daughter.
 
Gosh, that sounds complicated, and I think you are right over 800$ seems very excessive, even with all these tests.
Your guinea pig is young so I can imagine how difficult is going to be if this is going to be a recurrent problem, perhaps there is some sort of long term solution? like extracting the bad teeth (the ones that grow the wrong way), of course even if this was a possibility the trouble would be that they would have to extract both the bottom and upper teeth from the affected side otherwise the healthy teeth opposed to the extracted one would keep growing without any teeth to grind against.
 
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