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Dental How To Encourage Gp To Eat Veg After Dental Surgery?

If you need to go back and Debbie is not about I can help you with busses as my partner tends to get the bus from the station when he goes (did it last night in fact). Hope all goes ok today. If anyone can help, Simon can.
 
Well, back home, Simon had a good old burr of those back teeth, good news is he couldn't see any infections etc either, and hopes it was that the back teeth had overgrown the tongue already (previous vet probably didn't shave enough), causing her problems trying to even chew/swallow the CC let alone try and eat anything else. She took a lot of interest in a bowl of grated veg that I put in her pen when we got back, but didn't try to eat any yet, just sniffed about... here's hoping she does try eventually, Simon said it's a case of giving her time to learn how to.

I really need to try and get 120ml a day of the CC down her, only been managing 55ml a day so far hence the weight loss, I have no idea how to manage it?! Theoretically should be giving her 20ml six times a day but there's no way she'll tolerate that much in one go, I'm lucky to get 5 down her without her putting her foot down! The silver lining is, the problem I have this evening is that she's too damn energetic and manages to get away from me too easily! How can a piggie who has travelled 5 hours today plus gone through such an ordeal at the vet be so much brighter than she was this morning?! Simon really does seem to be magic!

Thank you SO much to furryfriends for waiting and giving me a lift back to the station! It was really nice to meet you!
 
Yes, it seems to be going down more easily and not bothering her as much (the last couple of days it looked like it was too painful/difficult for her to deal with it), but, she's just still resisting the syringe :D I will be having to do a certain amount of forcing... having said that, she's had a bit of a day so having got 5ml down her I'm leaving her alone for a bit to have my own dinner! Intend to get up during the night given that she's had less than usual today what with travelling, but hoping to manage all 120ml during the day normally.... hmm....
 
Stormy already sounds as if she's doing better. Sounds a journey well made. I hope stormy surprises you tomorrow and actually attempts to eat on her own now.
 
glad you got an appt so quickly! I hope your piggy starts improving. The first thing ours ate after getting back from Simon was some fresh grass, so maybe try that?
We mix baby food with our syringe food to make it more palatable. Also, if you can get some, Emeraid seems to be preferred to Oxenbow or Dualcare. Keep us updated
 
will you need to go back for another treatment? we go back this Saturday for our second.
 
Thank you. We've never fed our piggies fresh grass, being in London, I've never wanted to risk it, but Simon mentioned buying some turf and maybe trying to grow it while keeping it protected somehow from animals (we have a lot of foxes, cats etc around here). Might look into that! ----oooh just looked on Amazon, didn't realise you could get stuff like this, to grow indoors! https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_s...grass+for+pets&rh=i:aps,k:grow+grass+for+pets

Yes we go back in three weeks, probably to burr the back teeth again. I'd much rather Simon do it than take her back to our local vets... we do have a check up at our local vet in a week still though, they can check for infections etc.
 
StormyMidnight said:
Thank you. We've never fed our piggies fresh grass, being in London, I've never wanted to risk it, but Simon mentioned buying some turf and maybe trying to grow it while keeping it protected somehow from animals (we have a lot of foxes, cats etc around here). Might look into that! ----oooh just looked on Amazon, didn't realise you could get stuff like this, to grow indoors! https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=grow+grass+for+pets&rh=i:aps,k:grow+grass+for+pets

Yes we go back in three weeks, probably to burr the back teeth again. I'd much rather Simon do it than take her back to our local vets... we do have a check up at our local vet in a week still though, they can check for infections etc.
Click to expand...
I bought some grass seed and a couple of seed trays to grow some grass for mine in the winter. It doesn't go far though with 5 Piggies!
 
Betsy said:
I bought some grass seed and a couple of seed trays to grow some grass for mine in the winter. It doesn't go far though with 5 Piggies!
Click to expand...

Yes I was thinking that!

Right seriously I need to know, how DO you manage to get 120ml down a piggy in a day? I've just calculated it is a physical impossibility:

It's just taken me 25 mins to get 5ml down her. By my calculations: 120 divided by 5 = 24, so that's 24 x 25 mins = 600 minutes, divide that by 60 that's 10 hours a day spent feeding! How does everyone else do it along with everything else they have to do in their lives? I'm at a bit of a loss how to do this really. If I tried to speed up the feeding, I'd be choking her because she's not swallowing each ml quickly enough.

And I wish she wasn't so clearly in pain :( She's spending her time sat hunched squinting, like she was yesterday morning. I probably just need to be patient - she has had two days in a row now of travelling to see a vet, plus dental work done on her, of course she's gonna be in pain and out-of-sorts.... But meanwhile I hate to see her weight keeping dropping :(
 
Sorry to hear you are having a tough time! I have never had to syringe feed a piggy so can't help with that. What painkillers is she on? Metacam?
 
Have you tried changing to a different syringe food. I have had piggies not want Critical Care but take mushed nuggets with gusto. I generally get around 120 mls of syringe food into dental piggies not eating for themselves. I find most will take about 25 to 30 mls per sitting. However, for those who only take small amounts, I tend to give a couple of mls every time I pass the cage and keep a tally chart. It is amazing how much you can get in that way and it actually mimics more normal eating, as guinea pigs graze, rather than eat a huge meal every few hours. Did Simon say to continue with the Tramadol? I have found it can put piggies off eating. Try different consistencies of food too. Some piggies like the syringe food quite thick and others prefer it on the runny side.
 
I didn't want to continue with the Tramadol for that reason (and the drowsiness it can cause), Simon said to just do it if she seems in too much pain, so I did give her some in the end yesterday evening. I might not bother with it this morning, then.

It's actually when I think about it not necessarily that she's not eating the food quickly enough (that side of things is definitely better since seeing Simon), it's just the physical time it all seems to take. It's possible I am leaving too long a gap between each ml, not trusting that she's ok to continue... plus it is boring, isn't it, I'm trying to read a book between mls (and post here too!) to pass the time! Which can be distracting to me I suppose lol. Meanwhile poor piggie sat here on a cushion with me gets impatient to get back to her cage (and she does need to poo/wee there, she will rarely do so anywhere else!)

Good point re giving the odd ml as you pass the cage, I will definitely try & do that - combined with the odd hour sat concentratedly feeding her (which is what I was doing before), that might help. Yesterday and the day before I had her next to me while I worked (I work 5.5 hours from home 4 days a week, plus a split 9 hour shift on the 5th), and just kept leaning over to pop a syringe in her mouth :D Problem with that also is, she does keep wanting to go back to her cage!

I will mash down her fave nuggets as well, and will hunt for the Emeraid option too.

She's just had 10 ml, in the last hour of concentrated feeding, I'm putting her back now. I may have been able to speed that up, next time I sit down with her I'll try. And in between, I'll do what you say and pop the odd ml in now and then!
 
It takes time to learn syringe feeding, I start with water as Jet is invariably very thirsty he then take cc much better. I aim for about 1 ml a minute. Jet will refuse if he hasn’t finished the mouthful but he is still chew8ng when the next goes in. I because of work I do 4 x 40ml sessions, each takes about an hour and 5min. However that relies on the pig being hungry, when my others have been very ill it’s been painful. I tend to make it up with part Apple juice then.
 
Thanks, I noticed this morning that I could put some in while she was still chewing the last, and she does make it very clear when her mouth is too full. I will persist! Good idea re the water, I give her a bit now and then during the feed, but will try starting with it next time. She will still take a quick lap of water from the bowl after I put her back in the cage, actually.

On sort of the plus side, at veggie time this morning I gave her a little bowl of grated/finely chopped veg and she had a good old sniff around to the point where it really looked like she was going to try picking it up, but she didn't. Next time i passed the cage she came putting her forefeet on the bars wheeking, I did manage to get a piece of melon in her mouth but that was it. She has hardly wheeked since this whole debacle, so I guess that's a good sign even if she didn't really want/take the veg in the end!
 
It takes time for the owner and the piggy to get to grips with syringe feeding. I was first faced with a guinea pig with dental issues over 10 years ago and I can remember sitting there with Poppet, tears running down my face, thinking she was going to die because I couldn't get enough food into her. I was useless at syringe feeding and just couldn't do it! However, we both needed to get used to it and once we did, Poppet made excellent progress. In fact I have pretty much spent the past 10 years syringe feeding one piggy or another, so when people comment about how good I am at it, it is definitely practice makes perfect! I've never forgotten that feeling of hopelessness that I felt at the start though!
 
Thank you yes I have definitely sat there feeling like that a few times this past couple of weeks and been near tears! It's a scary thought that they are literally relying on you to keep them alive. But then, that is after all the case even for the healthy guinea pigs, you just don't think of it like that normally!

I feel a bit better now, been popping to Stormy in the cage regularly to pop a ml in and will keep on doing that throughout the day, that's definitely going to add to her intake :) It's also great that she is taking it easily, as long as her mouth isn't still full from the previous ml! I'm also finding the 1ml syringe easier than the 15ml ones I was using before.
 
I remember Simon telling me Zigg needed 120ml and I was only getting 40ml down her and the sheer panic that I was going to kill her. I have cried a few tears over the past year of feeding on and off. You can only do what you can.
 
When can I expect Stormy to start looking/behaving more like herself? She's still just sitting hunched and miserable most of the time. I guess it's not surprising given she's not eating anything except the CC and is presumably still in pain, but I can't help worrying that things just aren't right other than the teeth. Though, I suppose of course they're not right are they.....

She's had 30 ml so far today, 10 short of what I'd want her to have by this time of day (more or less a 3rd of the way through the day), but not too bad if I manage to 'catch up' the rest of the day and do an extra night time feed as well maybe.
 
Are you getting lots of poos coming through?
Does she have a hidey in her cage? I take hideys away from piggies who are moping, as they will just hide away and not make any effort to eat. It sounds a bit cruel, but it generally perks them up when they don't have anywhere to hide.
It can take a little while, although most are eating pretty much straight away. However, I find they eat things like grass, well before they eat anything else. Is there any way you can get some grass from somewhere and give it a good wash?
 
I will need to have a think about grass.
Yes she does seem to be pooing, not as much as normal and smaller pellets than normal but then, that's normal for what she's going through, if you see what I mean!

She's not always in the huts, sometimes she's just sat in a corner. Not eating or trying to eat at all. I am bothering her constantly to give her the CC though.
 
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