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

Yes, the roots had overgrown and had reached the bottom. I haven't tried feeling around her jaw, though I know the vet did, plus the x-ray of course. I'm too worried about hurting her!
At the moment she's on those two pain killers and two lots of antibiotics, so fingers crossed if there is an abscess or whatever it's being taken care of.
 
So how did they get the roots out if they were so deep into the bone? I think you are going to need to speak to the vets tomorrow and explain what is happening, as this isn't normal post op recovery. We recently had a temporary TEAS resident, who came to stay here while he had the incisors removed and he was eating within a couple of hours of surgery and he was left with no incisors whatsoever.
 
I don't know, he said they came out easily (due to being loose)...

We don't have access to grass, btw. Our small lawn is crap and is frequented by cats and foxes so I've never wanted to use that!

re poo, for a day after surgery she hardly pooed at all which is why they kept her in a 2nd night, she has been pooing more normally the past day or two.
 
She did also at the same time have her molars shaved by the way, vet said that would make her uncomfortable too at first, re chewing.
 
Just been re-reading your first post. Grating veggies isn't the best way for piggies with missing incisors. Cutting into thin strips works far better. I am surprised that your vet says 'she should at some point learn to scoop tiny bits of veg (e.g. grated) into her mouth with her top incisors, to then chew with her back teeth, and small bits of hay, but that he's also known piggies to suck hay in like spaghetti . Piggies can eat completely normally without incisors, so it does make me wonder just how many guinea pig dentals he has actually done.

Please ring your vet tomorrow and let him know that she is still struggling to eat and has made no improvement.
 
Do you mean they should eat completely normally as in big chunks of veg? If so I don’t understand how as they no longer have the incisors to shred them?
Yep will ring vet tomorrow.
 
They can't eat carrot or broccoli as a big chunk but they can eat all leafy veg, hay and grass. Carrot would need to be grated or spiralized. Syringe feed or softened nuggets shouldn't be needed. I had some piggies with missing incisors out on the grass the other day and as it's so long, they could eat it just fine as they can get it straight to their molars.
 
Thanks. She’s obviously either got a problem opening her mouth and grabbing food into it or is being slow to learn how(?!) or is too scared following all this trauma... at veggie time this evening she was excited as normal, feet up on the side of the cage , ran to the plate with the others sniffing about (chunks that she couldn’t eat anyway - I offered her the processed tiny bits but she wasn’t interested). It’s so sad :( she always loved her veg and was one of our super fast eaters!

I was emotional this morning when she excitedly nibbled at my fingers to get the tiny bits of melon off... others of her old favourites haven’t had the same reaction and because melon was the one thing she could nibble before the surgery that’s why I was thinking it’s fear/ bad association.... or maybe I’m offering bits that are too tiny, if I get her to put a bigger bit in her mouth maybe that’ll help?!
 
Parsley and coriander, chicory, red pepper as a rare treat (she likes it better than green, they have green nearly every day). And kale.
 
She should be able to eat parsley, kale and coriander without it really being cut in any special way. Chicory and peppers may need cutting into strips. By cutting it too small you make it difficult to get into the mouth. A long stem is perfect for getting to the back teeth.
 
Thanks! That makes sense. Although she’s not trying to pick up the normal chunks that the others aren’t still having, the way she was before the surgery, she just sniffs at them. But I can definitely try and help her and cut into strips like you said. I was just told to grate/chop as small as possible.... but it IS difficult to get in the mouth then!
 
Wow had no idea! Just raw?

Was just thinking mind you that she hasn’t tried to eat any hay either, that I’ve noticed - she spends most of her time sat under a hut. :(
 
So I spoke to the vet, am bringing her in tomorrow for a check up (instead of waiting till Friday). Tried again with veg this morning, did manage to get a small piece of cucumber in her mouth in the same way I make her take the syringe, which she chewed and swallowed, but nothing else (actually a piece of green pepper she just spat out), she just didn't want me to put anything in her mouth. As usual, she was sniffing around the veg all interested but just not trying to open her mouth to pick any up, and then not wanting me to hand feed it to her?! Really weird.
 
I've just now (from googling) discovered how to get little bits of veg into her mouth - from the sides. I was trying to push them in from the front (to get her to scoop them in with her front top incisors) with no success (partly because she wasn't trying to do it herself). Sometimes I didn't get them far enough back and they fall back out again but she's just now had a tiny bit of green pepper, parsley, coriander, carrot and melon :) No idea whether she was actually happy for me to put them there mind you :D but she was doing her usual excited sniffing about of the others' veg as usual, and did seem to chew and swallow the bits ok.... I'm now onto the syringe for the usual...

I do think there seems to be something wrong with the way her mouth works, like the bottom is too weak (or, maybe too sore) to help her open and pull something in... we'll see what the vet says tomorrow... Funnily enough our local vet (before we were referred to the specialist who removed the bottom incisors) said something like he thought her bottom jaw "feels unstable" whatever that means...he even wondered if it had dislocated, but the specialist said not (after the x-ray).
 
Vet said he can’t see anything wrong, with her jaw, gum has healed well no sign of infection etc. He just said to stop the antibiotics, increase the pain killers a little and persist with offering her veg and hope she works out how to use her mouth to pick up food. I’m to return in a week unless drastic weight loss or other problem etc. Thoughts?
 
He did have a look at the back teeth, with his thingybob (obv not under GA or x-ray this time). They had shaved them down a little when they took the bottom incisors out.

The whole thing is doing my head in. I'm sat for an hour every 2-3 hours getting 1ml at a time of mush down her, total 10-ish ml each sitting, waiting between each mouthful for her to chew & swallow, only to have her spit a bit out every time I put another ml in. She's even still got some in her mouth 2 hours later when i come to do the next feed. The easiest time is first thing in the morning when nothing's in her mouth after a free night. She's had about 55ml a day in total, and losing weight, pretty sure she needs a lot more than that but no bleeding idea how to do that unless I literally constantly feed her, which is obviously impossible. Meanwhile she's not very happy with me doing it, impatient to go home to the cage after 4-5 mouthfuls (that's pretty normal though, any time we've had her out for a cuddle! She won't poo or wee anywhere else, for starters) - and who can blame her for not wanting to pick up and eat veg, when her mouth is constantly full of mush? So sick of the smell and getting it on my fingers & clothes ....

Sorry, feeling a bit miserable this evening :(
 
I know that feeling, I really hope she picks up soon for you. I can be very hard work and a bit of a rollercoaster.
 
Thank you. I love her to bits, it's heart breaking, she always loved her veg so much, she was the only piggie of our bunch who would literally ignore anything you might do to her while she was eating something - you could carry her around with a bunch of parsley in her mouth and she'd carry on happily chewing regardless :D So to have her not even attempt to pick a veg up is so sad.
 
We are going through a similar problem with one of our piggies atm (it's been 5 weeks now, and is absolutely exhausting). From what you are saying I agree with TEAS that it sounds like a problem with overgrown molars (despite what your vet says). Our piggy needed to have an incisor removed and didn't start to eat properly afterwards. He saw 4 or 5 vets in Yorkshire, had a CT scan and 2D x-ray but no-one could find anything wrong. One of our vets also said she thought there was 'slackness' in the jaw, like your vet. In the end we took him to see Simon in Northampton (10 days ago). It turns out it was problems with the molars afterall (which also caused incisor problems), and all the other vets had failed to diagnose this. Pendleton was eating veg again the same day after seeing Simon, it made such a massive difference! He is due for a follow-up procedure this Saturday. We're not out of the woods yet, but Pendleton is now eating veg (green leaves mostly), grass and some pellets on his own (but still needs syringe feeding). I would recommend considering the long trip to Simon, it will be worth it.
Regarding keeping the weight up, I agree it can be a real struggle (and stressful!) We have found Emeraid to work best; Pendelton seems to tolerate it and it's good for keeping weight up. Sometimes we mix it with Oxenbox CC or baby food for variety. Also using a 1ml syringe is much easier and faster than one of those larger 15ml syringes! Hope this helps, and keep us updated!
 
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I've been wondering about going to see Simon after all, to be honest. What is the cost? We have very little money and no insurance... and can we make the trip in one day, not have to stay overnight? We simply could not afford to do that.
 
Also, what was the problem with the molars? The specialist vet did shave Stormy's down already...
 
Simon is quite cheap compared to the cost of diagnostic x-rays etc! I think it is £45 for the consultation and then another £48 for the dental work.
They were overgrown and had spurs...despite our vet having already shaved them! The problem with the molars and the fact he wasn't eating had then caused the incisors to become overgrown, so they needed trimming too (which our vet had also done already!)
Our normal vet is actually very good; she is a guinea pig breeder so has loads of experience with them. It just goes to show that if you're not a dental expert like Simon you can miss the problem! Even the radiographer who took the xrays didn't spot the problem!
 
Is it the TEAS place? I just looked up the postcode on the website, how do you get there? (on public transport, we don't have a car and don't have any friends or family who drive!)
 
Simon is very accommodating for people travelling from far away. He gave us an appointment at 11am so we could get there in time, and we were out by 12.30pm.
 
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