Furuba12
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello!
I have a very wonderful guinea pig called Stig who unfortunately has had some teeth problems (I will be doing a different post of his story!). However I feel the vets we were using were very negligent and I am just wondering if I am doing the right thing. Before getting started my aim is not to get compensation but just to simply acknowledge they mismanaged my piggy and the pain they put him through.
In November Stig stopped eating, from looking at him there was nothing visibly wrong. We took him to the vet and it was agreed for him to go under to have an x-ray and a better look at his mouth. They found that he had clumps of hair in his mouth which had caused an ulcer and that all of his roots were elongated, other than that his mouth was fine and we were sent on out merry way with Metacam, anti biotics and instructions to feed him on wet food until he could manage dry food himself. He did start eating some salad but not much.
He then went again in December for another check up and we were told he was fine and we would only need to come in every couple of weeks to check his weight with a nurse and every three months regarding his Metacam as the idea was if we could manage the pain of his roots he would start eating.
The most distressing thing was he really wanted to eat, when I showed him salad he just could not and would just hide, however he loved the wet food and was very very happy and even escaped his cage for it! So no worry of anorexia although he had lost a lot of weight (from 1.8kg to 800g) but he was maintaining that low weight.
I then became concerned in February when I noticed he was slobbering a lot, always felt damp and his mouth seemed to close strange which indicated to me an overgrowth. I took him again early February where it was obvious his front teeth had grown and were almost touching and it was agreed out vet would file them, which she did. Once done she said his jaw still was not closing and she guessed his back teeth were bad but she did want to any further work as she felt it might be better letting him to go to piggy heaven when he was ready.
As you can guess I was FURIOUS. Stig was so happy, active and really wanted to eat...why would I prevent this? So I seeked out The Cat and Rabbit Surgery in Northampton and decided to risk the 2 hour journey to see what he had to say and boy did we get a new insight.
He showed us Stig's mouth and it was horrendous. His bottom teeth were growing flat and almost met in the middle, they were so long and tusk like he could not even move his tongue and Simon said it was the worst he has ever seen. I felt awful like it was 100% my fault. It was agreed Stig should have some gas and get them burred. When we brought him he actually started eating salad and hay again!
Two weeks later we took him back and his teeth were looking fine and he needed a bit more burring to finish off the last job, he also still had some ulcers from how bad his teeth were. He can now eat dry food and has also put on 100g.
Simon informed me that they should have picked this up months ago and that the roots would not have caused him a huge amount of pain but his teeth and the ulcers.
I rang my vets and they deny any fault. She informed me they were burred in November but I was not told this nor were we told it was ever a tooth problem and he only needed a check up for his Metacam.
We were never recommended to stop treatment and seek a specialist like Simon.
She did not even check his back teeth on his last visit.
Would you consider this negligence? If they had informed us how bad his teeth were we would have taken action sooner but we were told it was root problem. I did not pick on the fact they had not overgrown because usually the front are quicker growing and I only noticed when he started slobbering...
All opinions welcome!
I have a very wonderful guinea pig called Stig who unfortunately has had some teeth problems (I will be doing a different post of his story!). However I feel the vets we were using were very negligent and I am just wondering if I am doing the right thing. Before getting started my aim is not to get compensation but just to simply acknowledge they mismanaged my piggy and the pain they put him through.
In November Stig stopped eating, from looking at him there was nothing visibly wrong. We took him to the vet and it was agreed for him to go under to have an x-ray and a better look at his mouth. They found that he had clumps of hair in his mouth which had caused an ulcer and that all of his roots were elongated, other than that his mouth was fine and we were sent on out merry way with Metacam, anti biotics and instructions to feed him on wet food until he could manage dry food himself. He did start eating some salad but not much.
He then went again in December for another check up and we were told he was fine and we would only need to come in every couple of weeks to check his weight with a nurse and every three months regarding his Metacam as the idea was if we could manage the pain of his roots he would start eating.
The most distressing thing was he really wanted to eat, when I showed him salad he just could not and would just hide, however he loved the wet food and was very very happy and even escaped his cage for it! So no worry of anorexia although he had lost a lot of weight (from 1.8kg to 800g) but he was maintaining that low weight.
I then became concerned in February when I noticed he was slobbering a lot, always felt damp and his mouth seemed to close strange which indicated to me an overgrowth. I took him again early February where it was obvious his front teeth had grown and were almost touching and it was agreed out vet would file them, which she did. Once done she said his jaw still was not closing and she guessed his back teeth were bad but she did want to any further work as she felt it might be better letting him to go to piggy heaven when he was ready.
As you can guess I was FURIOUS. Stig was so happy, active and really wanted to eat...why would I prevent this? So I seeked out The Cat and Rabbit Surgery in Northampton and decided to risk the 2 hour journey to see what he had to say and boy did we get a new insight.
He showed us Stig's mouth and it was horrendous. His bottom teeth were growing flat and almost met in the middle, they were so long and tusk like he could not even move his tongue and Simon said it was the worst he has ever seen. I felt awful like it was 100% my fault. It was agreed Stig should have some gas and get them burred. When we brought him he actually started eating salad and hay again!
Two weeks later we took him back and his teeth were looking fine and he needed a bit more burring to finish off the last job, he also still had some ulcers from how bad his teeth were. He can now eat dry food and has also put on 100g.
Simon informed me that they should have picked this up months ago and that the roots would not have caused him a huge amount of pain but his teeth and the ulcers.
I rang my vets and they deny any fault. She informed me they were burred in November but I was not told this nor were we told it was ever a tooth problem and he only needed a check up for his Metacam.
We were never recommended to stop treatment and seek a specialist like Simon.
She did not even check his back teeth on his last visit.
Would you consider this negligence? If they had informed us how bad his teeth were we would have taken action sooner but we were told it was root problem. I did not pick on the fact they had not overgrown because usually the front are quicker growing and I only noticed when he started slobbering...
All opinions welcome!
The best thing you can do is report back to the first vets with his diagnosis and treatments, as well as how the signs and symptoms show in guinea pigs. At best they can put this information to good use and learn from the experience. Small animal vets get little training in the way of guinea pigs and typically mght apply cat, dog or rabhit deductive processes to find a problem - but guinea pigs are just so physiologically different from them.
