Lack of growth after tooth clipping

[mannyd]

Greetings everyone!

I'd like to share my current experience with my 4 year-old teddy boar's teeth and find out if anyone else has had similar experience and what you did.

Wally, having reached 4, has had a couple of his incisors break since March/April. They grew back quickly as expected and reached an even length. However, he started to trap food in his top pair which made his lips sore and the two lower ones became wonky and like thin darning needles so I took him to his vet and he had all four incisors clipped level with the current broken one. This was on 3 June.

Wally's top two have grown back and look nice, neat and strong with no need to floss(!) but the bottom two I can't even see without pulling his bottom lip forward.
What's going on there then? Why have they not grown back at the same rate? Any ideas?

Extra to this he started passing blood in his urine last Fri 11 June so he went back to the vet. He received a rimadyl injection and I've given him septrin twice a day via syringe. He has an intermittent history of squeaking and raising his bum whilst weeing so he's been checked for stones a couple of times in the past.

Since 3 June he's had grated carrot for breakfast and warmed, soft Guinea Excel pellets on top of his available dry pellets and other various green veg. I tend to veer towards a low calcium diet because of his weeing problem. His appetite is good although he struggles with whole carrots obviously and seems to gum some of his usual favourites.

Weight-wise he's always fluctuated which I've worried about in the past. However he seems a good, relatively stable weight considering what he's going through at the moment so I'm not currently concerned.

I'll be taking him back to the vet (Mrs Richardson at Orchard Vet in Romsey, Hampshire) obviously but wondered if anyone else has experienced this uneven tooth re-growth with a piggie and, if so, what did you do and did you know why it occured?

Thank you in advance.?/

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear Wally has had such an ordeal with his teeth!

One possibility that comes to mind is that the top incisors could be overgrown, thus wearing the lower incisors down - bit of an unbalanced dentition. Another possibility is that the roots of the lower incisors have been damaged somehow, although from your descriptions there's no obvious reason this would be a likely cause - just one possibility that can lead to slow-growing teeth. Another possible cause is that the molars are a touch overgrown - have they been checked?

Good to hear he is on Septrin for his urinary infection, the pain from cystitis can upset their appetite so do make sure he carries on eating.

Have you needed to syringe-feed him at all, is he maintaining his weight by himself each day?

 

[mannyd]

Hi Laura
Thanks for your reply.

He's booked in with the vet at the end of the week and I will ensure all his teeth get checked this time as what you say makes sense.
The bottom incisors are still not much longer than when they were clipped, still.

He does have a good appetite and will happily eat his soft pellets so haven't needed to use a syringe this time. Aside from the tooth stumps and getting over the cystitis, he seems his normal feisty self which is good news.

I'll keep you posted as to what the vet says.

Many thanks.

 

[mannyd]

Hello
Good news as Wally has a good pair of lower incisors and, from what the Vet could see, his back teeth are in good shape, all aligned well.
His lower incisors were covered in a build up of muck which was going manky hence I couldn't see them. I felt a bit daft but the Vet cleared it off, it was quite built up. She advised me to get a volunteer to hold him so I can check him face on and clean him up in future. Not sure why it would all build up like that but I used a brush on him yesterday and it does the job ok.
As for his water works he's going to have an x-ray to check for stones as they can never feel anything.

 

[Wiebke]

Best of luck with the x-ray!

I am glad that his teeth are OK!