Dental Missing bottom incisors

[lovemylayla]

Newbie here! Been searching the forum and found some information- but hoping for a little more. Has anyone had long term success with a piggy who has completely lost their bottom front incisors? One of our family piggies, Layla, lost her bottom two teeth to infection about 7 months ago. We've gone to the vet twice and he's filed the top teeth down twice. The last visit he said he doesn't want to continue to sedate Layla - as it's tough on her body. He is pretty much suggesting we euthanize. She's still very vibrant and active- she eats pellet food and we have to hand feed vegetables. She can't drink out of a dripper- she has to drink out of a water dish. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Piggies&buns]

If you could tell us where you are located then we may be able to help further.
@furryfriends (TEAS) May be able to offer further advice

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Three of our residents, Bear, Maddie and Tootie, all have missing incisors and visit our vet, Simon Maddock, every three weeks, to have the opposing incisors burred. This is done without anaesthetic and takes about a minute or two. Please do not even consider euthanasia for this, as guinea pigs can live a completely normal life with missing incisors Phone around your local vet and ask if they are willing to bur incisors without GA.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Why do you have to hand-feed veggies? Our three are able to eat leafy veg absolutely fine and carrot is grated. Try cutting leafy veg into thin strips as this helps. We also pick grass for them. All three are excellent hay eaters!

 

[Bill & Ted]

my piggie Bill lost an incisor last year, it broke down to the root. He goes from 3 incisors to 3.5 incisors and we take him to Simon Maddock in Northampton to burr the opposing incisor down every 6 weeks or so. If you let us know where you are we might be able to help you find a piggie savvy vet who can do conscious burring. There is a very good vet in Brixham who can do this too, she has treated Bill on a couple of occasions and done a great job!

 

[VickiA]

We have a long term resident Melody who was born without lower incisors. Here is her story Melody - Forum Sponsor Piggy - The Potteries
She had her top incisors burred until their quality deteriorated and they were removed. So she has no incisors.
She’s able to eat hay pellets and veggies perfectly well as long as the veggies are in strips. If you look at her story you’ll see the techniques we used to help her learn to eat all the normal food types a piggy needs.

 

[Wiebke]

The function of the incisors is to pick up and cut any food which is then transported by tongue to the molars and premolars at the back for grinding down. By cutting veg into strips you replace the cutting job. Your piggy can learn to use its tongue in conjunction with the remaining two incisors for the picking up. Make sure that your pellets are not too large for easier pick-up.

Here is my Hywel with his veg cut into stripes. Hywel was suffering from a recurring incisor root abscess at the time so any pressure on the affected incisor was very painful and resulted in a comparable eating issue. I sprinkle feed pellets for enrichment reasons.
Carrots are best fed grated as they are quite hard, but herbs and fresh greens in strips go down best!

I hope that the picture helps you.


You can also watch several videos of @furryfriends (TEAS) dental sanctuary piggies eating on the TEAS facebook page: The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary (for guinea pigs with extra needs)

 

[miowmix]

One of my pigs Marshy has no bottom incisors (they fell out), his top ones grow long and wonky. Every month or so I take him to get the top ones clipped either at the local rescue or the vets (it costs about £10). He copes fine without his bottom teeth, in fact he's the fattest pig in my tribe! We do have to cut his veg into strips though. He eats science select nuggets and hay without any problems - I think he just uses his back teeth. He's been like this a few years, he's 6 now.

 

[Hils]

We have a piggie who was born without bottom incisors. She got very stressed by vet visits and 7 years of monthly visits for teeth burring were not an option for us so after lots of research we decided to go for the option of having her top incisors removed as well. She recovered brilliantly and is now an extremely healthy little piggie living with a herd. She eats the smaller (blackcurrant) Burgess pellets, hay, carrot peelings, shredded cabbage, matchsticks of peppers etc independently and in the garden if the grass is long enough she can even graze! I'm so pleased she doesn't have to have continual vet visits because for her (of all my piggies she dislikes handling the most) it would have been stressful. We often hand feed her and although she still hates being picked up she is always the first to come to a human hand holding out food! If teeth burring isn't right for your piggie there is another option to consider!

 

[Hils]

Here's my little Aphrodite proving that she can still eat peppers!

 

[Hils]

Bother, my rubbish phone does nothing then posts duplicates - definitely the phone not operator error . Can an admin delete the duplicate posts please - sorry!