New piggie has dental problems, help!

[Ellasyn]

I found a lady locally that has piggies for rehoming and was helpful in finding a suitable quiet piggle to come live with my piggles. That was a week ago. New piggle settled in well, but I noticed she wasnt eating lettuce leaves with the usual guinea pig gusto and thought I had better check her teeth. Ive had bunnies before with dental problems, and they were quite manageable once we got the hang of working out what worked best for them and early signs of teeth overgrowing. However, this is my first dental pig.

Her incisors were misaligned, as you look at her the left bottom one looked long, and had an inner shelf and outer spike. It was about 1mm of misalignment plus 1mm of spur. Her teeth also look very peg like compared to my other piggles. I also noticed under the corresponding bad side of teeth, her jaw has a slight lump, hard and doesnt cause her pain but not the same shape as it should be. The vet wanted sedation to look at her back teeth and decided to see how she was now the teeth had been trimmed back to even levels before making any decisions. Ive got a bad feeling that its a very much long term thing and I ahve no experience with how best to deal with it.

What should I expect with her teeth? Is the misshapen under jaw a sign of something worse? Are her back teeth likely to also be bad? Should I supplement her food with syringe feed? She does seem to eat fine, just struggles with veggies as she cant manage big lumps. How are dental piggies managed? she's tiny but apparently about 8 months old, so I dont know if this has been ongoing and stunted her growth, or the small size is linked with multiple issues and she was a runt who I should expect more health issues from.

 

[Suzygpr]

If you could give your location hopefully we will be able to give you a recommendation for a vet experienced with piggy teeth - they are very much different to rabbit teeth but sadly unless experienced vets can make their problems worse by thinking they need to be shaped in the same way as rabbits.

 

[Claire W]

Hi. I am afraid I can not help as I have no experience what so ever. The first thing you need to do is make sure you have a good vet who is experienced with dental piggies.

Debbie (furryfriends) is one of the most knowledgable members regarding dental pigs and she has her own guinea pig sanctuary for piggies with special needs. Here is a thread she wrote that you may find useful http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?83085-Dental-piggies-and-their-supportive-care there are some other threads in the sticky section at the top of our health and illness section about dental piggies.

Hopefully she will see this thread but I think it would be useful to talk to her.

xx

 

[Ellasyn]

Thank you both, I'm based in suffolk, between bury st edmunds, diss thetford and stowmarket, but I believe theres a good guinea vet out towards cambridge Ive heard mentioned before?

 

[Suzygpr]

Simon Maddock is one of the most experienced and trusted vets when it comes to teeth (I send pigs to him all the way from South Wales!).

Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic, 1 Limehurst Square, Northampton. NN5 6LP - Dental specialist, neuter/spay Simon Maddock
http://www.catandrabbit.co.uk/index.html

These are recommended vets, though I am not aware of the level of dental experience.
Eastgate Veterinary Group,Bury St Edmunds.
http://www.eastgatevets.co.uk/1.page.html

 

[MargaretB]

I would strongly suggest x-rays to see the state of the roots. If the roots are overgrowing then that's when complications occur. Wishing you and your piggle all the best.

 

[Ellasyn]

Simon Maddock is one of the most experienced and trusted vets when it comes to teeth (I send pigs to him all the way from South Wales!).

Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic, 1 Limehurst Square, Northampton. NN5 6LP - Dental specialist, neuter/spay Simon Maddock
http://www.catandrabbit.co.uk/index.html

These are recommended vets, though I am not aware of the level of dental experience.
Eastgate Veterinary Group,Bury St Edmunds.
http://www.eastgatevets.co.uk/1.page.html

Thanks, Ill look into the northampton one, unless someone can strongly recommend eastgate as good for dental piggies.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

I do a lot of work with guinea pigs with dental issues and have permanent and temporary residents here at the Sanctuary. Simon Maddock has worked wonders with so many of these little guys, and if you wanted to get Simon to take a look at your piggie I would more than happy to help too. xx

 

[Lilly]

So sorry to hear you have a dental piggy. We acquired Peanut Butter when he was 1 month old and a month later discovered he had toofy problems. The vet, after the initial examination, advised me that it would be a lifelong problem as he was born with a misaligned jaw. He goes in practically every month to have treatment and he is now18 months old. So, with a good vet it can be managed. I do cut his vegies in small long, thin pieces, trying to mimic grass blades as much as possible. His hay is cut into 4 inch pieces. His dry food consists of small thin hay pellets, race oats, cracked lupins and chaff (short bits of hay) that I can get from a local animal food miller - everything small and thin. So far it all works and he always eats for himself and has no pain.

 

[Ellasyn]

I do a lot of work with guinea pigs with dental issues and have permanent and temporary residents here at the Sanctuary. Simon Maddock has worked wonders with so many of these little guys, and if you wanted to get Simon to take a look at your piggie I would more than happy to help too. xx

Thank you! Thats such a lovely offer. I'm monitoring her eating closely for a couple of days to see how she is to decide if theres likely to be further issues to this front teeth incident, which I'm guessing there will be. I'm hoping as she hadnt lost interest in/stopped eating that she is an easily manageable case. Being so young and having dental issues though makes me thing trauma or genetics, neither of which will be easily corrected. I'm going to look into supplementing her feed with a little syringe food with added vit c as its the veggies she found difficult and I really dont want her lacking in vit c to complicate things. I feel awful for not noticing sooner.

 

[Ellasyn]

So sorry to hear you have a dental piggy. We acquired Peanut Butter when he was 1 month old and a month later discovered he had toofy problems. The vet, after the initial examination, advised me that it would be a lifelong problem as he was born with a misaligned jaw. He goes in practically every month to have treatment and he is now18 months old. So, with a good vet it can be managed. I do cut his vegies in small long, thin pieces, trying to mimic grass blades as much as possible. His hay is cut into 4 inch pieces. His dry food consists of small thin hay pellets, race oats, cracked lupins and chaff (short bits of hay) that I can get from a local animal food miller - everything small and thin. So far it all works and he always eats for himself and has no pain.

I will try making her veggies a more manageable shape, more like her pellets which she manages well. I'm not sure whether to remove her from the group to give her veggies as the others eat so fast. thankfully the harringtons pellets are quite small and thin and easy to get hold of to eat, and she seems to cope ok with hay once she's got it. would growing some grass be edible for her do you think?

 

[Lilly]

I will try making her veggies a more manageable shape, more like her pellets which she manages well. I'm not sure whether to remove her from the group to give her veggies as the others eat so fast. thankfully the harringtons pellets are quite small and thin and easy to get hold of to eat, and she seems to cope ok with hay once she's got it. would growing some grass be edible for her do you think?

I haven't had to remove Peanut Butter as he eats just as fast as his cagemate Hazelnut! Perhaps if you cut the vegies in small pieces she will be able to keep up with the others. I'd monitor and if not feed her separately to ensure she is getting enough vegies. Mine love grass and dandelion leaves, fortunately I have a yard full of it. Grass is their natural food.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Check out the Samctuary website at www.teasnorthampton.co.uk It will tell you a bit more about the work the Sanctuary does and the success stories. My contact details are on the website if you wanted a chat on the phone sometime xx