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Not sure what to do - possible dental problems.

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LizS

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Took my 5 year old sow to the vet yesterday as she's lost weight and seems to be struggling to eat. Vet looked at her mouth and seems to think she may have uneven wear on her back teeth. The options seem limited - either filing under GA (not a cavy-specialist practice), or PTS. At the moment she is home with metacam for the weekend, but is still only eating a tiny bit. My hope is to try and get her weight up a bit more to give her the best chance of coming through the GA. I can't decide whether to try and find a cavy vet near me (Bristol), possibly to be told she needs GA anyway or just go ahead with my current practice. I had another pig who had a GA with them and she came through, but was pretty sick and ultimately had to be PTS.
 
Sorry to hear you are having problems with your girl :(.

I would doubt the vet got a proper look at her back teeth unless she was sedated or they were a very experienced guinea vet with the right equipment. Personally, I would see an exotics vet with a speciality in small mammals. There should be one somewhere around Bristol I'm sure. I would only trust our exotics vet to do a GA on our guineas, not our regular cat vets as they just don't see enough of them to have the experience needed.

I would not go down the pts route before getting teeth checked properly by an experienced vet, it may be fixable really easily if it is a teeth issue.

Are you hand feeding in the meantime? I use Critical Care for small herbivores which you can make up into a paste or you can use your regular pellets mashed up with warm water & feed through a syringe with the end cut off. I find a handful of grass from the back lawn is the best thing to tempt a poorly piggie to eat. While your guinea is unwell I would weigh every day to see if she is keeping her weight on, they can lose it really quickly.

You really do need to get some food into her, a weekend of hardly eating may make her so weak that GA becomes extremely risky either way. Please say if you need any hand feeding advice, there are loads of experienced people on here who will help :)

Best wishes

shiny
 
Thanks for your reply. The vet did only use a scope and said she couldn't see that well, but I'm pretty sure it is a dental issue as pig seems reasonably happy apart from the lack of eating. I did try syringe feeding her last night with mashed pellets, which seemed to help. I have some lettuce (her favourite) and I'll give the grass a try too.

I know of one exotics practice in Bristol (Highcroft group), but I don't know of any others or reputations.
 
I would give them a ring & ask which vet is best for guineas & then get her seen, any delay where there is an eating issue can be costly. No vet using just a scope & looking in the front of the mouth can see the back teeth because of the shape of a guinea's mouth / cheeks. Ignore that vet & see a better one. Hope she is ok soon :)
 
Hello, sorry to hear your little girl is having problems with her teeth.

I would certainly get her checked out by a experienced vet who is confident in dental work. Some vets can do dental without a GA but very occasionally for difficult problems GA may be used even by experienced vets. Our first piggie had 3 GA dentals before we found a vet that could perform them without GA.
But first of all it is worth getting her checked over by a cavy savy vet to find out where the problem lies.

A few of our members on here are from the Bristol area I have pm'd them and pointed them to this thread so the may be able to recomend a vet for you nearby.

As regards to feeding her up, Critical Care is a good idea http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxbow-Critical-Care-Herbivores-Pack/dp/B004W7511K/ref=pd_sim_grocery_2
Please weigh her daily from now on so you know her weight and if she is losing. You can also try grating up her food such a carrot. Is she managing hay?
 
No, she doesn't seem to be eating much of anything. She's due a dose of metacam shortly and I'll syringe feed har again as well.

I've booked her in at Highcroft tomorrow, fingers crossed she makes it through the night and hopefully they can help.
 
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LizS said:
No, she doesn't seem to be eating much of anything. She's due a dose of metacam shortly and I'll syringe feed har again as well.

I've booked her in at Highcroft tomorrow, fingers crossed she makes it through the night and hopefully they can help.
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Try and syringe feed regular. The metacam will help with any pain. Fingers crossed for her, what's her name?
 
She's called Honey. She's a Lilac (I think).
 
Best thoughts & wishes from me to Honey. Hope the vets can give some good guidance tomorrow x
 
Well, she's still here this morning! She's nibbling a little bit of hay, so I think there's hope she'll be ok with a decent vet on board!
 
Back from the vet. Assorted potions to be administered over the next few days in the hope of getting her weight up and she'll be having a dental on Friday.
 
Thanks for the update, fingers crossed and lots of healing vibes to Honey.
 
Poor girl! I definitely would try to see a vet who has experience with guinea pig dentals. It's a finicky procedure, and if it's not done well, it can make eating MORE difficult. Having had a bad experience with a vet with limited knowledge of cavy dentals working on a piggie with serious dental issues, I would definitely try to find someone with experience. Hope Honey feels better- in the meantime, syringe-feed if she's not eating to keep her weight and strength up. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
 
I've had previous piggies put under GA for dentals in the past, but since then I've found a retired rodentologist in my area who runs a little gp rescue with his wife in his house and does multiple procedures without any sedation. If I can help it I'll never let my pigs have a dental with GA again after watching him sort my Dylan out. He just put a small brace in his mouth, did a bit of teeth clipping and filing, and that was it. Dylan was hardly bothered and it lasted no longer than 3 minutes. If you can find someone like this in your area I'd highly recommend it, the recovery period of GA's can be so long especially for poorly pigs. I've had vets chop off too much tooth before meaning the pig couldn't even grasp any food for days after the op. Never mind the price of the whole thing!
Good luck to Honey, teeth seem to be guineas worst enemy.
 
Quick update, I had been syringe feeding Honey and her weight had just stabilised and she seemed stronger this morning, but she took a turn for the worst and passed away a short time ago. RIP little one x
 
So sorry to read you've lost her. Big hugs to you

Sleep well little one

RIP Honey
x x
 
So sorry about Honey :( hope you are ok
 
I'm so sorry for your loss. It's always difficult. ((HUGS)) to you!
 
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