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Dental Only One Front Tooth! Anyone else had something similar?

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sbenbow

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Hi Everyone,

Our Guinea Pig, Charlie, had an issue with his bottom front tooth. It basically fractured off sideways, but also fractured downwards.

He had to have an operation under general anaesthetic to remove the tooth down to the root. It may, or may not grow back in 6 months time.

But, a week later, he decided to do a kamakaze jump after having his medication and he hit his mouth on our tiled floor. A cut lip, but the Vet said he was generally okay and it hadn't interferred with his operation / missing tooth area. However, after 5 days, the top teeth obviously grew out a little and it transpires they had actually broken at the gum line. As a result, both front top teeth fell out within 4 hours of each other. Another trip to the Vet (we now know them very well!) and he is basically fine, but with one bottom and two top teeth missing!

He seems well in himself, and is eating/drinking and not really loosing weight (he did initially, but is now more stable). His eating is a LOT slower than before, and hand-feeding him cut strips of veggies from time to time seems to help. We've seen him chew hay, but no where near as much as he did before.

Apart from being really grumpy at having medication syringed twice a day, he is still his loveable (and trusting) self the rest of the time.

Does anyone else have a guinea pig with three (or four) front teeth missing? Either temporarily or permantly? And can they share any helpful hints or tips on food, recovery, etc?
 
Have you been weighing daily or weekly? I would move to daily at the same time. If he’s not maintaining then you need to step in with syringe feeding to help him. Hay makes up the biggest part of their diet (at least 80%) and you can’t judge how much he’s eating by eye, hence the weighing.

What medication is he having? I’ll tag @furryfriends (TEAS)
 
sbenbow said:
Hi Everyone,

Our Guinea Pig, Charlie, had an issue with his bottom front tooth. It basically fractured off sideways, but also fractured downwards.

He had to have an operation under general anaesthetic to remove the tooth down to the root. It may, or may not grow back in 6 months time.

But, a week later, he decided to do a kamakaze jump after having his medication and he hit his mouth on our tiled floor. A cut lip, but the Vet said he was generally okay and it hadn't interferred with his operation / missing tooth area. However, after 5 days, the top teeth obviously grew out a little and it transpires they had actually broken at the gum line. As a result, both front top teeth fell out within 4 hours of each other. Another trip to the Vet (we now know them very well!) and he is basically fine, but with one bottom and two top teeth missing!

He seems well in himself, and is eating/drinking and not really loosing weight (he did initially, but is now more stable). His eating is a LOT slower than before, and hand-feeding him cut strips of veggies from time to time seems to help. We've seen him chew hay, but no where near as much as he did before.

Apart from being really grumpy at having medication syringed twice a day, he is still his loveable (and trusting) self the rest of the time.

Does anyone else have a guinea pig with three (or four) front teeth missing? Either temporarily or permantly? And can they share any helpful hints or tips on food, recovery, etc?
Click to expand...

Hi!

Please monitor his weight by weighing once day and step in with syringe feeding the crucial grass hay fibre that is needed to keep the teeth at the back ground down as needed to cover the gap between what he can eat himself and what he can't in terms of fibre. Hay makes normally 80% of what a piggy eats in a day but what he cannot pick up and eat right now. Veg and pellets only make 15% and ideally only 5% of what a piggy is eating - that basically covers a snack but not even a main human meal.

Keep in mind that guinea pigs have evolved eating mainly grass/hay and that their crucial back teeth have adapted their fast growth rate against the very abrasive silica in the hay. Their gut has adapted to their food by working optimally on hay/grass fibre but breaking it down during a two runs through the gut to get as much nutirents out of it.

You can in a pinch step in with mushed up pellets for a few days in an emergency but even timothy based ones contain a lot less fibre and much more filler than hay and won't keep those back teeth ground down over a longer time.
You need some timothy based recovery food for that job.

The front teeth will grow back and self-sharpen again when they start meeting; the are there to pick up and cut any food . A piggy can even live with just one lower or upper tooth with a check up once or twice a year. Just hang in there and tailor the support feed accordingly over the coming 2-3 weeks (depending on how gar below the gum line the break has happened. Incisors are aabout 4 cm long and run along the upper and lower jaw to roots just in front of the premolars and molars at the back of the mouth.
 
You may need to take from back to the vets and get his current single incisor filled down as it will grow long as there are no corresponding incisor to wear against atm.
guinea lynx web site has a great page on Broken incisors, good luck
 
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the advice... it has been quite a worrying 2 weeks

We are weighing him daily. Before this, he was a little bit overweight and on a "diet" (small portion of veggies, and "sensible" portion of nuggets, but unlimited hay). He is now almost an "ideal" weight (just under 1.2kg, but looking/feeling about right - not a lot of "chub, but not a lot of skin and bones either).

It is the hay that we are worried about too. We don't see him eating much timothy hay, or drinking much either. As well as chopping up some of the hay (not all - just enough so that he can have some "easy to pick up hay if he wants) we have also been supplementing with dandelion hay (which he is eating) and also some grass cuttings from our garden (it was overgrown and some areas gone to seed - he loves those). We clear the grass cuttings out if they haven't eaten them as we don't want them to go dry.

It's just wait, see, and lots of TLC.
 
What made you think he was overweight? What was his weight and what did his ‘heft’ feel like? How old is he by the way?

Fresh grass is a good one. What’s his weight been like - maintaining of losing?
 
sbenbow said:
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the advice... it has been quite a worrying 2 weeks

We are weighing him daily. Before this, he was a little bit overweight and on a "diet" (small portion of veggies, and "sensible" portion of nuggets, but unlimited hay). He is now almost an "ideal" weight (just under 1.2kg, but looking/feeling about right - not a lot of "chub, but not a lot of skin and bones either).

It is the hay that we are worried about too. We don't see him eating much timothy hay, or drinking much either. As well as chopping up some of the hay (not all - just enough so that he can have some "easy to pick up hay if he wants) we have also been supplementing with dandelion hay (which he is eating) and also some grass cuttings from our garden (it was overgrown and some areas gone to seed - he loves those). We clear the grass cuttings out if they haven't eaten them as we don't want them to go dry.

It's just wait, see, and lots of TLC.
Click to expand...

Did a vet say he was overweight? There is no ideal weight as such - it is what is a good condition for the individual piggy by checking their heft.

Their diet should always be unlimited hay, one cup of veg per day and one tablespoon of nuggets per day.

If a piggy isn’t eating enough grass hay (Timothy, meadow, orchard) then that is a concern - it’s their main diet.
What do you mean dandelion hay? Do you mean fresh dandelions that you are leaving to dry - Dandelions should only be fed in small amounts. Or do you mean the commercial packs of hay with dandelions in?
Grass is absolutely perfect for them to eat
 
What about crumbled hay cookies? He might manage hay in that form x
 
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