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Our Guinea is having teeth trouble! advice please?

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david71

david71

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Hello All and thanks for reading. One of our 2 year old male guineas has always been in good health but has recently been off his food. My mum has had him to the vets as I now live away. She took him on friday where the vet gave him 3 injections: Baytrill, Metoclopramide & Loxicom and told her to bring him back the following day where another vet examined him and said that he may need his back teeth filing down. Does this all sound right? From what my mum has told me the vet didn't sound too sure, almost as if they were guessing. They have quoted us that the proceedure will cost in the region of £80 and that the follow up course of anti-biotics will **** take the bill to £120 ish. Money is extremely tight at the moment, but we will of course find the funds to pay for whatever needs doing. I just need to be sure that the vet is positive what the problem is and isn't just making a guess that could end up not solving anything. The priority here is our little guineas health and well being, but I am growing a bit suspicious of some vets after some of the stories I have heard and was wondering if any one else here has had similar experiences with Guinea teeth problems. Does this all sound like common proceedure? Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance. David.
 
HI David,

this does sometimes happen. I am not very savvy with dental pigs but some people on here are, so keep bumping your thread until you get a reasonably acceptable reply.
In the meantime, I can only strongly suggest that you look for a rodentologist or a more specialised vet. I think it is better for the animal if a vet admits that their area of expertise falls ahort rather than go haphazardly about treatment which can be onerous, unnecessary and can harm the pig.
I think there is a sticky which recommends vets, there may be one near you.

Good luck
 
Teeth is always the first thing to be examined by a vet when a piggie stops eating and starts losing weight..... The vet probably wasn;t sure because it is difficult to see the back molars in a conscious piggie ( usually their mouth is full of half eaten food) Most vets therefore will prefer to put the piggie under anaesthetic, rinse out the mouth and check the back teeth...filing where necessary. Some vets will do "conscious" dentals but these are few and far between....and the best is Simon Maddock in Northampton who is quite a trek from lancashire!

I dont know who your vets are but it might be worth asking the vet who is going to perform the dental how many piggies theny have done in the last 12 months and what percentage had issues recovering from the anaesthetic as that should give you an idea of thier competence.

If you are looking for an exotic small mammal vet in the future, the only one in Lancs I can find who is on the RCVS approved list is
Ian Mostyn BVM&S CertZooMed MRCVS
Pennine Vets, 1 Bury Road, Tottington, Bury, Lancs. BL8 3HD
Tel: 01204 886655, fax: 01204 880077.
Email: [email protected]
Speciality: avian, REPTILIAN , small furries, fish.

There's also Molly Varga and Aidan Raftery at Ashleigh vets in south Manchester
http://www.vets4exotics.com/Movie.swf

However you do need to get him seen quickly as it sounds like he has not been eating properly for a bit. Do you know how much weight he has lost? It might be a good idea at the moment for your mum to keep a record of his weight on a daily basis to ensure he starts putting weight back on once his dental is done. She also needs to feed him mushed up pellets (dried pellets soaked in boiled water and allowed to cool to room temperature) as he will more likely eat these rather than hard dried food which could be painful for him at the moment. All the time your piggie isn;t eating properly he is getting weaker, his gut is not functioning properly and therefore it's important to find out what the problem is on monday and the only way to rule out teeth (which in all likelihood is probably the cause) is to let the vet put him under to examine his mouth properly.

Keeping fingers and paws crossed and hope it is jsut his teeth which is easily sorted.

HTH
x
 
Pebble said:
Teeth is always the first thing to be examined by a vet when a piggie stops eating and starts losing weight..... The vet probably wasn;t sure because it is difficult to see the back molars in a conscious piggie ( usually their mouth is full of half eaten food) Most vets therefore will prefer to put the piggie under anaesthetic, rinse out the mouth and check the back teeth...filing where necessary. Some vets will do "conscious" dentals but these are few and far between....and the best is Simon Maddock in Northampton who is quite a trek from lancashire!

I dont know who your vets are but it might be worth asking the vet who is going to perform the dental how many piggies theny have done in the last 12 months and what percentage had issues recovering from the anaesthetic as that should give you an idea of thier competence.

If you are looking for an exotic small mammal vet in the future, the only one in Lancs I can find who is on the RCVS approved list is
Ian Mostyn BVM&S CertZooMed MRCVS
Pennine Vets, 1 Bury Road, Tottington, Bury, Lancs. BL8 3HD
Tel: 01204 886655, fax: 01204 880077.
Email: [email protected]
Speciality: avian, REPTILIAN , small furries, fish.

There's also Molly Varga and Aidan Raftery at Ashleigh vets in south Manchester
http://www.vets4exotics.com/Movie.swf

However you do need to get him seen quickly as it sounds like he has not been eating properly for a bit. Do you know how much weight he has lost? It might be a good idea at the moment for your mum to keep a record of his weight on a daily basis to ensure he starts putting weight back on once his dental is done. She also needs to feed him mushed up pellets (dried pellets soaked in boiled water and allowed to cool to room temperature) as he will more likely eat these rather than hard dried food which could be painful for him at the moment. All the time your piggie isn;t eating properly he is getting weaker, his gut is not functioning properly and therefore it's important to find out what the problem is on monday and the only way to rule out teeth (which in all likelihood is probably the cause) is to let the vet put him under to examine his mouth properly.

Keeping fingers and paws crossed and hope it is jsut his teeth which is easily sorted.

HTH
x
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wow :) now thats why i joined the forum ,look at that for some help:)
 
Hi David i see our lovely Pebbles has given you some fab info (thanks again love xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) and the support from our other members.

Wishing your little boy lots of wheeeeeky loves xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
Thanks Pebble for a fab reply :)

From a personal experience I would like to say I have had a few piggies needing dental work. The first was by far the worst and at the time I didnt have a cavy savy vet ..... luckily I changed vet just in time and I am sure that saved her life. She now gets regular dentals done conscious and is a completely different piggle.

Hope your piggy gets on okay.
x
 
Huge thanks to all who have replied to this thread, especially Pebble for all that info. It is so much appreciated. We are in ****heroe, so I have called into the vets where our Guinea has been examined and spoke to the girl on the desk who has informed me that it is a proceedure that they have carried out many times and that they havn't had any problems. It was all a bit vague to be honest but I think that we are going to have to go with them as our guinea has already had the consultation with them and we simply can't afford to go elsewhere and pay for another consultation. Plus time is a factor too, we all work long hours and a trek to bury/manchester and back is going to be difficult to arrange. My poor mum is haggard as she is also looking after the kids, whilst syringe feeding the Guinea, walking the dogs etc. I can't afford to take any time off work to assist either. So it's looking like we are going to have to go with our usual vet. In an ideal world it would have been great to have a vet who has a particular speciality for Guineas. And if we had the money and time this is what we would be doing. I am going to call our vets now and book him in for his teeth doing asap. I will keep posting his progress here and will of course have more questions for you lovely folks. Thanks again to everyone for your concern and support. david.
 
I had to laugh at how your town name was censored! Good luck with the piggie.
 
can you get to ashleigh vets in whalley range manchester? they are great exotics vets and did a dental for my piggy chesney last week. :)
 
I quizzed our vet in ****heroe and it seems that they do a lot of dentals, but more rabbits than guinea pigs. They said that they have a strong success rate with them. I have booked our little fella in for wednesday morning so will keep you all posted. For the time being I am following the advice given here, my mum is syringe feeding him organic vegetable baby food ( as advised by the vet ) and also mashed up soft pellets cooled to room temp. He is looking very sorry for himself.....Is there anything else we could be doing for him? After his dental op on wednesday we will continue with the syringe feeding and we've also ordered him one of those wire ball things to stash the veg in ( I saw it in the other thread ) He will be antibiotics for a while won't he? I read somewhere here that it's also important to give him a pro-biotic. Can someone explain this further? In what form should we give him probiotic? It's a comfort to know that there is always going to be help and advice here :) David.
 
biscandmatt said:
can you get to ashleigh vets in whalley range manchester? they are great exotics vets and did a dental for my piggy chesney last week. :)
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Possibly, in future. He is booked into our vets in ****heroe now. Simply because he needs sorting asap, but I am gonna look into getting both Guineas with a vet who does specialize in small furries. Thanks for the info.
 
david71 said:
I quizzed our vet in ****heroe and it seems that they do a lot of dentals, but more rabbits than guinea pigs. They said that they have a strong success rate with them. I have booked our little fella in for wednesday morning so will keep you all posted. For the time being I am following the advice given here, my mum is syringe feeding him organic vegetable baby food ( as advised by the vet ) and also mashed up soft pellets cooled to room temp. He is looking very sorry for himself.....Is there anything else we could be doing for him? After his dental op on wednesday we will continue with the syringe feeding and we've also ordered him one of those wire ball things to stash the veg in ( I saw it in the other thread ) He will be antibiotics for a while won't he? I read somewhere here that it's also important to give him a pro-biotic. Can someone explain this further? In what form should we give him probiotic? It's a comfort to know that there is always going to be help and advice here :) David.
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a) great he's at the vets on wednesday! In the mean time you need to agrssively feed him 120ml if poss a day and also check his weight daily.....this is a really critical time for him.....
b) OK..they're bunny people but should be competent with guineas...however you may need to factor in a "post-vet" visit to Simon at Northampton (very reasonable ££) after the event if he doesn;t "pick up" within 48 hours of the dental....I am prepared to help you with transport if needs be as I have a relatively free August and can do a trip early next week (sooner if necessary provided Simon is available)
c) organic baby food (especially Ella's ..the ones with more veg than fruit) is fine provided that there is also a lot of pellet mush going with it..however if his gut is already a bit sensitive and his poos a bit different then the baby food could cause bloat so be on the lookout for reduced pooh size/reduced food intake/hollow sounding swollen tummy and stop baby food if necessary. Hay hay and more hay is great...and mushed pellets
d) PAIN RELIEF is what he really needs...from wednesday onwards...make sure the vet discharges him with metacam (few do this) after his dental..antibiotics are not so important unless he already has a tooth abcess etc on examination
e) if he is given antibiotics a lot of people recommend a probioitic...
Antibiotics can be quite fierce/broad spectrum and can destroy not only the harmful bugs but also the natural bugs in a piggie gut that act to normally prevent harmful bugs gaining a hold. Vets are normally very careful about the type of antibioitics they prescibe for guineas as this is very important and is what sets guineas apart from other animals in terms of the type of antibiotics prescribed (penicillins etc can strip the piggie gut and cause other harmful bacteria to take over and seriously harm the piggie concerned) Most probably if you are given an antibiotic you will be given baytril or septrin .....they are great for piggies but will still knock out some of the beneficial bugs so a probiotic helps to add these beneficial bugs back into the gut and stop diarrhoea. You need to give probioitics at least 2 hours after the antibiotic....Suitable probiotics are avipro, fibreplex and bio-lapis.....do NOT give dairy based lactobacillus/acidophilus/human probioitics as they are completely different

Most important: weigh daily, syringe daily; monitor poo size/shape/frequency daily....if there is any change then straight back to the vets


Loads more I could add...if you PM/email me your details I will send you my phone number so you (or your mum) can ring me if you have any further questions.

HTH
x
 
Hey David, I live here (not going to type it cause of the censor!) too! Which vets do you use? Myerscough or Mearleys?

I use Myerscough, though I might switch to Mearleys as they do have a 'small animal' vet. I got in touch with them after having problems with one of my girls, and although I didn't need to go to them in the end; they gave me the details of a vet that knows guinea pigs and if it's the one I remember from when we had to go to them in an emergency a good few years ago now, he was extremely knowledgeable about piggies.

That said, as a general go-to vet for most things that go wrong with piggies, either vets are fantastic. Would be worth looking for an exotics vet further afield though if you're worried. Myerscough did dentals on my rabbit for a few years and they were very good with him; but the vets here do see far more rabbits than guinea pigs. :)
 
Thanks again Pebble for your advice. That is really good to know and so kind of you to offer your assistance. Thanks also for clarifying the probiotics too. Where will I be able to get the products you mention? Just spoke to my mum who says that our little guinea has perked up a bit today, is taking a little hay on his own and some grass that she has picked. She is also regularly syringe feeding too. I'm going to send you a pm too. Unfortunatley I have literally just moved away so can't be around to assist my mum, but it might be a good idea if my mum had your number to give you a call, it's really good of you to do that. David.
 
Thanks ghostbusterbunny! small world eh? We have 2 dogs and 2 cats too, we have always used Myerscough. So has my sister who has 4 cats. It's always a gamble with Vets and my confidence with Myerscough was shaken when they amputated a leg from one of my sisters elderly cats (she died from the trauma of it ) and lookin back now I think that they should have forseen that and advised against it, instead we had a £300 bill which of course was secondary to the upset of losing the cat. My point is that Vets are like garages really, you have to put your complete trust in them that they will do right by you and most importantly your beloved pet, but there are times when you do wonder. That's why these forums are such a great resource. My sister has used Mearleys a few times too. I didn't know that they had a small animal vet there. I think that after the dental I will make enquiries to get them registered there. It's reassuring to know that Myerscough were successful with your Bunny though, so thanks for that. :)
 
david71 said:
Thanks again Pebble for your advice. That is really good to know and so kind of you to offer your assistance. Thanks also for clarifying the probiotics too. Where will I be able to get the products you mention? Just spoke to my mum who says that our little guinea has perked up a bit today, is taking a little hay on his own and some grass that she has picked. She is also regularly syringe feeding too. I'm going to send you a pm too. Unfortunatley I have literally just moved away so can't be around to assist my mum, but it might be a good idea if my mum had your number to give you a call, it's really good of you to do that. David.
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you could ask your mum to join the forum too, then she can come on and ask stuff if she needs to. Hope your piggy is ok x
 
doglovinpiggylover said:
you could ask your mum to join the forum too, then she can come on and ask stuff if she needs to. Hope your piggy is ok x
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Great idea! but she has trouble operating a simple tv remote! I can safely say without any doubt that there's more chance of it raining peanuts than my mum ever being able to use a computer. lol....it's a shame as she'd love this forum though.
 
david71 said:
Thanks ghostbusterbunny! small world eh? We have 2 dogs and 2 cats too, we have always used Myerscough. So has my sister who has 4 cats. It's always a gamble with Vets and my confidence with Myerscough was shaken when they amputated a leg from one of my sisters elderly cats (she died from the trauma of it ) and lookin back now I think that they should have forseen that and advised against it, instead we had a £300 bill which of course was secondary to the upset of losing the cat. My point is that Vets are like garages really, you have to put your complete trust in them that they will do right by you and most importantly your beloved pet, but there are times when you do wonder. That's why these forums are such a great resource. My sister has used Mearleys a few times too. I didn't know that they had a small animal vet there. I think that after the dental I will make enquiries to get them registered there. It's reassuring to know that Myerscough were successful with your Bunny though, so thanks for that. :)
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We did have an incident with them and a rabbit that was allowed to come home without being fully recovered from a spay; I said I'd never use them again. However, the vet that operated on her is no longer there and the main vet that does pretty much all appointments there now is great. She even tries to lower the costs of things as much as she can (which in our experience is extremely rare!) and knows quite a lot about rabbits and guinea pigs. We like her. :)

The vet you'd want to talk to at Mearleys is Simon Sutcliffe; he's the one the receptionist passed me on to for Munchie and told me that he's experienced with smaller animals (though he also does farm work). If we need a vet again in the future I think we might try them just to see what they're like with my piggies. My friend uses them for rabbits and she says they're great; so they might be worth a try! :)
 
Ah, thanks for asking....sorry, I meant to keep you updated, but the past few days have been a bit of a whirlwind. Right....we took him and dropped him in at the vets on wed morning and in the afternoon the vet called my mum to say that upon examination it seemed that the guinea had a tooth deformity that had caused his 2 lower molars to arch up over his tongue and almost meet in the middle, which would explain of course why he had stopped eating. Poor little thing, we had no idea....both our guineas do get a lot of attention and are extremely well looked after by my mum, they are housed in a double sized hutch indoors, get cleaned out every other day, have outdoor runs on the lawn, and a good varied diet. What has been lacking is regular check ups with the vet, for the simple reason that we simply can't afford. Like i said in an earlier post, we also have 2 dogs and 2 cats, and each time we go to the vets we are more and more stunned at just how expensive it's becoming. That's no excuse though, we should have taken them before now for an MOT, but saying that, they have always seemed in excellent health (until just recently)....Anyway, The vet filed down the back molars to normal and told us that worse case scenario it is a proceedure that will need doing every 6 months or so. She also said that they removed another molar that was loose and have clipped the lower front incisor, does this all sound fairly standard? They did say that he is a strong guinea and that he responded well and recovered well from the GA. On the day they gave him 3 injections: a painkiller, a gut stimulant? and an antibiotic. and they gave us baytrill and loxicom to take home with us. He seems to be fine in himself and has been syringe fed since but just today has started taking food for himself again. He weighs 1.3 kg at the moment, he's definitly lost weight and the vet says that an ideal weight for a guinea of his age (2.5 yrs) and size would be around 1.8 kg. So it's just a matter of monitering him now and making sure he puts the weight back on. The vet bill (£170.00) which covers the initial consultation, the follow up the following day and the proceedure itself has crippled us! lol......My mum is worried as the dogs and cats are now getting older that we arn't going to be able to manage. We will have to just plod on as usual, we're a close family and always rally round when needs must. One option is for my older sister, who lives up in the lakes and has literally a house (and garden) full of animals, to take on the guineas. She also does voluntary work at an animal rescue centre, and so I think she might get reduced treatment.....not sure about that though, so will have to check. I should explain here that the guineas came to us a couple of years ago on a temporary basis (long story) but the plan was for us to find them a good home for a friend who was moving away, inevitibly we ended up keeping them....we're all animal mad! But to be completely honest, it has been difficult, as we all already have so much on our plates....that said, the Guineas have definitly found a very, very good home with us, they have the life of Riley! Anyway, all in all, everything went well. thanks to everyone here for your advice/support and concern. Top people! will keep you all updated on his progress, David.
 
Has the vet suggested a follow up appointment to check how the teeth are looking in a couple of weeks? It's important to keep on top of things because they can grow out of control again very quickly.

Your vet has said 1.8 kg is a normal weight for a guinea pig of his age! I am sorry, but that is not the case at all. About a kilo is the average, although they do come in all shapes and sizes.
 
Yes, we will be taking him back later next week for them to check on his progress. I was over at my mums yesterday and spent a fair bit of time watching him, he is drinking a lot of water and is trying to take his nuggets on his own. He's also having little nibbles of fresh veg too. About his weight, going by what you have said there I think that he must have been very overweight prior to all this as he is now 1.3kg and he has lost a lot of weight. So you would say that an ideal weight would be around a kilo?
 
david71 said:
Yes, we will be taking him back later next week for them to check on his progress. I was over at my mums yesterday and spent a fair bit of time watching him, he is drinking a lot of water and is trying to take his nuggets on his own. He's also having little nibbles of fresh veg too. About his weight, going by what you have said there I think that he must have been very overweight prior to all this as he is now 1.3kg and he has lost a lot of weight. So you would say that an ideal weight would be around a kilo?
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Around the kilo is an average. Some piggies would look really thin at a kilo whereas others look just right. Piggies come in all shapes and sizes and there is no hard and fast rule about how much they should weigh. My piggies weigh between 850g and 1.4g and they are all a normal weight for their body size.

I am glad your piggie will be getting a re-check, as so many vets do dental work and then never follow it up.

Cut all your piggies veg up small and grate carrot. If he is struggling to pick up the veg you can poke tiny bits into the side of his mouth so he can chew it up. It helps him get used to eating for himself again.
 
To me 1.3 kilos sounds about right for a male actually... All the boys I've ever owned have been way over a kilo fully grown; my heaviest being 1.6 and he was nowhere near fat. If he's lost weight and didn't look too big before hand then it is perfectly plausible that he is just a big lad! You do get smaller ones too! 1.8 does sound a bit big to me though. If he's 1.3 now and has lost weight, he should probably be more round the 1.4-1.6 range I think. 1.3 is decent for a healthy boy; so considering that yours has lost weight he sounds like a naturally larger pig.

I'm glad that all has gone well with your boy! I hope now his teeth are sorted he'll bounce back and be a super happy piggy again in no time! :)
 
Hello David, just read up on this ,have been away for a while. I have seen you have thankfully had great help from the forum :) My "old" piggy William constantly had teeth problems of all sort (he was a Peruvian) and although it sounds a lot of money it seems about right. Every time he had an op it was around £50 but that was 17 year ago, so I think you 've paid normal prices. Poor piggy, though, I remember mine always in complete distress when entering in the carrier (despite it being filled with all favourite foods:0) Hope you and the little fellow are alright. I have to go to the Whalley Range surgery on Saturday with Henry, his claws are getting too long and as some of them are black I don't feel too confident clipping them myself:...
 
I too have only just caught up with this thread!

You are not alone having a pig with teeth issues! Mine too started teeth problems at the age of 2 (she's now 3).

By the sounds of it, your pigs teeth were quite over grown if they were trapping the tongue. It may mean that the roots of the cheek teeth have been displaced and the ligaments holding the teeth may have become loose. This may mean the teeth will never wear themselves down properly as the teeth aren't aligning any more.
Its more of a management issue rather than a cure. Its been mentioned before about needing regular dental treatment. Which is where i'm at at the moment.
Last year I had to have a dental in June, then again in July. Then we went for a year by managing her diet with more fibre, less carbohydrate nuggets etc... She had to have another dental last month, then again today ( :( ). So looks like I'm cutting nuggets out again..

So yeh main things I've been doing for the past year with my pig:
Keep weighing to detect any loss,
Increase fibre consumption to grind down teeth,
Keep on the look out for any signs of over grown teeth.

Dont know if this is of any use for you.

Hope all goes well!
 
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