• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Dental Piggies Teeth.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Leah Jacques

Leah Jacques

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
40
Reaction score
16
Points
95
Location
Birmingham, UK
Both my boys have just had to have major dental work this was why they stopped eating and lost so much weight.
They are both grinding their teeth now ( never have before) They wolfed down the recovery food for the first few days ( had work done on Tuesday) but not so keen now.
We have softened pellets for them and given them some veg. I was told I spoilt them too much with veg, that's why they'd not ground their teeth down.
Can anyone suggest any foods their piggies love, I'll try anything as I hate trying to make them eat from a syringe

Thanks in advance.
 
Leah Jacques said:
Both my boys have just had to have major dental work this was why they stopped eating and lost so much weight.
They are both grinding their teeth now ( never have before) They wolfed down the recovery food for the first few days ( had work done on Tuesday) but not so keen now.
We have softened pellets for them and given them some veg. I was told I spoilt them too much with veg, that's why they'd not ground their teeth down.
Can anyone suggest any foods their piggies love, I'll try anything as I hate trying to make them eat from a syringe

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Please continue to weigh them daily and top them up with hand feed if necessary. What they need is fibre, fibre fibre - especially as long as they cannot eat hay fully, which should make up to 80% of the diet and is responsible for grinding down the crucial back teeth and keeping the guts (and therefore general health) working optimally. Vegetables should make only about 10% of the daily food intake.

Here is our guide for a balanced long term diet: https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...or-a-balanced-general-guinea-pig-diet.116460/
 
Have you tried feeding a variety of hays? including course hay- the courser the hay the more it will grind down the teeth.
if you can hand feed odd strands of hay as often as you can, this may encourage them to eat more hay of their own accord. although i understand that eating may be a bit awkward for them still if they have just had a dental.

As wiebke says hay should be around 80% of their diet & check out the link she has given.

Speedy recovery to your boys & healing vibes being sent from the girls & I . xx
 
Thank you everyone. Still very worried about my boys. Scruffy is just sitting there grinding his teeth, it's a horrible noise. When they are together ( had to separate them in the day) onion is constantly soaking wet and scruffy seems to groom his chin and make it worse. Onion went really down hill again and they both lost another 100g. There isn't much more for them to loose . We are hand feeding them recovery food as often as we can. The vet said it can take up to two weeks to start eating properly again. I don't think they will last two weeks of I can't get them eating properly. Scruffy will take most food from you but he mushes it and then it comes back out again. onion is currently trying to bite the wood on his hutch so hopefully that will help him.
Sorry to rant on randomly, Just worried about them. X
 
Lots of good advice above.

If you are worried then please either go back to your current vet or go to another vet who is experienced with cavy dental issues.......given your location I would suggest seeing Maria Kubiak at Manor vets at Edgbaston
http://www.manorvets.co.uk/edgbaston/

Alternatiively you may want to consider getting them down to Northampton to see Simon Maddock when he returns from holiday next week (monday) (providing you can keep food going in and poop coming out until then)
x
 
As said before, Simon Maddock is your best bet, but he is not in the surgery until 13th April. He works with the dental pigs from the sanctuary, the only one of its kind in the UK.

If your piggies aren't eating at all, you need to be looking at getting 120ml of syringe food into them per 24 hours in order to maintain weight. The best way to get it in is by using a 1ml syringe with the tip cut off (to reduce the pressure). If your piggies aren't willing to have the recovery food, then you can mush up some of their usual nuggets with boiling water, allow it to cool and then syringe that instead. You may find they take it better. Even if piggies struggle, you must try to get food into them - you will feel awful by having to force them, but they really do need it.

If they are eating at all, you could try softening some porridge oats. Otherwise, adding some barley grass powder to syringe food can boost the nutritional value.
 
We're having similar issues with our Scully (dental treatment 2 days ago) - he fights so much against the syringe. We have managed to get about 25mg down each day. He can't seem to pick things up, so we are feeding things into his mouth, but so hard to get him to take hay strands. However, we did try grass today and he eat a fair bit, which has semmed to have encouraged his appetite and he has eaten much better this evening (still not great), might be worth a try? Hope they get better soon & if you find another good thing to feed them please let me know!
 
Leah Jacques said:
Thank you everyone. Still very worried about my boys. Scruffy is just sitting there grinding his teeth, it's a horrible noise. When they are together ( had to separate them in the day) onion is constantly soaking wet and scruffy seems to groom his chin and make it worse. Onion went really down hill again and they both lost another 100g. There isn't much more for them to loose . We are hand feeding them recovery food as often as we can. The vet said it can take up to two weeks to start eating properly again. I don't think they will last two weeks of I can't get them eating properly. Scruffy will take most food from you but he mushes it and then it comes back out again. onion is currently trying to bite the wood on his hutch so hopefully that will help him.
Sorry to rant on randomly, Just worried about them. X
Click to expand...


I am so very sorry for your struggles! The grinding is likely to be sign that the teeth are not working yet. Did you get some painkiller from your vet and has he checked the back teeth again?

How much recovery food are you giving them? The overall food intake should be around 120ml per day for a healthy, hungry guinea pig in order to keep the weight; older piggies will need less.
 
I've just phoned and booked them back into the vets this morning. See what she thinks about their teeth. ive not slept through worry all night. Scruffy was really weak last night. We are managing to get some recovery in but it's hard to monitor how much because they both spit it out occasionally. Will try a smaller syringe as suggested.
Thanks everyone. Fingers crossed.
Hope Scully recovers a lot quicker. It's been two weeks for us and it's their first birthday today. X
 
Thanks again all.
Tried the smaller adapted syringe and seems to be better. Got 5 in each of them. Hopefully they keep it in.
Leah x
 
Their first birthday today and sadly scruffy had to be put to sleep. He just wasn't managing to swallow the food we were giving him. He's at peace now.
Onion is sucking the water out of everything so they have given me a saline solution to give during the day and something for his suggestion system. Zantec for him to have twice a day. Carry on with his pain relief. X
 
Leah Jacques said:
Their first birthday today and sadly scruffy had to be put to sleep. He just wasn't managing to swallow the food we were giving him. He's at peace now.
Onion is sucking the water out of everything so they have given me a saline solution to give during the day and something for his suggestion system. Zantec for him to have twice a day. Carry on with his pain relief. X
Click to expand...

HUGS

I am ever so sorry that you have had to let Scruffy go on his special day. That is a total bummer indeed!

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for Onion. https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/looking-after-a-bereaved-piggy.110463/
 
I am so sorry about Scruffy! Such sad news :no:

How is Onion getting on? We are still struggling with Scully. He has slowly lost weight since the work last Saturday, he is eating but being really fussy and we're only getting 18-25mls of Critical Care down a day. Did your boys forage for food and seem lively? Scully is still very active and foraging around, he just takes forever to eat 1 strand of hay, he hasn't pooped properly (a pellet) since the treatment either - just a few mushy clumps. Vet had to give him a jab yesterday to get his bowels moving, his poop is disgusting at the moment but good that he is working I guess, back tomorrow for a check up. He is loving very finely grated carrot and apple (almost like a mush) right now, hoping he'll start eating properly soon.

Such a worry, sending you best wishes and hugs x x
 
Morning. Thanks for your message. Sorry to hear about Scully.
Onion is still loosing weight but there's nothing to him. He's only 500g. He has always been small but he's the smallest he's been since he was 3 months old .
He's now on Zantac for his tummy and pain relief. We are feeding him every few hours. Trying to get at least 5ml in. ( making a minimum of 40ml a day of recovery) he is eating dried and veg for himself but being very picky. The vet also gave me a bag a saline as he was so dehydrated. He loves that. Happy to take it. She also suggested mushed pineapple which he liked at first but not so sure now. We have put honey in the recovery food. Apparently helps with their energy levels and makes it more appetising. If he's in his cage, a lot of the time he just sits in the corner, it's sad seeing him like this. But he will happily whip around the living room. It's like he forgets to move when he's in his cage. We encourage him too and he will. Onion has only just started to poop properly 2 1/2 weeks after. Scruffy didn't, his was just runny.
My problem is he just won't eat hay! What ever I try. I tried dipping it in honey, tried a strand at a time. He's just not interested. Vet looked at his teeth on Tuesday said they were good now. But I just don't know, don't know how to help him. But he can't keep loosing weight. I guess he is grieving and lonely.
I hope Scully starts to feel better soon and everything returns to normal.
Leah and Onion.
x




Mulder and Scully said:
I am so sorry about Scruffy! Such sad news :no:

How is Onion getting on? We are still struggling with Scully. He has slowly lost weight since the work last Saturday, he is eating but being really fussy and we're only getting 18-25mls of Critical Care down a day. Did your boys forage for food and seem lively? Scully is still very active and foraging around, he just takes forever to eat 1 strand of hay, he hasn't pooped properly (a pellet) since the treatment either - just a few mushy clumps. Vet had to give him a jab yesterday to get his bowels moving, his poop is disgusting at the moment but good that he is working I guess, back tomorrow for a check up. He is loving very finely grated carrot and apple (almost like a mush) right now, hoping he'll start eating properly soon.

Such a worry, sending you best wishes and hugs x x
Click to expand...
 
Leah Jacques said:
The vet also gave me a bag a saline as he was so dehydrated. He loves that. Happy to take it.
x
Click to expand...
It is quite unusual for a bag of saline to be prescribed to feed a dehydrated guinea pig orally as normal a special ionically-balanced rehydration therapy (such as diaorlyte in humans or biolapis for rabbits/guinea pigs) would be used. However providing the saline preparation is isotonic then it should be fine. Please however check this with your vet
x
 
Morning everyone.
Thanks again for all your kind words and advice.
Just a likkle update on Onion.
I wasn't happy with his progress yesterday so went into the vets to fetch some pro-biotic that she had suggested. Well she wanted to see us to give it to us instead of just collecting from the reception desk.
Barbara ( the vet) was also not happy with progress so, she suggested putting him back under anesthetic to look again and see what was causing the issue of not eating properly. As she was on duty all weekend she said she could do it that day as she was concerned for him. So we had to return home to fetch the poor man as we hadn't takem him with us. To cut a long story short, he's home and super hyper! He's been trying to do acrobatics onto and off his house ( we had to take it off him when we came to bed, as we didn't want him doing it all night and hurting himself) but we have been down this morning and he is eating his dried and his vegetables I am pleased to report. ( all fingers crossed he is better) Barbara said the next option is a referral to a specialist, so hopefully that's not required.
 
He's like a completely different piggie! Acrobatics, squeaking ( scruffy was the vocal one) trying to catch our attention for us to go to him, brave! He's a good lad! Drinking his saline, his water and nibbling. Whilst trying to climb the cage, back flip off his house or jump up his treat bar! ( he was so timid and scared at everything before, we couldn't move around the cage without him running away)
Leah and Onion ( squeeking loudly!)
 
Onion just wanted to love us a few more days and now he's gone to join his brother and best friend Scruffy.

So strange because he's been eating and so lively ( guess it was the meds)

Sad to see him go, but he's joined his brother and will be happy there.

Leah x
 
I'm so sorry both of your piggies passed... Much hugs to you.
Popcorn free Onion and Scruffy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top