Piggy teeth removal

[mcgstar]

Just left my boys at the vets - Collingwood has broken teeth and he needs them removed (Nelson is staying with him for moral support).

Just read the post about post-operative care, but i’m feeling ever so worried and also very guilty: he broke his teeth in a fall because i fell over while carrying him!

He’s with a specialist vet though and he’s otherwise unhurt. He just must have bashed his face on landing (and then pretended to be fine, so I didn’t know he was injured until i saw blood on his face. I was more worried about his legs/spine!)

I have a feeling that i won’t manage much work today while i wait until i can call and see how his operation went!

 

[Wiebke]

HUGS! I am very sorry about your fall! It is one of those freak things that are impossible to prevent.

You may however want to consider transporting your piggies in a walk-in lidded and padded cardboard box with finger holes or a cat carrier with a handle that can bolster a fall a bit better in the future as you are inevitably going to be rather jittery about carring piggies for a while after an accident.
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig

The operation wait is always the most anxious time. Whatever the outcome, it can't be any worse than your worst apprehensions...

Please also read our advice on looking after a dental piggy in the syringe feeding guide. If more than one incisor is removed, your piggy may have problems with picking up veg, pellets and hay. Incisors are there for picking up and cutting food. You will need to grate things and may have to place them into the mouth for the tongue to be able to transport them to the molars at the back. Mushing up the pellets may also help with eating them from a bowl.
It depends on where the incisors have been broken and how badly the jawbone and the roots are affected whether the incisors are growing back which determines the amount of support care that he'll need in the medium term. He is certainly going to feel rather bruised for a while.

All the best - and please try not to feel too bad about yourself. Freak accidents can happen to the best of owners; they are called 'freak' because you cannot anticipate or prevent them.

 

[mcgstar]

HUGS! I am very sorry about your fall! It is one of those freak things that are impossible to prevent.

You may however want to consider transporting your piggies in a walk-in lidded and padded cardboard box with finger holes or a cat carrier with a handle that can bolster a fall a bit better in the future as you are inevitably going to be rather jittery about carring piggies for a while after an accident.
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig

The operation wait is always the most anxious time. Whatever the outcome, it can't be any worse than your worst apprehensions...

Please also read our advice on looking after a dental piggy in the syringe feeding guide. If more than one incisor is removed, your piggy may have problems with picking up veg, pellets and hay. Incisors are there for picking up and cutting food. You will need to grate things and may have to place them into the mouth for the tongue to be able to transport them to the molars at the back. Mushing up the pellets may also help with eating them from a bowl.
It depends on where the incisors have been broken and how badly the jawbone and the roots are affected whether the incisors are growing back which determines the amount of support care that he'll need in the medium term. He is certainly going to feel rather bruised for a while.

All the best - and please try not to feel too bad about yourself. Freak accidents can happen to the best of owners; they are called 'freak' because you cannot anticipate or prevent them.

Thanks! useful advice, and i’ll check out the info. He seemed to manage to eat some breakfast vegetables this morning, though he took his time so was presumably working to chew with his back teeth. Such a brave boy to work through what must be a fair bit of pain though!

His brother his hanging out with him at the vets, and will no doubt boss them about if he’s not happy with the level of care and attention. They argue sometimes but they’re really good at sticking up for each other.

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks! useful advice, and i’ll check out the info. He seemed to manage to eat some breakfast vegetables this morning, though he took his time so was presumably working to chew with his back teeth. Such a brave boy to work through what must be a fair bit of pain though!

His brother his hanging out with him at the vets, and will no doubt boss them about if he’s not happy with the level of care and attention. They argue sometimes but they’re really good at sticking up for each other.

Please check the weight daily instead of weekly, and keep in mind that 80% of the daily food intake is hay, which you can only check by weighing and can grossly underestimate without weighing and correcting with ideally hay based recover formula powder if necessary.

 

[VickiA]

Hope he is soon back home again and raring to go. Accidents do happen from time to time. Let us know how his recovery goes. He will certainly need his veg in small strips for a little while (I feed my dental foster piggy who doesn't have any incisors matchstick sized strips of peppers, cucumber and other veggies). She manages hay and pellets OK once she's got them onto the back teeth for chewing. He will need to adapt to his new dentition (hopefully they will grow back quite soon) so you will need to check his weight regularly as @Wiebke has said, and he probably won't need syringe support feeding for too long.

 

[mcgstar]

Please check the weight daily instead of weekly, and keep in mind that 80% of the daily food intake is hay, which you can only check by weighing and can grossly underestimate without weighing and correcting with ideally hay based recover formula powder if necessary.

I'm planning to just use their normal pellet food for any syringe feeding (unless the vet gives/recommends something else). Do you think this will be ok, or shall i try and get hold of some critical care or similar ASAP regardless?

 

[mcgstar]

Hope he is soon back home again and raring to go. Accidents do happen from time to time. Let us know how his recovery goes. He will certainly need his veg in small strips for a little while (I feed my dental foster piggy who doesn't have any incisors matchstick sized strips of peppers, cucumber and other veggies). She manages hay and pellets OK once she's got them onto the back teeth for chewing. He will need to adapt to his new dentition (hopefully they will grow back quite soon) so you will need to check his weight regularly as @Wiebke has said, and he probably won't need syringe support feeding for too long.

I'm hoping that he'll manage quite well - he was eating even with broken teeth this morning, which i'm taking as a good sign that he'll adapt well. And he's pretty young and healthy otherwise, so that should help him to recover well and grow in his new teeth. The vet was already talking about a management plan for making sure his new teeth grow in ok, and any adjustments that might be needed to keep the bottom and top teeth even, so I'm happy that he's in good hands!

It'll give me good practice for my veg chopping skills anyway.

 

[Flutterby]

Sending lots of healing vibes, it wasn't your fault accidents happen and you are doing the best for him to recover. *hugs*

 

[mcgstar]

Sending lots of healing vibes, it wasn't your fault accidents happen and you are doing the best for him to recover. *hugs*

thanks!

I've spoken to the vets: his operation went well and he was recovering ok. Just waiting to hear when i can pick them up.

 

[DMS260820]

One of my old pigs fell off the coffee table when i was syringe feeding a few years back and his top teeth both broke, they grow back fast though. He was lucky that they were not damaged too high up. I felt so bad, i only took my eyes off him for a second. He stood on a bit of the fleece cover that looked like it was still the edge of the table, stupid error of mine. I found that they manage grass really well still if you guide it in

 

[Wiebke]

thanks!

I've spoken to the vets: his operation went well and he was recovering ok. Just waiting to hear when i can pick them up.

That is great news! See how he is eating post-op and take it from there.

If you syringe feed mushed up pellets, you need to cut off the tip of a preferably 1 ml syringe as well as any plunger sticking out. If you haven't a suitable syringe, ask your vets for one when you collect your boy.

 

[mcgstar]

One of my old pigs fell off the coffee table when i was syringe feeding a few years back and his top teeth both broke, they grow back fast though. He was lucky that they were not damaged too high up. I felt so bad, i only took my eyes off him for a second. He stood on a bit of the fleece cover that looked like it was still the edge of the table, stupid error of mine. I found that they manage grass really well still if you guide it in

Aww! well he does love grass, and we have lots of it so that's good.

 

[Betsy]

Hope Collingwood (great name btw!) recovers quickly. Syringe feeding is tiring but a necessity. The night time feeds are the worst! When Christian was recovering from his HUGE abscess (we're talking the size of a chicken's egg here) removal, I syringe fed him at 11pm then again at 5am as I just couldn't wake myself up for the 3am feed. I fed him every 2-3 hours day and night for about 5 days. I was completely exhausted but I still have a Christian Guinea Pig so it was all worth it. Here he is with his impressive scar.



This is the size of the abcess that was removed.

 

[mcgstar]

Hope Collingwood (great name btw!) recovers quickly. Syringe feeding is tiring but a necessity. The night time feeds are the worst! When Christian was recovering from his HUGE abscess (we're talking the size of a chicken's egg here) removal, I syringe fed him at 11pm then again at 5am as I just couldn't wake myself up for the 3am feed. I fed him every 2-3 hours day and night for about 5 days. I was completely exhausted but I still have a Christian Guinea Pig so it was all worth it. Here he is with his impressive scar.

View attachment 96868

This is the size of the abcess that was removed.



View attachment 96869View attachment 96870

ewww! that’s impressive! poor guy! and well done with the syringe feeding.

He’s home now, and set up in his recuperation house. I’ve seen him eat some vegetables (chopped into thin pieces) and even a bit of hay. I’ll make sure he gets some water and pellet mush with his painkillers but hopefully as he can manage some food on his own the syringe feeding won’t be too onerous!

 

[Betsy]

ewww! that’s impressive! poor guy! and well done with the syringe feeding.

Thanks I took a video of the vet cutting open the abscess too. It's pretty gross but if you want to see it its here

Christian's abscess being cut open WARNING DO NOT WATCH IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH!

 

[Betsy]

He’s home now, and set up in his recuperation house. I’ve seen him eat some vegetables (chopped into thin pieces) and even a bit of hay. I’ll make sure he gets some water and pellet mush with his painkillers but hopefully as he can manage some food on his own the syringe feeding won’t be too onerous!

Pleased that Collingwood is home and is managing a bit of food. The syringe feeding guide on here is amazing and very easy to follow expecially if you've not done it before.

Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

 

[NuggetPipey]

Nugget and Pipey have fallen before. They were always okay.

 

[mcgstar]

Collingwood is doing well: he’s cooperating happily with syringe feeding, however he’ll only take about 4-6ml before he gets impatient and fidgety and wants to go back to his cage :/

he’s also managing to eat hay and some veg on his own still, and i think he’s drinking normally (he’s certainly not very interested in being syringe fed water).

I’m worried that his reluctance to eat much in one go might mean he’s not getting enough food in total, but we’ll see what his weight is today and decide whether to try and get him eating more even if that means more often. (feeding every couple of hours at the moment). I hate not being able to gauge how much hay he’s eating independently.

I’m also a bit concerned that he’s getting fidgety to go back in his cage so that he doesn’t leave the territory to his brother for too long. Collingwood is definitely top pig, but there’s been a lot more rumble strutting (they’re 14 months so the dominance behaviours had settled down) and barging and mounting going on. Unsure if Nelson is seeing an opportunity to challenge while Collingwood is weak, or if Coll is just feeling insecure and preemptively warding off a challenge/reassuring himself that he’s still top pig.

Some pictures: His poorly face; and eating veggies back safely at home after the vet.