Hi,
I am posting on behalf of my daughter whose 2 and a half year old boar pig is not eating following dental work. I'd appreciate any expert advise on things that might be causing his ongoing refusal to eat.
My daughter noticed he was biting and chewing but not eating his food and he also lost weight so we took him to the vet. Vet diagnosed overgrown molars and he was booked in for surgery the next day. This was done under general anaesthetic and he returned home after an overnight stay.
That was 8 days ago; for the first six days he refused to eat and my wife and I syringe fed him and he maintained weight. During this time he was interested in food but seemed unable to use incisors or molars so just shunted the food around with his nose. He was fed a mix of Burgess pureed pellets, water with Vit C, Fibreplex 3ml per day (from the vet). We read everything we could on what to do and got 1ml syringes for the task, following the syringe feeding guidelines etc. We also started him on Daktarin oral gel but he then deteriorated further.
He went back to the vet twice, firstly he was given an anti-inflammatory for sore gums and the second time two days ago they have kept him in, inspected his mouth which looks OK and given IV fluids; he rallied a bit and took recovery formula. One vet believes he has misaligned molars which may be a reason for him not eating but his incisors are now quite short - so may contribute but is not the whole picture.
The vets have been good, of course we know from reading since that a general is not a good idea and there was probably no need to trim the incisors. The vets have said are more used to rabbit treatments and may not have trimmed his molars correctly - I don't know. Their intentions are good but knowledge may not be.
He is still maintaining weight but shows intermittent interest in food and the last two days has started to drool (this is when we took him in) - the vet nurse is caring for him and even took him home free of charge; he is on recovery formula that he took initially but is not taking much now; prognosis does not look good. Today he had another appetite stimulant injection.
Why won't he eat? He seems incapable physically of grasping and chewing food but the gums are not particularly inflamed and certainly not ulcerated.
Any insights would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Dave
I am posting on behalf of my daughter whose 2 and a half year old boar pig is not eating following dental work. I'd appreciate any expert advise on things that might be causing his ongoing refusal to eat.
My daughter noticed he was biting and chewing but not eating his food and he also lost weight so we took him to the vet. Vet diagnosed overgrown molars and he was booked in for surgery the next day. This was done under general anaesthetic and he returned home after an overnight stay.
That was 8 days ago; for the first six days he refused to eat and my wife and I syringe fed him and he maintained weight. During this time he was interested in food but seemed unable to use incisors or molars so just shunted the food around with his nose. He was fed a mix of Burgess pureed pellets, water with Vit C, Fibreplex 3ml per day (from the vet). We read everything we could on what to do and got 1ml syringes for the task, following the syringe feeding guidelines etc. We also started him on Daktarin oral gel but he then deteriorated further.
He went back to the vet twice, firstly he was given an anti-inflammatory for sore gums and the second time two days ago they have kept him in, inspected his mouth which looks OK and given IV fluids; he rallied a bit and took recovery formula. One vet believes he has misaligned molars which may be a reason for him not eating but his incisors are now quite short - so may contribute but is not the whole picture.
The vets have been good, of course we know from reading since that a general is not a good idea and there was probably no need to trim the incisors. The vets have said are more used to rabbit treatments and may not have trimmed his molars correctly - I don't know. Their intentions are good but knowledge may not be.
He is still maintaining weight but shows intermittent interest in food and the last two days has started to drool (this is when we took him in) - the vet nurse is caring for him and even took him home free of charge; he is on recovery formula that he took initially but is not taking much now; prognosis does not look good. Today he had another appetite stimulant injection.
Why won't he eat? He seems incapable physically of grasping and chewing food but the gums are not particularly inflamed and certainly not ulcerated.
Any insights would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Dave
. They are very understanding that many people travel from all over the UK to see them and long journeys can run late.
