Dental Post-baytril bloat with dental piggy Bruce - help/recommendations sought

[Carrotyd]

Our dental piggy Bruce has a jaw alignment problem, which causes his front top teeth to grow too long, and his bottom ones too short, requiring frequent tooth trims.

We sought a second opinion on his diagnosis a few weeks ago from a cavy-savvy vet who comes highly recommended on here and on our local guinea pig facebook group, who is great.

The vet noticed two weeks ago that the gums around the bottom teeth were red, swollen and looked inflamed and prescribed him baytril and metacam, and trimmed his teeth as usual.

He has had baytril before but this time it really seems to have knocked him for six. During the course he got really bad diarrhoea, which stopped after we cut his veggies, which he'd grown less interested in by the day anyway, and then lost his appetite completely. He also started producing small, hard, yellow poop.

I started him on a course of Fibreplex and round-the-clock syringe feeds straightaway, but - he finished the course of Baytril a week ago- and there has been no improvement in his appetite. If anything, it has got worse.

His poop is normal colour again, but they are tiny and sticky, and - this morning - I took him to see the out of hours vet, as I suspected he has bloat. And the vet agreed.

He has been prescribed Zantac, Emeprid and metacam to give him, but should we halt the Fibreplex too, or carry on with that?

In the rush/panic at the vets, I forgot to ask...

Is there anything else we should be doing to help him too?

It has been such a long, rough few days for us all; any advice or words of encourgement gratefully received. It has been a very long night of no sleep through worry and wanting to get up regularly to syringe feed Bruce. And I am feeling so sad and anxious for our little dude.

 

[DMS260820]

Best member to talk with is @furryfriends (TEAS) teas .

 

[Wiebke]

Our dental piggy Bruce has a jaw alignment problem, which causes his front top teeth to grow too long, and his bottom ones too short, requiring frequent tooth trims.

We sought a second opinion on his diagnosis a few weeks ago from a cavy-savvy vet who comes highly recommended on here and on our local guinea pig facebook group, who is great.

The vet noticed two weeks ago that the gums around the bottom teeth were red, swollen and looked inflamed and prescribed him baytril and metacam, and trimmed his teeth as usual.

He has had baytril before but this time it really seems to have knocked him for six. During the course he got really bad diarrhoea, which stopped after we cut his veggies, which he'd grown less interested in by the day anyway, and then lost his appetite completely. He also started producing small, hard, yellow poop.

I started him on a course of Fibreplex and round-the-clock syringe feeds straightaway, but - he finished the course of Baytril a week ago- and there has been no improvement in his appetite. If anything, it has got worse.

His poop is normal colour again, but they are tiny and sticky, and - this morning - I took him to see the out of hours vet, as I suspected he has bloat. And the vet agreed.

He has been prescribed Zantac, Emeprid and metacam to give him, but should we halt the Fibreplex too, or carry on with that?

In the rush/panic at the vets, I forgot to ask...

Is there anything else we should be doing to help him too?

It has been such a long, rough few days for us all; any advice or words of encourgement gratefully received. It has been a very long night of no sleep through worry and wanting to get up regularly to syringe feed Bruce. And I am feeling so sad and anxious for our little dude.

Please carry on with the fibreplex.

Also try poo soup to re-stock the gut biome. In order to be effective (i.e. for live microbiome to reach the guts), it needs to be made by poos from a healthy piggy basically as soon as they come out; take out a healthy piggy and feed it a bit of grass or its daily veg portion. Eating usually triggers the pooing reflex. Collect the poos and soak them in a little water; then syringe the water which now contains microbiome (all the things that digest food in the guts and that have been affected by an adverse reaction to baytril). Totally freshly made poos soup twice daily is more effective than conventional probiotics and it mirrors natural behaviour.

Take your bloated piggy off any fresh veg and supplement with syringe feed to help rebalance the guts and stop any fermentation, which can contribute to the gassing.

It can be tough and take a while to get over a bad reaction to antibiotics. I have been through it twice with life saving zithromax - sadly no alternative to it, so I had to tough it out. However, it was worth it as both piggies eventually survived and were able to keep their eyes in cases where removal was not an option.

It can be more tricky if you have a guinea pig with long standing or severe dental disease where the lack of balanced nutrition has impacted on the gut and the baytril has then done the rest.

Hopefully furryfriends can give you further tips, but you have the correct meds.

Bloat, GI Stasis ( No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

It sounds to me more like the dental issue than a digestive issue, that is causing the inappetence now. He is going to get gassy if he's not eating well. Please carry on with the Fibreplex. Is there any chance you could get your piggy seen by Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit Clinic in Northampton. He's so experiened in guinea pig dental issues and people travel from all over the UK to see him x

 

[Carrotyd]

It sounds to me more like the dental issue than a digestive issue, that is causing the inappetence now. He is going to get gassy if he's not eating well. Please carry on with the Fibreplex. Is there any chance you could get your piggy seen by Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit Clinic in Northampton. He's so experiened in guinea pig dental issues and people travel from all over the UK to see him x

It is absolutely something I want to do, but I've been travelling with work at lot the past month, and trying to secure a day or weekend when we could get out to him is proving tricky. We've also talked about sending my parents (who are both retired) off for the day with him to do it, so it is a priority.

The bloatedness in Bruce's tummy has completely disappeared, and we took him back to his usual vets this morning who confirmed he doesn't seem to have any trapped gas now, which is a relief. He's also started passing stools again. He did two, quite small and dry ones in quick succession, and - about an hour later - I went up to syringe feed him some poo soup (as per @Wiebke's advice and recipe) and he had a marble sized clump of small poops (all covered in mucus) stuck in his bum, which I've removed.

Is that a good sign? That his guts are moving? I'm still syringe feeding him water and pellets, although he is very slow to chew and swallow.

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

It is absolutely something I want to do, but I've been travelling with work at lot the past month, and trying to secure a day or weekend when we could get out to him is proving tricky. We've also talked about sending my parents (who are both retired) off for the day with him to do it, so it is a priority.

The bloatedness in Bruce's tummy has completely disappeared, and we took him back to his usual vets this morning who confirmed he doesn't seem to have any trapped gas now, which is a relief. He's also started passing stools again. He did two, quite small and dry ones in quick succession, and - about an hour later - I went up to syringe feed him some poo soup (as per @Wiebke's advice and recipe) and he had a marble sized clump of small poops (all covered in mucus) stuck in his bum, which I've removed.

Is that a good sign? That his guts are moving? I'm still syringe feeding him water and pellets, although he is very slow to chew and swallow.

Definitely good news that his guts are moving. Keep up with the syringe feeding to make sure this improvement continues. If your parents are able to do the trip to Simon, I would get them to make the trip soon. Simon carries out the dental work, during the appointment, so it should be a quick visit. xx

 

[Bill & Ted]

Definitely worth the trip, we travel from Cornwall about every 2.5 months. Simon is a great vet and does conscious dentals, so all done quick x