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Post-dental Problems

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Jessica

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Hi there! This is my first time posting, so please bear with me.

My 2-year old guinea pig, Piggy, just had his molars trimmed. Around Christmastime he stopped eating and prior to that had some trouble picking up food, etc. All pointed to dental. He just had his teeth done on Monday and is still not eating on his own and continues to lose weight. He was around 940 when he went in for the procedure and this morning was down to 870. He gets 4 tbsp of critical care over the course of the day and is on Metacam and Cisapride (for a GI Stasis problem he had prior to the dental work).

My question is - how long will this recovery be? Does his slow recovery point to another underlying problem, such as an oral fungus? Would it hurt him to administer Daktarin to take care of possible infection?

I have been reading through the threads on similar experiences... Am I feeding enough critical care? I plan to try a baby food and pellet mixture later today. I will also try and hand feed him some veggies and hay. My vet kind of scolded me for giving him veggies before the procedure -- she blamed me over-veggieing him for his GI Stasis and the teeth. I don't want to make the Stasis worse.

Beyond this course of action I am at a bit of a loss. I know the recovery can take some time, but I am a little worried that he still seems to have issues and reluctance to pick up any food.
Any comments would be helpful - thank you in advance!
 
I know that Debbie (furryfriends), who runs a sanctuary for dental piggies, feeds up to 120ml per day (usually in portions of 15-20ml) in a day to piggies who are not eating at all. Use a 1ml syringe with the tip cut off just underneath where it widens, so the plunger can't come out; that way you are not in anger danger of things going down the wrong way. Give 1ml of water for every 3-5 syringes to make sure that he is hydrated. If you wish, dissolve 1/8 to 1/4 of a vitamin C tablet in 1ml of water and syringe that daily.
http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html

Please offer him fresh food first, but you may have to grate it and place it in his mouth and he may not be able to process it well. Then top him up accordingly. After a GI stasis, fibre is most important as the tummy will stay tender for several weeks and there is an increased likelihood of bloat, so mushed up pellets are better than baby food (which should not contain any potatoes).

Up to 80% of the daily food intake should be hay, about 10-15% veg (about 50g/1 cupful of mixed veg with one high vitamin C veg per piggy per day, like a slice of pepper of any colour, a floret of broccoli or chunk of stem or a sprig of fresh coriander/cilantro, parsley, dill or mint). Half to a handful of pellets for an adult, fully grown piggy. Please weigh any piggy that you are worried about daily, otherwise weekly.

Depending on how bad things were, it can take a while for him to recover; he also may need a second dental to get things growing right again. But your own care is equally important, so take heart and persist! We have quite a few success stories of piggies who were in a bad state due to dental problems.

You may ask your vet for metacam (painkiller) and or emeprid or metoclopramide (gut stimulant) to help his guts along if he is not perking up on more food.
 
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Cant offer you any more advice than @Wiebke already has I just wanted to wish you good luck and I hope he picks up soon x
 
Thank you both for your kind words and advice!

Piggy has been eating some grass on his own and small amounts of hay. Still a long ways to go but there is progress, anyhow.
 
Thank you for the post, Wiebke! I have been getting tonnes of Critical Care into him. I am very diligent about his feeding. He has gained 100 grams since his dental and is almost back up to the weight he had before all of his eating and teeth issues arose.I will be sure to check out your link.
 
That is great news! Sounds like he is well on the way to recovery! Thankfully, dental piggies are usually hungry piggies, even though it can take them quite some time to start eating by themselves again.

Please keep on weighing him regularly; it is the best way of discovering dental problems early on.
 
Brill news! So nice to read some good news in this section of the forum. Thanks for the update, continued vibes to your little lad
 
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