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Stopped Eating From Syringe

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Luca Taylor

Luca Taylor

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Our small shelty gunieapig has had tooth issues for over a year now. we have been taking him to the vet quite frequently to trim his teeth.

But about six months ago he stopped eating solid foods almost completely and we begun syringe fooding him. Instead of feeding him recovery mixes, we mostly fed him freshly blended mixes i.e. cucumber + bell peppers + basil or lettuce, as well as some porridge. To be sure he would still nibble on leafs and hay however most of his nutrition came from mixes. This is mostly because his teeth would grow back very quickly and in about a weeks time it would be painful for him to eat again.

However, just under a week ago he stopped eating from the syringe, once we took him to the vet, we were told that the pig was suffering from oral thrush and he was given some anti-inflammatory and other medications and the pig was kept with the vet for the next 4 days who attempted to keep feeding him recovery mixes and other mixes,

Now that we got him, the vet said that the situation is quite bad and we should give him oral decterine and syringe feed him. But he is completely refusing to eat anything from the syringe.

I decided to take him back because maybe he was refusing to eat critical care food only because he had been spoiled by blended/ fresh liquid food?

Do you have any suggestions?
 
Hi Luca & welcome to the forum :) To enable us to help you, would you please add your location to you profile :)
 
Hello, and welcome to the forum. I run a sanctuary for guinea pigs with dental issues, so have a lot of experience in the supportive care of guinea pigs. Firstly, is there any way you could get to Northampton to get your piggy seen by Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic. Simon sees guinea pigs from all over the UK with dental issues, and he can carry out dental work without the need for GA. He gets amazing results and has transformed the lives of so many of our sanctuary piggies.

For oral thrush we use Itragungal which really works well and very quickly. It does sound like your guinea pig has a very sore mouth. Are you giving any pain relief? We use Metacam which really helps with any soft tissue trauma in the mouth. It is going to be essential to keep syringe feeding and you may find little and often is the way to go. You could try mushing up normal guinea pig nuggets as often they are accepted much more readily than Critical Care.
Please try and get your guinea pig seen by Simon or Kim Maddock, as they are very likely to be able to get your piggy eating for himself, rather than relying on syringe food.

You can check out their website here www.catandrabbit.co.uk
 
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