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Dental Struggling to eat before and after dental work

We cut the Marbocyl tablet in half, cut the end off a 1ml syringe (right off so the plunger can pop right out the end), popped both halves of the tablet into the syringe and then drew up a little water (which is fiddly to do without the tablets falling out!). Then we just popped the syringe in piggy's mouth and lightly depressed the plunger. Worked a treat. Simon did say you could grind the tablet and mix into a small amount of critical care though too. As long as you get it into piggy, it doesn't really matter how you do it!
 
He's had 2 half-tablets now, and has gone very much into a decline : lethargic and seeming to have breathing difficulties. We have therefore given him a dose of the Baytril tonight, for the first time since Tuesday, to see if that will help him like it did after Sunday : I would have thought the Marbocyl would have continued the work of clearing up the respiratory problems (the vet detected nothing on Weds morning), taking over from the Baytril, but that doesn't seem to be happening ; the only other possibility is that he's not actually swallowing the Marbocyl half-tablet when we syringe it.
 
cwlight said:
He's had 2 half-tablets now, and has gone very much into a decline : lethargic and seeming to have breathing difficulties. We have therefore given him a dose of the Baytril tonight, for the first time since Tuesday, to see if that will help him like it did after Sunday : I would have thought the Marbocyl would have continued the work of clearing up the respiratory problems (the vet detected nothing on Weds morning), taking over from the Baytril, but that doesn't seem to be happening ; the only other possibility is that he's not actually swallowing the Marbocyl half-tablet when we syringe it.
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I think the dose is too small to be of any significant benefit. We are currently giving Tilly, who weighs around 730g, one Marbocyl tablet per day, plus 0.35ml Metronidazole twice daily. Is he not eating anything for himself now? When did the breathing issue start? I wonder if he’s aspirated some syringe food.
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
I think the dose is too small to be of any significant benefit. We are currently giving Tilly, who weighs around 730g, one Marbocyl tablet per day, plus 0.35ml Metronidazole twice daily. Is he not eating anything for himself now? When did the breathing issue start? I wonder if he’s aspirated some syringe food.
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I think he must have aspirated some food, yes. He is still nibbling grass and small bits of veg by himself, but they still take an age in his mouth before he swallows. He is not wheezing or coughing but his breathing looks laboured, though he is still running around out on the grass. My wife tells me I'm obsessed and paranoid!
I am loathe to just double the dose of the Marbocyl, because the only dosage information I have found online says 4mg per kg, and therefore he should have 3mg, and half a tablet is 2.5mg. However, we are now crushing the half tablets, just in case he spat either of the previous ones out, and may well consider giving him another half that way tonight.
 
When Pedro the chin had Marbocyl a few months back he had half a 5mg tablet twice a day, he weighed roughly 430g at the time. I actually crushed it and syringed with a ml of water (tiny mouth and throat and Simon advised it from C&R).
Really sorry you’re still having troubles, great he’s still nibbling at stuff and enjoying grass time though :) x
 
Update : following advice on here to increase the Marbocyl, we gave Jake a further half tablet last night.
This morning he is really struggling to breathe and won't even take lettuce to eat ; this is a repeat of how he seemed late on Thursday after his first 2 doses of it, but after a gap from it for 24 hours he improved. I can only think that, for whatever reason, Marbocyl is toxic to Jake.
I am therefore going to stop giving it to him with immediate effect, and see how he goes on today ; if he improves I may well try the Baytril again, which DID seem to make him slightly better. If he does NOT improve, then to be honest I think he won't have long.
Another observation is that when he tries to eat some of his favourite foods (lettuce ; spinach ; fruit), he has gone from chewing it forever to now seeming unable to swallow : last night he was still trying to swallow a tiny piece of lettuce 20 minutes after he'd taken it into his mouth. Again, we've only seen this response in him since administering the Marbocyl.
The irony is that, with 5 times a day syringe feeding that we have now been doing for 3 weeks, his weight has gone up from 650g to 830g !
 
cwlight said:
Update : following advice on here to increase the Marbocyl, we gave Jake a further half tablet last night.
This morning he is really struggling to breathe and won't even take lettuce to eat ; this is a repeat of how he seemed late on Thursday after his first 2 doses of it, but after a gap from it for 24 hours he improved. I can only think that, for whatever reason, Marbocyl is toxic to Jake.
I am therefore going to stop giving it to him with immediate effect, and see how he goes on today ; if he improves I may well try the Baytril again, which DID seem to make him slightly better. If he does NOT improve, then to be honest I think he won't have long.
Another observation is that when he tries to eat some of his favourite foods (lettuce ; spinach ; fruit), he has gone from chewing it forever to now seeming unable to swallow : last night he was still trying to swallow a tiny piece of lettuce 20 minutes after he'd taken it into his mouth. Again, we've only seen this response in him since administering the Marbocyl.
The irony is that, with 5 times a day syringe feeding that we have now been doing for 3 weeks, his weight has gone up from 650g to 830g !
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Keeping you both in my thoughts, I really hope he improves xx
 
Aw, poor Jake, this is so awful for you all, hope there’s a breakthrough soon x
 
Are you absolutely sure about that weight gain? I would say the breathing issue is due to him retaining fluid, as there is no way he would gain that amount of weight with just syringe feeding. Could you get him back to a vet? I think a diuretic is going to be needed asap.
 
I am so very sorry to read this. I’ve been following quietly and hoping for you. Huge hugs xx
 
Sleep tight Jake.
You did everything possible to make him well, I know it's awful & expensive, but an autopsy may show the problem. Then you will have a head start on any other similar problem.
Don't feel guilty you have been amazing all the way through, & given the best of care.
 
Oh no, I’m so sorry that Jake has died. You did absolutely everything you could have done for him, he will have known that x
Sleep tight little man x
 
Tiamolly123 said:
Sleep tight Jake.
You did everything possible to make him well, I know it's awful & expensive, but an autopsy may show the problem. Then you will have a head start on any other similar problem.
Don't feel guilty you have been amazing all the way through, & given the best of care.
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The only guilt I feel is, ironically, that I allowed myself to be persuaded to increase his dose of Marbocyl, when my 'gut' told me it was not agreeing with him ; I'm 100% certain that he died this soon because his body found it toxic for some reason ; and, yes, the recent weight gain was almost certainly due to fluid build-up, which we should have thought of (my wife Ros rescues hedgehogs), so that's another big minus for me.
However, there were no other treatments available as far as anyone knew (vets ; forum members) that would get to the root of this problem and solve it ; so a big plus for all of us was that I think it was only because of the good advice here, re: syringe feeding etc, that we were able to keep him going for a full 3 weeks longer than would otherwise have been the case.
There will be no autopsy : Jake was actually my grand-daughter's guinea-pig (she's been with him and the others this morning), and we will bury him in the garden (with many other pets over the last 36 years ...) in due course.
Thanks to everyone for their help and good wishes.
 
Please try not to feel guilty, I know it’s hard and I know I do a lot too after these kind of horrible times (still do sometimes). You were trying to help him by trying new meds and he was obviously very poorly. It may not have been the meds, just him choosing not to fight anymore.
You gave him a great life and fought hard for him.
It helped me a lot when I lost my Rupert recently to post in the Rainbow Bridge section on the forum, writing down how lovely he was and sharing pictures with everyone.

Hope you and your family, and the piggies, are all ok xx
Sleep tight little gorgeous Jake xx
 
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