Syringe Feeding Tips

[BlueBird]

Poor accident prone Bonnie, has broken a tooth. I noticed she'd lost 150g since the 19th so upon inspection found the broken tooth and went straight to the vet. She's given us some oral painkiller as it was all swollen and sore and making it hard for her to eat properly. We also got some recovery feed to syringe feed her. (so glad I regularly weigh them and noticed it!)

She seems alright in herself and she is willing to eat veg etc. But she's finding it a bit difficult and will only nibble things where normally see would scoff.

As I say we've been to the vet and we are to monitor her weight over the next few days and I've been reading the syringe feeding guide but if you guys have any extra tips or advice it would be much appreciated. I've never had to syringe feed a Guinea pig before.

 

[DM030819]

If you cut her veg up into a combination of small chunks and thin strips she should be able to pick then up herself.

You can also help her out at dinner time. They can usually eat fine but struggle to pick the food up from the bottom of the cage. Handing food to them makes it easier for them.

You can also cut the hay if she's struggling with that.

You can moisten her pellet food with a bit of hot water to make them mushier and easier to eat. Let them cool down before giving them to her.

I've had a few pigs with broken teeth before, sometimes both top and bottom teeth were broken. I've never had to syringe feed them.

There's a syringe feeding guide on the forum if you do need to hand feed. Make sure you feed only upto 0.3ml in one go if you're not confident. Then the food won't go down the wrong way.

 

[Maddykins]

Yeah I'd recommend the syringe feeding guide ,it is very thorough and chances are any questions you have will be answered on there already. I'd also echo the above about cutting up veg into little cubes or thin strips, and passing each bit to them to eat, as well as dunking pellets in warm water first. One of our piggies has a dental issue at the moment and we are syringe feeding them as they won't voluntarily take in enough food otherwise but we are also doing the above to help them eat a bit themselves. We feed them Science Selective pellets and we are breaking each pellet into quarters and then dunking each bit in warm water and handing each bit out to poorly piggy, it's the only way we can get him to eat any. We are spending much of each day feeding him atm, it is gruelling to be honest.

 

[BlueBird]

Quick Patient update. Bonnie's teeth still seem a bit sore and swollen but hopefully with the meds that will go down. After getting over the nervousness of getting used to the syringe feeding she seems to take it quite well and she's even put on just under 25g this morning so thankfully we are going in the right direction. She also seems to be willing to take food on her own so I've only given her a small amount of liquid feed today to "top her up". The total amount will be perhaps a quarter of a packet across the day.

As for eating herself, I got a few wheeks off her at Breakfast time this morning but her appetite seems to be a bit less than normal but I think that might just be because she had half a packet of liquid feed on top of normal pellets and veggies so perhaps she's feeling a bit like we all do on Boxing Day today. haha. She takes soft leafy veg pretty well even if she does seem to gum it a bit and takes 2 or 3 attempts to eat a spinach leaf sized clump. And I've put a few green beans and an inch sized piece of carrot (her favourite) through our food processor which she finished a small ramekin of yesterday. She even took a normal pellet that I hadn't turned into soggy cereal this morning.She was a bit overzealous though, forgot her teeth hurt and immediately dropped it on the first attempt - bless her.

I do still worry about her actual injury though. The swelling doesn't seem to have gone down at all and when I discovered it yesterday morning I did smell a bad smell almost like dog breath so I hope it's not something nasty like an abscess. The vet didn't seem too worried about it yesterday but I'll keep an eye on it.

All in all though I think Bonnie's going in the right direction. Poor Bonnie, she's so accident prone. Thankfully, Bonnie is so sweet she just lets me do it. She obviously loves the attention as she purs like mad when I'm syringe feeding. So glad it's not my diva pig Belle though! She would NOT have the patience to let me mess around in her mouth if it was sore. I might even get a few nips. :/

 

[worried val of york]

Sorry to hear about Bonnies teeth problem. I am no expert but I recently took my Amos to vet as he was not eating normally. I was told his breath smelled and he had a lump which may have been an abscess. I was given critical care fine blend and antibiotic until he could go back for anaesthetic and mouth properly checked.
When he did go back not only did he have a front teeth issues but he also had a small amount of cardboard and debris in his lower jaw. The vet told me when the removed the debris it stank really badly.
You should consider another trip to the vet to get his mouth checked again. I hope everything works out well.

 

[Maddykins]

The bad smell is a strong indicator of an abscess, as it's the bacteria that causes the bad smell. That's what our poorly piggy has at the moment, but the infection has got so bad it has started to infect the bone and has moved the teeth into a slightly different position as well. Has your piggy had an x-ray of their head/jaw? You would need an X-ray to properly see if there is an abscess or any infection of bone I think.

I'm not trying to scare you but actually this is sort of similar to what happened to my poorly piggy. The first vet didn't check him thoroughly enough and thought it was just a problem with the front teeth being a bit wonky and overgrown and cutting into his mouth so they filed them and sorted them out. However after another week or so had passed it became clear he was getting worse not better and only then did they x-ray and find an abscess that had essentially moved his teeth. We then got referred to a specialist vet who did more thorough x-rays which the first vet did not the have the equipment to do and found the abscess infection has gone into the bone a little too. The first thing this vet noted when he looked inside his mouth was the horrific smell of the abscess and it was so bad he x-rayed my piggy as an emergency patient there and then as thought there was a good chance we'd have to put him to sleep straight away, luckily it was not as bad as he anticipated and we are working through possible treatment options at the moment and awaiting lab results as to what bacteria the abscess is. However this has been going on for over 2 weeks and we are having to regularly feed him every few hours as described above, in the last day or two he seems to have got a bit depressed and stopped voluntarily eating formula and now needs to be force fed.

I think I would really encourage an x-ray of your piggy's mouth if you haven't got one already, I wish the first vet had done this as soon as we mentioned he had problems eating, we would be a week or so into the future if they had.

 

[BlueBird]

The bad smell is a strong indicator of an abscess, as it's the bacteria that causes the bad smell. That's what our poorly piggy has at the moment, but the infection has got so bad it has started to infect the bone and has moved the teeth into a slightly different position as well. Has your piggy had an x-ray of their head/jaw? You would need an X-ray to properly see if there is an abscess or any infection of bone I think.

I'm not trying to scare you but actually this is sort of similar to what happened to my poorly piggy. The first vet didn't check him thoroughly enough and thought it was just a problem with the front teeth being a bit wonky and overgrown and cutting into his mouth so they filed them and sorted them out. However after another week or so had passed it became clear he was getting worse not better and only then did they x-ray and find an abscess that had essentially moved his teeth. We then got referred to a specialist vet who did more thorough x-rays which the first vet did not the have the equipment to do and found the abscess infection has gone into the bone a little too. The first thing this vet noted when he looked inside his mouth was the horrific smell of the abscess and it was so bad he x-rayed my piggy as an emergency patient there and then as thought there was a good chance we'd have to put him to sleep straight away, luckily it was not as bad as he anticipated and we are working through possible treatment options at the moment and awaiting lab results as to what bacteria the abscess is. However this has been going on for over 2 weeks and we are having to regularly feed him every few hours as described above, in the last day or two he seems to have got a bit depressed and stopped voluntarily eating formula and now needs to be force fed.

I think I would really encourage an x-ray of your piggy's mouth if you haven't got one already, I wish the first vet had done this as soon as we mentioned he had problems eating, we would be a week or so into the future if they had.

Oh poor Piggy! How horrible! We haven't had an xray yet but I am keeping an eye on Bonnie's injury. As I say, I did think I had a whiff of dog breath but the vet didn't seem to so I can only go with the expert advice. We don't know when she's broken her tooth but it could have been really recent. She has swelling right behind her top incisors which looks pretty sore. It could be just because she broken her tooth recently and her body's just reacted a bit violently to it. It could be because she broke her tooth close to the gum a few days ago, nasties got in the wound and caused an abscess. All I can do is keep an eye on it and take her back to the vet on Tuesday to ask for antibiotics. The vet did say we should bring her back if it doesn't improve so...

I'm just happy that all things considered she seems happy in herself and is not only maintaining her low weight but putting on weight rather than losing it. And her appetite seems pretty good too considering her teeth hurt her. As the bottom pig, I think she's enjoying the special attention and getting to eat what she wants without getting it stolen from her. She's in a sickbay cage within our C&C set up right now but I might put her in with the other two for the night just to make sure she gets some socialising and some cuddles (well as close as my herd get to cuddles anyway).