Hi All,
I am just looking for a little reassurance really.
My piggy Winston (2.5yrs old) slowly dropped weight in June/July from 1070/1050 to 900, dropping off from eating his hay as often and all puffy and sad.
He had suspected dental and we ended up going to a vet who has specialist in GP and exotics as our normal vet suggested it as they were not confident (they couldn’t even see inside his mouth)
The new vet was fantastic, has loads of experience and could immediately see he had a few dental spurs in his mouth and suggested that this was causing the issue which I agreed with he also felt his jaw and thought there may be possible TMJ as well.
He was back in two days later to have his dental under GA and he also took X-rays all over which were all good as well apart from highlighting that one side of his jaw looked irritated which added to suspicion of TMJ.
Winston recovered super well, was eating hay the evening of the op and seemed back to his normal eating behaviour.
However, he only ever gained weight back up to 990 at a maximum, hovering around 975. Is this normal? The vet said he was not concerned as he was being his normal self/eating well.
In the last couple of days he has been more puffy eating again which leads me to believe he’s either got spurs again or that it is the TMJ.
After speaking with the vet I’m going to give him some metacam provisionally to see if this helps him eat more hay and therefore put on weight.
But I will be taking him into the vet for him to be checked over again.
Any advice would be more than welcome, just a bit worried about all this and stressing him out more. The vet did say that if he does think it’s TMJ then he will be on pain management for the rest of his life mixed in with potential holistic remedies like diet.
I couldn’t see a lot of info TMJ with guinea pigs only really old stuff.
May be worth noting that throughout this whole saga he has never stopped eating completely and all in all has been his happy self.
I am just looking for a little reassurance really.
My piggy Winston (2.5yrs old) slowly dropped weight in June/July from 1070/1050 to 900, dropping off from eating his hay as often and all puffy and sad.
He had suspected dental and we ended up going to a vet who has specialist in GP and exotics as our normal vet suggested it as they were not confident (they couldn’t even see inside his mouth)
The new vet was fantastic, has loads of experience and could immediately see he had a few dental spurs in his mouth and suggested that this was causing the issue which I agreed with he also felt his jaw and thought there may be possible TMJ as well.
He was back in two days later to have his dental under GA and he also took X-rays all over which were all good as well apart from highlighting that one side of his jaw looked irritated which added to suspicion of TMJ.
Winston recovered super well, was eating hay the evening of the op and seemed back to his normal eating behaviour.
However, he only ever gained weight back up to 990 at a maximum, hovering around 975. Is this normal? The vet said he was not concerned as he was being his normal self/eating well.
In the last couple of days he has been more puffy eating again which leads me to believe he’s either got spurs again or that it is the TMJ.
After speaking with the vet I’m going to give him some metacam provisionally to see if this helps him eat more hay and therefore put on weight.
But I will be taking him into the vet for him to be checked over again.
Any advice would be more than welcome, just a bit worried about all this and stressing him out more. The vet did say that if he does think it’s TMJ then he will be on pain management for the rest of his life mixed in with potential holistic remedies like diet.
I couldn’t see a lot of info TMJ with guinea pigs only really old stuff.
May be worth noting that throughout this whole saga he has never stopped eating completely and all in all has been his happy self.
