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Guinea pig not eating after molar trim

M

misicka

New Born Pup
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Hey,
my 2 year old boy had his teeth trimmed for the first time last week (small molar overgrowth and evening out front teeth after one of them being broken). My problem is he's not started eating hay or pellets again since then. He is interested in it, he sniffs it and nibbles on it a little bit but is very picky about which pieces of hay he will or will not eat. He usually just picks out the thick hard straws. The fine pieces he keeps dropping. At first I thought maybe he's not confident in his grip after the tooth trim but he has no problem absolutely demolishing any vegetable we throw at him, even played a bit of tug of war with me with a piece of parsley. He is also ok with grass, but i don't want to give him too much as he's not used to eating it regurarly and i don't want to upset his stomach or something. We supplement the food with critical care and mushed pellets. He can take more critical care in one sitting than he was when we first brought him home so that makes me a bit hopeful.

He was at the vet for two days for observation after the trim, had an x-ray made and the vet didnt see anything wrong with him. They checked his urine and that was also ok. Weight has been pretty stable for the last week - it's low, but it's not going down except for some normal fluctuation.

His body language is pretty normal, he's not as active because he doesn't eat that much, but he's lively, aware of his surroundings, doesn't show any visible signs of pain. I even saw him popcorn a little bit.

Is this a normal thing that happens after a tooth trim?

Thanks :)
 
Not had a tooth trim so I'm no expert. I hope someone can come help advise. Though only thing I would say is to make sure he's on pain meds.
 
Is he on any medication? If there has been some sort of dental discomfort painkillers are often needed while things settle down for a couple days or so.
If any other medical ailment has been ruled out then the only thing I would be wondering is that he is in discomfort/pain of some sort, minor lethargy and reluctancy to eat also point towards this. How is the broken tooth coming in? Did it come out fully?

No, what you are describing is not consistent with a tooth trim. Generally pigs bounce back very well after a dental has been completed, like my boy Digby, he was up and eating like 10 minutes after he got home (he was on painkillers).

I would recommend you switch to daily weighing if you haven’t already, at the same time each day, to keep on top of his food intake as hay intake can’t be known just by looking.

I hope your boy starts to feel better soon x
Weight - Monitoring and Management
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
 
Yes, he is on Meloxicam. His front teeth are already fully grown back, so there should be no problem there. I weigh him daily in the morning and spend pretty much all day with him so I can see some pattern in his behavior. He seems like he starts chomping on the hay later in the evening, maybe continues over night. We got him another type of hay (spoiled brat has 3 types of hay in the cage lol) and he seems to like it a little bit more.

Thanks for your answer, I will have him checked out by the vet next week again if he doesn't get better.
 
Definitely switch to daily weighing for now then and if he starts to lose, you will know he’s not getting enough hay.
 
Welp we found out he has a potentionally malignant tumor near his mammary glands. Thankfully thanks to practically living at the vet for the past few weeks we have been able to catch it fairly soon (like one week the vet didn't feel any growth there and the next week as soon as they noticed some growth we had them do a biopsy) and he is going for removal next week. He is still going pretty strong, annoying his brother all the time and going crazy for veggies.
 
I'm sorry to hear this, but I am glad it was found early.

Fingers crossed his surgery goes well, let us know how he gets on x
 
So sorry, my Piggie Bill had a mammary tumour, it was swiftly removed and he had not further problems. Read our post op guide to support him after his operation, it will come in really useful. Have a bag of critical care and prepare a 1ml syringe (see syringe feeding guide) which you can get off your vet, just in case he needs that extra bit of support. Good it’s been caught so early 🤞
 
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