Molar problems

[guineapig94]

Hello. I need some kind of advice. I own 2 guinea pigs. Mother and her baby (which is not baby anymore since he's 2 years old). Sadly the father passed away September 2019 from molar problems. He has been at vets filing few his molars and he just couldn't get to eat no matter how much I have been feeding him with the syringe. My problem is now that baby seems to have molar problems too. I have been taking him to vet and they filed his molars once but it didn't seem to work since he's still struggling to eat/like something is constantly stuck in his mouth. I have been feeding him with syringe as well but he didn't drink any water on own, I had to give it to him. I'm so scared because I don't want to lose him like his father and I was wondering if anyone have any tips or second oppinnion on what to do? The vet recognized me comming for same problem 2 years ago but the problem is that both of piggies didn't have "visible" teeth problems. They cannot see what's bothering him and they said his teeth are all okay. In reality I see he's struggling to eat like something is stuck. I am very scared because vet couldn't help my male guinea pig before with same problem. Thank you so much and sorry for maybe making some mistakes while writing. English is not my first language

 

[Bill & Ted]

So sorry for you

Could you get a second opinion from another vet who has experience with guinea pig dental problems? I feel for you, I have had a dental piggie too, it’s an awful situation to be in. Until the teeth have been filed correctly the piggie won’t eat. Try hand feeding little bits of grass or carrot or thing you can chop small. A bowl of Porridge oats are good too placed in the cage, plenty of calories in it.
The grinding area of the molars needs to be very flat with no spurs or spikes. I’d ask your vet to check that there’s nothing stuck in his mouth too. Weigh everyday so you knowing if Baby is getting enough food or losing weight.
Can you say where you are from as sometimes other members might be able to suggest a good vet.
Good luck x

 

[Free Ranger]

I'm so sorry to hear of your difficulties. It is hard when you see them struggle to eat. I had a little sow that I was syringe feeding for many weeks because she could not eat anything on her own. Her story has a sad end but I will tell you because her problem turned out not to be teeth - at least not that we could find.

We think it was maybe something to do with swallowing (she seemed to chew chew chew the syringe food for ages and not swallow it - even though it was just slop) and the teeth were overgrowing because she could not eat hay to grind them down. When she started to drop food from her mouth and not try to eat any more she had a dental for her molars as there was a spur growing that the vet could see and it was making a sore spot on the gums (she was sent home with painkiller called metacam for a week - very important as the dental can make their face sore and they don't try to eat). After a few weeks on the syringe her chewing got worse and it turned out her front teeth this time: the incisors had actually grown too long and she couldn't close her mouth properly so she had those trimmed. It was because she was not biting anything. Her chewing of syringe food was immediately much better and faster after (they were actually a bit too short but they grow back) but after a day I realised she still couldn't eat on her own, poor girl. We never really found out why. She used to look sometimes like food had got stuck, she would twist her head and stretch her mouth open as if she was choking and it would take about 20 seconds for her to recover. Maybe sometimes she was inhaling a bit of syringe food accidentally and getting it stuck (we also had 2 lots of antibiotics to see if that made a difference) but once I saw her in the garden try to take a single blade of grass and immediately she did the twisty-head-open-mouth thing to get the blade back out. She maintained her weight for about 6 weeks before she declined but it took about 6 hours in total each day on the syringe because her eating/swallowing could not be rushed. She took on average about 45ml in total per day and I did not feed overnight. The last weekend I could see she had just given up so I took her to be put to sleep. I still cry for her - it is hard to write about it - but it is important to remember that problems eating are not always caused by overgrown teeth. Sometimes the teeth overgrow because of other eating problems.

People on here recommend a vet in Northampton at the 'Cat and Rabbit Clinic' called Simon Maddox who is so expert in guinea pig dentistry it is worth driving many hours but if you are not in the UK this is not much help! I could not get there in time - perhaps he might have seen a piggy with problems like mine before, perhaps not - but for us it was too late. Maybe there was nothing that could be done anyway - maybe I just didn't find the answer. I did learn that a vet has to be very competent to do piggy dentals as sometimes they can actually make a problem worse but it sounds like your vet is confident that there are no spurs, the tongue is not entrapped, the teeth meet well etc. Has he checked the incisors have not overgrown? Or considered whether there might be infection or an abscess at the roots of the teeth? This will cause pain when they chew. I don't know if this can be picked up with x-ray or something but my vet feels along the jaw for swelling or tender spots - you just have to hope piggy will let you know if there is a pain. Sometimes roots of teeth can grow too long and for example put pressure on the eyeball(!) but things like this are not a risk for every pig it is just bad luck - and might well be genetic. Some poor piggies just have the wrong genes. We can only do our best for each pig and I wish you luck trying to help yours - he must have had a happy life up to this point with such a caring owner