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Dental My Pig Wont Eat Post Dental

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Louiseblack2

Louiseblack2

Junior Guinea Pig
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my guineas pigs about 3 years old, hes not eaten for about a week. we took him too the vet and they put it down to bad molars they sorted them out and sent him back with antibiotics, painkillers and a very high vet bill. she said she couldn't find any other issues we reunited him with his brother and left him too it. Thursday night we had suspicions that he still wasn't eating so we brought him in and put him in a cage alone so we could monitor him. its been two days now and hes touched no food water and hasn't even pooed or weed. we put him out with his brother during the days and monitor him at night to avoid any depression but i'm not sure whats up with him. we googled it and gripe water was suggested we gave him his first dose of that about 20 mins ago and we've also been syringing him soggy biscuits for 2 days as its the only way to get food into him. can anyone help me i'm incredibly worried that he might not live much longer if things don't change. many thanks
 
Louiseblack2 said:
my guineas pigs about 3 years old, hes not eaten for about a week. we took him too the vet and they put it down to bad molars they sorted them out and sent him back with antibiotics, painkillers and a very high vet bill. she said she couldn't find any other issues we reunited him with his brother and left him too it. Thursday night we had suspicions that he still wasn't eating so we brought him in and put him in a cage alone so we could monitor him. its been two days now and hes touched no food water and hasn't even pooed or weed. we put him out with his brother during the days and monitor him at night to avoid any depression but i'm not sure whats up with him. we googled it and gripe water was suggested we gave him his first dose of that about 20 mins ago and we've also been syringing him soggy biscuits for 2 days as its the only way to get food into him. can anyone help me i'm incredibly worried that he might not live much longer if things don't change. many thanks
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Please start syringe feeding and watering your piggy ASAP and have it vet checked as an emergency! By now, the guts will have slowed down already or may have already stopped working altogether (gut stasis), and your piggy will need gut stimulants to try and get them working again.
Please make an appointment first and then start feeding asap with mushed pellets and water. The guide shows you how, including how to prep the syringe and how you carefully give the syringe feed in amounts that your guinea pig can swallow, even if it is already very weak.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

Be aware that guinea pigs rarely eat normally after a dental and need daily weighing and topping up with syringe feeding and water. They also need to careful shifting over to grated veg eventually, even though veg only makes about 10-15% of the daily food intake. 80% is ideally hay.
Where are you and how piggy savvy are your vets when it comes to guinea pig dentals? Have you been given advice on feeding and painkiller when you brought him home?
 
We've been syringe feeding him mushed up biscuits for about 3 days we feed him the equivalent of about 5 biscuits every 4 hours he's very weak but still has some life in him he has lots of veggies in his cage but it using them as a bed thank you for the guide I'll have a look now we took him too the vet and she says she couldn't find an issue other then his teeth but she didn't seem very clued up about guinea pigs were in the Blackpool area I'm not sure of anyone round here who is very clued up about them but we have just spent a lot of money on him
 
Wiebke said:
Please start syringe feeding and watering your piggy ASAP and have it vet checked as an emergency! By now, the guts will have slowed down already or may have already stopped working altogether (gut stasis), and your piggy will need gut stimulants to try and get them working again.
Please make an appointment first and then start feeding asap with mushed pellets and water. The guide shows you how, including how to prep the syringe and how you carefully give the syringe feed in amounts that your guinea pig can swallow, even if it is already very weak.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

Be aware that guinea pigs rarely eat normally after a dental and need daily weighing and topping up with syringe feeding and water. They also need to careful shifting over to grated veg eventually, even though veg only makes about 10-15% of the daily food intake. 80% is ideally hay.
Where are you and how piggy savvy are your vets when it comes to guinea pig dentals? Have you been given advice on feeding and painkiller when you brought him home?
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Also should I leave him separated from his brother or continue with monitoring him at night?
 
Louiseblack2 said:
Also should I leave him separated from his brother or continue with monitoring him at night?
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Leave them together for comfort; and yes, you will ned to syringe feed round the clock, little but often at first, if you want to be in with a chance of saving your boy. The guts start slowing down after a day of not eating; unlike cats or dogs, guinea pigs are not wired to starve, they rely on a steady intake off fibrous food.

As your boy will be very weak by now, please make sure that he is warm (but not baking hot) and comfy at all times. If you have microwaveable snugglesafes, warm to about half the microwaving time and warm up more often instead. ;)
 
Wiebke said:
Leave them together for comfort; and yes, you will ned to syringe feed round the clock, little but often at first, if you want to be in with a chance of saving your boy. The guts start slowing down after a day of not eating; unlike cats or dogs, guinea pigs are not wired to starve, they rely on a steady intake off fibrous food.

As your boy will be very weak by now, please make sure that he is warm (but not baking hot) and comfy at all times. If you have microwaveable snugglesafes, warm to about half the microwaving time and warm up more often instead. ;)
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Can't thank you enough for all your help he's back with his brother with a microwave snuggle now cuddling close together the pair of them I've googled high protein food that I can siringe for them and he seemed very keen on that fingers crossed now he began drinking water not that long ago so he's getting hydrated but still no sogns of eating
 
Louiseblack2 said:
Can't thank you enough for all your help he's back with his brother with a microwave snuggle now cuddling close together the pair of them I've googled high protein food that I can siringe for them and he seemed very keen on that fingers crossed now he began drinking water not that long ago so he's getting hydrated but still no sogns of eating
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He doesn't need high protein food, he needs high fibre food. Please follow the tips in our step-by-step syringe feeding guide; it also has a section of caring for dental guinea pigs. It can take weeks for dental guinea pig to eat again and it usually takes several rounds of burring to get the whole dental system balanced out again. It is however a very good sign that he is still willing to eat and drink; that means that his guts are still able to process food.
General anaestethics can cause additional loss of appetite, especially when vetergesic is being used.

Could you please add your country, state/province or UK county to your details, so we can help you as effectively as possible at all times and can tailor any advice instead of having to keep it as general possible in view of us having members from all over the world with very different backgrounds, climate, access to vets and rescues as well as brands. Please click on your username at the top, go to personal details and scroll down to location. This makes it appear underneath your username in every post your make, so we can adjust any advice as much to your local options as possible straight away. Thank you!

PS: I am also moving your thread to the Health/Illness section as that is monitored by experienced members for best ongoing support.

@furryfriends (TEAS) @MintyAndGarry (TEAS)
 
Wiebke said:
He doesn't need high protein food, he needs high fibre food. Please follow the tips in our step-by-step syringe feeding guide; it also has a section of caring for dental guinea pigs. It can take weeks for dental guinea pig to eat again and it usually takes several rounds of burring to get the whole dental system balanced out again. It is however a very good sign that he is still willing to eat and drink; that means that his guts are still able to process food.
General anaestethics can cause additional loss of appetite, especially when vetergesic is being used.

Could you please add your country, state/province or UK county to your details, so we can help you as effectively as possible at all times and can tailor any advice instead of having to keep it as general possible in view of us having members from all over the world with very different backgrounds, climate, access to vets and rescues as well as brands. Please click on your username at the top, go to personal details and scroll down to location. This makes it appear underneath your username in every post your make, so we can adjust any advice as much to your local options as possible straight away. Thank you!

PS: I am also moving your thread to the Health/Illness section as that is monitored by experienced members for best ongoing support.

@furryfriends (TEAS) @MintyAndGarry (TEAS)
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He sounds wheezy and his stomach looks a bit jittery can this mean anything?
 
Louiseblack2 said:
He sounds wheezy and his stomach looks a bit jittery can this mean anything?
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Please book him at your vets, or even better have him seen by Simon Maddock at the Cat&Rabbit Care Clinic in Northampton. He is a vet that specialises in cats and small furries, and is currently one of the most experienced guinea pig dental vets in the country. He sees guinea pigs from all over the country on a near daily basis, several which have been given up by their treating vets, but that have gone back to living normally after a round of treatments by him. He is not an exotics vets, so his fees are not astronomical. He also uses a minimum of anaesthetics whenever necessary to burr the teeth, so they can be corrected and rebalanced before they become a problem again and require a full-blown op again.
He is NOT a rodentologist and does NOT clip or file teeth the old way, but a proper vet who has pulled off some real miracles over the years due to working hard to prevent teeth from overgrowing again in the first place. It is really well worth making the trip, a number of forum members have found out over the last few years.

It is likely that your boy has a bit of a tummy upset due to not eating and drinking fully. He may need a gut stimulant and/or anti-bloating meds, but we cannot allow you to treat on spec. Your home care is as important as a dental guinea pig needs constant support. You can add a pinch of probiotics (available in a pet shop) to his syringe feed to help balance the guts.
 
There really is only one piece of advice I can give, and that is please, if at all possible, get him seen by Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit Clinic in Northampton. This is the very best chance for your guinea pig and you can be sure you won't be wasting your money, which is what happens with so many other vets who have no experience (but are quite willing to take money) of dental issues in guinea pigs.

Simon does, on average, 45 guinea pig dentals per week and that is full dentals, not just incisor burrs. He also does incisor burns but they are on top of that number. Most vets won't carry out that many dentals in their whole career. He is able to do dental work, in most cases, without anaesthetic, which makes for a much less stressful experience.
 
Thank you everyone but Northamptons wayy to far away for me we called the vets and they said to continue the methods we're doing and they'll get him in asap but appear to be very busy recently so it won't be until next week
 
If you are going to press on with the vet you are seeing, then you are going to need to get your guinea pig much stronger. Please aim to get around 120 mls of syringe food into your piggy per 24 hours. Your piggy isn't going to survive until he is seen again next week unless you can get a decent amount of food into him. The fact they are saying to carry on as you're doing, and they will see him next week, shows they haven't got any idea about guinea pigs and the urgency to treat them before they deteriorate too far

I run a sanctuary for guinea pigs with dental issues, and the only reason the sanctuary exits is because of Simon Maddock. I frequently get calls from people who have spent many hundreds of pounds on guinea pig dentals, that have made no difference whatsoever, and the guinea pig continues to deteriorate and waste away. However, those who come to Simon generally see immediate results for a fraction of the cost. I do offer temporary places so guinea pigs can be treated by Simon but unfortunately we are full to capacity at the moment. However, that may change in a fortnight, when two piggies will be retuning home. They both came here totally unable to eat, after failed treatment elsewhere, but are now doing really well.
 
I give him lettuce before and he began to nibble took a few bites but then turned away from it does this suggest anything
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
If you are going to press on with the vet you are seeing, then you are going to need to get your guinea pig much stronger. Please aim to get around 120 mls of syringe food into your piggy per 24 hours. Your piggy isn't going to survive until he is seen again next week unless you can get a decent amount of food into him. The fact they are saying to carry on as you're doing, and they will see him next week, shows they haven't got any idea about guinea pigs and the urgency to treat them before they deteriorate too far

I run a sanctuary for guinea pigs with dental issues, and the only reason the sanctuary exits is because of Simon Maddock. I frequently get calls from people who have spent many hundreds of pounds on guinea pig dentals, that have made no difference whatsoever, and the guinea pig continues to deteriorate and waste away. However, those who come to Simon generally see immediate results for a fraction of the cost. I do offer temporary places so guinea pigs can be treated by Simon but unfortunately we are full to capacity at the moment. However, that may change in a fortnight, when two piggies will be retuning home. They both came here totally unable to eat, after failed treatment elsewhere, but are now doing really well.
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We aren't taking him back to that vet she seemed pretty useless we've gone to another vet but I have a friend who owns multiple guinea pigs and is very clued up about them tonight to see what she suggest
 
Louiseblack2 said:
We aren't taking him back to that vet she seemed pretty useless we've gone to another vet but I have a friend who owns multiple guinea pigs and is very clued up about them tonight to see what she suggest
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If @furryfriends (TEAS) could offer your guinea pig a place in a couple of weeks in order to get the best treatment possible, I strongly recommended you take it as Simon maddock is probably the best vet for guinea pig dentals in this country x
 
If you're not willing or able to take your pig to the vet then you're going to have to spend as much of your time as possible feeding your pig until you can take him to the vet.

120mls of syringe food, which is either special recovery food or watered down pellets, not "biscuits" is what he will need to eat every day. I know from personal experience that this is a really hard job to do, and it's very draining but it's the only way your pig will survive.

If your pig deteriorates or doesn't start to eat then you will have to make a decision. He either needs to see a better vet, or you need to decide on whether your pig is suffering. If he is then maybe he needs to be put to sleep.

When I had to syringe feed one of my boys a few years ago I really struggled as I had to work still. One of my wonderful friends stepped in to help and she fed him for me when I wasn't able to.

Guinea pigs can't survive for long without eating and your boy is already starting to weaken. Please increasd his food intake. Have a read of the handfeeding guidance on this forum, it's great advice.
 
Thanks everyone for your help we got him an emergency appointment at another vet for a second opinion today she informed us he'd gone blind and had a stroke there was multiple neurological issues and he was in a bad way before he got out to sleep he decided for himself it was the end and went peacefully thank you everyone for trying but she said he was too weak to be save
 
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