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Need help with healing from Malocclusion

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wh1t3r0s3

New Born Pup
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Hello everyone.
I don't know where to start. I'm just trying to be strong for my guinea pig right now as I know he needs me.
Long story short:
March 12th: my baby started losing weight.
14th: he stopped eating hay. Still ate his pellets and veggies.
From 18th: he had diarrhea and lost his appetite. He would eat some new veggies for one day then the next day he stopped eating it. Until now he still eats only a little strawberry.
29th: I accidentally found out he wants to eat bread which I never fed him before. Until now that and vitamin C tablets are still the only things which would light up his eyes.
I checked on the website Lynx for malocclusion symptoms and he only had 3 signs: he was steadily losing weight, he would eat tomatoes but leave the peel and sometimes he picked up a piece of hay but then dropped it. He didn't drool, he would chew fast if I give him something he likes, no exaggerated ear movement.... Many times I hid a piece of hay inside a piece of bread and he ate all without a problem. I also notice that he has a bag of fluid hanging down his neck. It looks like a dewlaps but it grew over night so I'm pretty sure it's something else.
VETS: I brought him to 2 vets:
The first one on 29th, he checked his tummy, his ears, eyes, everything and he said my baby has problems with his molars. He said he didn't have a fever. He said the bag of fluid was caused by his saliva running back down because of his molars problem. He cut his front teeth which were a little long.
The second one in April 3rd, he checked his tummy carefully too and everything then his teeth last. And he also said my baby has dental problems and the bag of fluid isn't anything to worry about. He trimmed his back teeth and gave him : Metacam for 15 days, primperan 5 days and baytril for 10 days.
His weight is down to 710g today. He doesn't want to eat anything but bread. He fights back syringe feeding with all of his strength. He has been on medicine for 6 days. After his back teeth trimming, he drools, drops food while he eats, stops eating anything hard like pellets or C tablets. Some days he seems to be better then the next day he just has no energy. Yesterday it was the first time he fell to his left side and waddled his legs trying to get up but couldn't.
Does this sound normal for a guinea pig after a back teeth trimming?
I'm sorry for the long post and hope you have a good day with your babies.
Samantha
 
I’m sorry to hear this.

Please immediately stop giving him bread and please don’t ever feed it to him again. It is incredibly bad for him and may cause him digestive problems. It is not the right thing to keep his gut functioning.

You must step in with syringe feeding a fibre rich recovery feed such as oxbow critical care or emeraid. If you can’t get them, please mush his normal pellets with water and syringe that to him.
I know it isn’t always easy but it is the only thing he needs alongside hay/grass to keep his gut working properly.
You need to feed at least 40ml to keep gut function but ideally at least 60ml of syringe feeding per day. You are aiming for an amount which keeps his weight stable and stops further weight loss.
It is essential that he is syringe fed enough to keep him alive while he isn’t eating hay for himself.

If he is still drooling and not able to chew/pick up hay then it is possible there is still a problem in his mouth.

What dosage of metacam is he on?

I’m also concerned about him not being stable on his legs and falling over. None of this is normal I’m afraid.

It would be necessary for you to return to the vet to have him checked again.

Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
 
Thank you for your reply.

I have been syringe feeding following the instructions here and the guinea pig lynx guide since he stopped eating vegetables. But because he doesn't want to eat, he sometimes just spits out the food or leaves it in his mouth without chewing. I have tried 1ml syringe and 2.5ml syringe but none of them work. Every time I feed him, it takes at least 2 hours for just 25ml of paste. He will hide his face, pretend to sleep or push my hand with his front legs. But I continue to feed him like this 3 to 4 times a day. What I am worried about is that he may not have enough time to sleep because I have to wake him up to eat.

I also worry that he might have double sickness that the vets didn't find out.
 
You syringe feed because he isn’t eating hay, not because he isn’t eating vegetables.
Hay is the essential part of the diet and it is that which syringe feeding replaces

Please don’t worry about him not sleeping - piggies take many small naps in a day and there is no life threatening situation from you waking him up to eat.

There is a life threatening situation through not getting enough food to maintain his weight. If he doesn’t get enough food and his gut shuts down then I’m afraid that can be fatal.

Give him as much feed as he will take at each sitting but do not force him to eat more than he wants just to get to 25ml because you think you should. He may only want to take 15ml at a time (in a critically ill piggy it can be just 5-10ml) and that’s fine but it just means you have to do extra feedings during the day (you may need to feed six times a day rather then 3-4 times for example).

What do you mean by the syringe doesn’t work? Have you cut the tapered end off the syringe? The mix can sometimes be too coarse and cutting the end off the syringe can help.
 
Yes I cut off the tip of the syringe like in the guide. I mix paste from softer to thicker to see what fits him better every time I feed him. I feed him exactly like how the guide shows too. But he just does not want to swallow, instead he tries to spit it out or just leaves it in his mouth.
He's maintening his weight and I'm trying to feed him once every 2 hours day and night now.
 
wh1t3r0s3 said:
Yes I cut off the tip of the syringe like in the guide. I mix paste from softer to thicker to see what fits him better every time I feed him. I feed him exactly like how the guide shows too. But he just does not want to swallow, instead he tries to spit it out or just leaves it in his mouth.
He's maintening his weight and I'm trying to feed him once every 2 hours day and night now.
Click to expand...

If he is maintaining every day when you weigh him every morning then he must be swallowing something.
If he isn’t swallowing quite literally anything at all, and is drooling excessively then that would be of concern and would require an emergency vet trip.

If he takes some syringe feed happily and then stops swallowing after a certain amount of syringe feed then that could mean he has just had enough at that time.

You don’t need to feed every 2 hours overnight - you need to rest. Give him a feed late at night and then make sure you get a good nights uninterrupted sleep and then feed him again in the morning.
 
You are right, he did swallow something. But seeing him get weaker makes me not sure anymore. I don't mind feeding throughout the night as I see that when I wake up and he didn't eat anything for 5 hours he seems to have less energy. I can't lose him he's so important to me.
I'll follow what you say. If he stops swallowing after a few syringe feed then I'll stop. I just worry that he doesn't eat enough for one day.
 
wh1t3r0s3 said:
You are right, he did swallow something. But seeing him get weaker makes me not sure anymore. I don't mind feeding throughout the night as I see that when I wake up and he didn't eat anything for 5 hours he seems to have less energy. I can't lose him he's so important to me.
I'll follow what you say. If he stops swallowing after a few syringe feed then I'll stop. I just worry that he doesn't eat enough for one day.
Click to expand...

If you are happy feeding overnight then you can do that. Do keep in mind that you need to look after yourself too. Some poorly piggies can need to be syringe fed for weeks and you won’t be able to go without decent sleep for that long.

His weight checks every morning are what tells you whether he has eaten enough.
If his weight is the same tomorrow morning as it was this morning then you know he has eaten enough.
If his weight has gone down (outside of normal fluctuation) then he didn’t eat enough and you need to increase the amount of syringe feeding.

He most probably will not start putting weight back on until he is feeling better and is back to eating plenty of hay
 
Thank you. I will make sure I rest enough too. As long as he gets better, I'll be here for him for weeks or even months.
You make a great point, if he doesn't lose weight then I shouldn't worry about him not eating enough. Thank you so much.
I'll call the vet again today.
 
Oh sorry I missed your question. His Metacam dose is for one at 0.5kg and one time a day.
 
No, the doctor gave me that type of dose. I guess because the medicine comes with a syringe with that measurement. I will try to find out how many ml then will get back to you tonight.
 
wh1t3r0s3 said:
No, the doctor gave me that type of dose. I guess because the medicine comes with a syringe with that measurement. I will try to find out how many ml then will get back to you tonight.
Click to expand...

Most vets usually discard the syringe that comes with it and dispense in a ml syringe.

The syringe that comes with it are the doses for cats and dogs, depending on which version of the metacam you have.
0.5mg/ml is cat version
1.5 mg/ml is dog version

Both are fine for piggies but the dosages are adjusted accordingly as piggies can take higher doses by weight than dogs or cats can.
 
He gave me the prescription using that syringe. But I just measured it and it's around 0.05ml. So I give my baby 0.05ml one time a day for 15 days. Is it ok?
 
Is it the cat or dog version of metacam?

Pain meds are dosed according to weight and according to the clinical need, it’s on a sliding scale. They also need to be dosed much higher than for a cat or dog comparative for their weight.
But 0.05ml dosage is essentially pointless if it is cat version. Even at your piggy’s small weight, his dosage is incredibly low.

Piggies also need pain meds twice a day as they metabolise them faster than dogs and cats.

However, we cannot tell you to go against what your vet has prescribed so therefore you cannot increase it without your vets agreement.
 
Thank you for your reply. Sorry for the late message I'm at the supermarket right now looking for something that might interests my baby.

Yes it's indeed the version for cats. But on the box they also say for guinea pigs. And it's 0.5mg/ml. If the dosage is too low for him, tomorrow when I bring him back to the vet, I can ask him if it's ok to give him more Metacam.

Before I go out I took another 2.5 hours to feed him and again he tried his best to fight back as he's not even hungry and doesn't want to swallow it. For 2.5 hours I could only get him to take around 10ml of paste. And again, he bit the bread fast but I only wanted to give him 2 or 3 pinches. Do you think if he actually wants something sweet? (Sorry I had to give him a little bread to encourage him to swallow the paste or else he pretends to fall asleep)
 
Please stop giving him bread. You could make him so unwell by giving it to him. He must not be given any bread at all, not even a small amount.

No he does not need anything sweet. Piggies guts are not designed for sweet things. Too much can make them unwell.

The only thing he needs is mushed pellet syringe feed for fibre and hay.
 
Ok, I'll stop with the bread. Sorry for that. I never gave him anything sweet either and will not do it.
 
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