Dental Not eating hay after teeth trim

[vmorin918]

Luna stopped eating and we took her to the Vet and she needed to have her teeth trimmed. She did and we were feeding her critical care to get her weight back and because she wasn't eating veggies or pellets. We're one week out from surgery and she's eating pellets, but still can't bite down and chew veggies AND she refuses to eat hay (so she's only surviving on critical care).

We're so confused because she will eat hard pellets but not soft cucumber slices or green pepper? She is so lethargic and the last 1.5-2 days her back legs stopped working.

We are afraid she had a stroke or something and that she can't survivor on critical care alone right? The vet thinks she most likely isn't going to improve so we made an appt in a few days to put her down, so we could have the weekend with her. It's so hard because she shows interest in pellets, loves critical care and tries to eat veggies (with no success).

Has this happened to anyone?

 

[Siikibam]

I’m so sorry to hear about your girl. Was she given any painkiller? Sometimes they are scared to eat again because of the pain. Keep giving her a much as she will take at regular intervals.

Did the vet say anything about her legs? I’ll also tag @furryfriends (TEAS) who is experienced in looking after dental piggies.

Wishing you both all the best.

 

[vmorin918]

I’m so sorry to hear about your girl. Was she given any painkiller? Sometimes they are scared to eat again because of the pain. Keep giving her a much as she will take at regular intervals.

Did the vet say anything about her legs? I’ll also tag @furryfriends (TEAS) who is experienced in looking after dental piggies.

Wishing you both all the best.

Yes she's been on meloxicam, one dose every 24 hours. Ironically, she literally just took a few bites of a hay pile I put next to her like 5 minutes ago. Her legs were fine when we saw the Vet on Tuesday. Thursday night they looked not right and Friday morning they were not moving at all. When I talked to the Vet later Friday morning she thought perhaps her leg situation was neurological.

She just laid down a second ago to rest, I just feel like we are in such a terrible limbo position. I don't want to put her down if there's hope but I know that without eating hay that there's no chance.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Is the vet experienced with piggy dentals?
Are you weighing her daily so you can be sure she is getting enough critical care in each 24 hour period? (it’s hay intake which critical care is replacing)

Pellets go mushy with saliva so they may not be staying hard long enough once in her mouth to be a problem

What dosage of meloxicom is she on and is it dog 1.5mg or cat 0.5mg) version?
Once every 24 hours is not likely enough. Piggies metabolise pain meds quickly (in around 12 hours) so they need to be given twice a day. If only given once then piggy can be spend half their time with pain.

 

[vmorin918]

Is the vet experienced with piggy dentals?
Are you weighing her daily so you can be sure she is getting enough critical care in each 24 hour period? (it’s hay intake which critical care is replacing)

Pellets go mushy with saliva so they may not be staying hard long enough once in her mouth to be a problem

What dosage of meloxicom is she on and is it dog 1.5mg or cat 0.5mg) version?
Once every 24 hours is not likely enough. Piggies metabolise pain meds quickly (in around 12 hours) so they need to be given twice a day. If only given once then piggy can be spend half their time with pain.

Yes she is a very experienced piggy vet. We are weighing her daily, and last weigh was 0.55kg. We have been feeding her 20-24ml of critical care, and 0.25ml of meloxicam every 24 hours. It's meloxicam for dogs.

What would be your recommendation?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Yes she is a very experienced piggy vet. We are weighing her daily, and last weigh was 0.55kg. We have been feeding her 20-24ml of critical care, and 0.25ml of meloxicam every 24 hours. It's meloxicam for dogs.

What would be your recommendation?

Is the amount of critical care you quote per day or per sitting?
If it is and if she isn’t eating hay then she needs considerably more critical care than that to replace the 80% daily hay intake - at least 60ml per 24 hour period (also consider that a healthy piggy would eat the equivalent of around 120ml per 24 hour period.)
The less she eats per sitting, the more sittings you need to do each day

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

Is she losing weight? Just her last weight doesn’t mean much I’m afraid.

Dog is stronger and she is a small piggy. As I say though, pain meds should really be given twice a day for piggies to ensure maximum benefit

 

[vmorin918]

Is the amount of critical care you quote per day?

If it is and if she isn’t eating hay then she needs considerably more critical care than that - at least 60ml per 24 hour period (also consider that a healthy piggy would eat the equivalent of around 120ml per 24 hour period.)

Is she losing weight? Just her last weight doesn’t mean much I’m afraid.

Dog is stronger and she is a small piggy. As I say though, pain meds should really be given twice a day for piggies to ensure maximum benefit

Sorry, yes CC is per day. She has slowly been gaining weight incrementally the last 4 days. about 30g a day. She went from 415g to about 550g (I don't have the daily chart on me). She had been losing weight, and continued after dental surgery but the last few days she started to put it on.

My husband and I go back to work Monday (we had covid so we've been able to feed her every few hours) but now there will be a couple days a week where nobody is home between 10am-6:30pm. We can do feedings 6am and 8am and 6:30pm and 9pm feedings after so I hope that's enough (days I work from home I can do more feedings throughout the day)

 

[Siikibam]

Could you try putting some critical care in a bowl in the cage? You can only do what you can if you’re going to be out at work.

 

[vmorin918]

Could you try putting some critical care in a bowl in the cage? You can only do what you can if you’re going to be out at work.

Wow. What an obvious solution LOL duh hahaha yes we will put a bowl of it in there! Thank you so much lol

 

[Wiebke]

Wow. What an obvious solution LOL duh hahaha yes we will put a bowl of it in there! Thank you so much lol

If recovering piggies are eating on their own, then encourage them to eat from a bowl instead of a syringe; it is so much easier on you.

Encourage your piggy to eat fresh growing grass if you have already accustomed her digestive system to it; otherwise do it slowly and very gradually; and always make sure that it is dog pee free. Grass is much easier to eat for guinea pigs with dental issues but it contains the same amount of teeth abrading silica as hay (it is the highly abrasive silica in the grass fibre which actually grinds down the constantly growing teeth; and it is actually the high silica content in their main food that the fast growth rate in cavy teeth has evolved against. TEAS sanctuary has their dental piggies out on the lawn or eating fresh grass indoors as often as possible for that reason.
Here is a link about what you need to consider when (re)introducing grass and lawn time into your indoors piggies' lives in Spring: Feeding Grass And Preparing Your Piggies For Lawn Time

A bowl with plain porridge oats in the cage is also something that TEAS does for their dental piggies struggling with weight issues.

 

[vmorin918]

If recovering piggies are eating on their own, then encourage them to eat from a bowl instead of a syringe; it is so much easier on you.

Encourage your piggy to eat fresh growing grass if you have already accustomed her digestive system to it; otherwise do it slowly and very gradually; and always make sure that it is dog pee free. Grass is much easier to eat for guinea pigs with dental issues but it contains the same amount of teeth abrading silica as hay (it is the highly abrasive silica in the grass fibre which actually grinds down the constantly growing teeth; and it is actually the high silica content in their main food that the fast growth rate in cavy teeth has evolved against. TEAS sanctuary has their dental piggies out on the lawn or eating fresh grass indoors as often as possible for that reason.
Here is a link about what you need to consider when (re)introducing grass and lawn time into your indoors piggies' lives in Spring: Feeding Grass And Preparing Your Piggies For Lawn Time

A bowl with plain porridge oats in the cage is also something that TEAS does for their dental piggies struggling with weight issues.

None of my girls have ever had fresh grass, we live in an apartment with no yard and all of the parks, etc. around here are treated with chemicals (I called the City last year and asked). I bought 3 different kinds of hay and right now she's eating a blend (timothy and orchard). Thank you for the info!

 

[Wiebke]

If recovering piggies are eating on their own, then encourage them to eat from a bowl instead of a syringe; it is so much easier on you.

Encourage your piggy to eat fresh growing grass if you have already accustomed her digestive system to it; otherwise do it slowly and very gradually; and always make sure that it is dog pee free. Grass is much easier to eat for guinea pigs with dental issues but it contains the same amount of teeth abrading silica as hay (it is the highly abrasive silica in the grass fibre which actually grinds down the constantly growing teeth; and it is actually the high silica content in their main food that the fast growth rate in cavy teeth has evolved against. TEAS sanctuary has their dental piggies out on the lawn or eating fresh grass indoors as often as possible for that reason.
Here is a link about what you need to consider when (re)introducing grass and lawn time into your indoors piggies' lives in Spring: Feeding Grass And Preparing Your Piggies For Lawn Time

A bowl with plain porridge oats in the cage is also something that TEAS does for their dental piggies struggling with weight issues.

You control the food intake with your scales; always weigh at the same time in the feeding cycle when you weigh daily. I prefer first thing in the morning as that is when the weight is lowest in its ca. 30g swing band over the course of 24 hours - that helps you work our how much you ant to supplement feed over the course of the day.
However, you may find it more practical to do that in the evening when you return from work to evaluate whether and how much you need top up feed. You can only compare morning weights with morning weights and evening weights with evening weights. The more often you weigh, the more the weight will jump around in a stable piggy.

A weight gain of 30g in a day is great and is a sign of very good recovery rate.

 

[Wiebke]

None of my girls have ever had fresh grass, we live in an apartment with no yard and all of the parks, etc. around here are treated with chemicals (I called the City last year and asked). I bought 3 different kinds of hay and right now she's eating a blend (timothy and orchard). Thank you for the info!

Consider growing grass in some trays/windowsill boxes yourself.
Do you have a community allotment within your reach where you may get some weeded grass or could grow a container for your piggies?

 

[Wiebke]

None of my girls have ever had fresh grass, we live in an apartment with no yard and all of the parks, etc. around here are treated with chemicals (I called the City last year and asked). I bought 3 different kinds of hay and right now she's eating a blend (timothy and orchard). Thank you for the info!

Encourage her to eat as much hay as possible - best way of keeping those teeth down. Tailor the amount of support accordingly to make sure that you do not take away from eating hay.