BenjiAndButtons
Junior Guinea Pig
Barny is being put under on monday to have his teeth shaven. What can we expect?
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Sedation
- Thread starter BenjiAndButtons
- Start date
Make sure that you get plenty of painkiller. His mouth will be very sore and he will require syringe feeding even if he is not having a reaction to the GA. How soon he starts eating on his own depends on how guinea pig dental savvy your vet is, but you are looking at potentially several weeks rather than a day or two.
You can find syringe feeding tips and as well as a chapter on looking after dental piggies in our syringe feeding guide.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Tips For Post-operative Care
Guinea pigs have the fastest growing teeth of all the rodents because the silica in grass and hay on which they have evolved are so abrasive. if the crucial back teeth are not ground evenly because of bad diet or a pain problem somewhere, then the premolars can quickly overgrow and trap the tongue or more rarely, bore into the cheek.
Dental problems usually need more than one round to get on top of. Ideally the source of the problem is identified and if possibly removed. The teeth are burred again as soon as they start going wrong again (checking is required about 2-3 weeks later) to prevent them from overgrowing again and further controlled in a increasing intervals until they are fully balanced again. Vets who insist on a full GA for any dental treatment unfortunately cannot offer this kind of aftercare, so you are always back to square one with having to wait until the teeth are fully overgrown again.
All the best!
You can find syringe feeding tips and as well as a chapter on looking after dental piggies in our syringe feeding guide.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Tips For Post-operative Care
Guinea pigs have the fastest growing teeth of all the rodents because the silica in grass and hay on which they have evolved are so abrasive. if the crucial back teeth are not ground evenly because of bad diet or a pain problem somewhere, then the premolars can quickly overgrow and trap the tongue or more rarely, bore into the cheek.
Dental problems usually need more than one round to get on top of. Ideally the source of the problem is identified and if possibly removed. The teeth are burred again as soon as they start going wrong again (checking is required about 2-3 weeks later) to prevent them from overgrowing again and further controlled in a increasing intervals until they are fully balanced again. Vets who insist on a full GA for any dental treatment unfortunately cannot offer this kind of aftercare, so you are always back to square one with having to wait until the teeth are fully overgrown again.
All the best!
BenjiAndButtons
Junior Guinea Pig
Thank you! What pain killers can we give him? He's only a baby still (6months) aahaha, Vet said the problem is his front upper teeth, they're out of line somehow. I thought we'd need to syrine feed.
We just feel so sorry for him
We just feel so sorry for him
Poor boy - at least you know what is the matter. Incisors are much easier to keep under control so they do not spill over into the back teeth. Guinea pigs can live well without one or even two incisors if necessary. They may need to have their teeth adjusted from time to time, but it is not the kind of problem that you get with overgrown molars and recurring abscesses. You will get fairly good at spotting the early signs of when things are starting to go wrong pretty quickly!
Depending how badly affected the back teeth are, your boy should bounce back more easily. The incisors are used for picking up and cutting, so cut any veg into fine strips and keep to softer greens, herbs and veg at first and if necessary place them into his mouth (behind the incisors for the tongue to pick up) if he can chew OK with his back teeth; the more he uses those, the better.
Weigh him daily at the same time to monitor his food intake and top him up as much as necessary to cover for any hay and veg he is not eating. Try and see whether he eats mushed up pellets.
Here is my Hywel, who was at the time living minus one bottom incisor, but a recurring abscess in his jawbone; the abscess had just started to come back again and I had to put Hywel on grated veg again.
Metacam from the vet will do. He'll hopefully come home with some, but if not, please ask at the vet's when you pick him up.
BenjiAndButtons
Junior Guinea Pig
Thanks for your reply!
He is gorgeous bless him! We've made an emergency feed before of crush nuggets and warm water, do you think he'll be okay with hay? Or is there some sort of emergency mix with hay we can create?
He is gorgeous bless him! We've made an emergency feed before of crush nuggets and warm water, do you think he'll be okay with hay? Or is there some sort of emergency mix with hay we can create?
You can give him mushed up pellets as an emergency, but if possible mix it with recovery formula (especially if your boy doesn't like the taste of the formula on its own). Critical Care fine grind is the easiest to use; I would recommend to have some at home, so you can step in whenever needed; the recovery formula acts as hay replacement.
gizzy
Adult Guinea Pig
Plenty of watery veg Before the general anesthetic!
Up to a week prior to the opp give him plenty of watery veg! (Not green leaf veg) and continue to give it to him till 12 hours before the GA, this will hydrate him and speed up the time that it takes for the GA to work its way through the system,
Keep him away from water for the first hour, and away from food for 4 to 6 hours!
A sleepy pig can choke to death on food and water!
Best guide weight till he has been up and running around without any sleepy relapses for around 4 hours
Plenty = 1 half inch portion of cucumber 4 to 6 times a day
GA gasses have improved greatly over the years so you should not have many problems
Up to a week prior to the opp give him plenty of watery veg! (Not green leaf veg) and continue to give it to him till 12 hours before the GA, this will hydrate him and speed up the time that it takes for the GA to work its way through the system,
Keep him away from water for the first hour, and away from food for 4 to 6 hours!
A sleepy pig can choke to death on food and water!
Best guide weight till he has been up and running around without any sleepy relapses for around 4 hours
Plenty = 1 half inch portion of cucumber 4 to 6 times a day
GA gasses have improved greatly over the years so you should not have many problems
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BenjiAndButtons
Junior Guinea Pig
Thanks for the replies!
He's not a massive fan of cucumber unlike our other piggie.. is tomatoe okay?
He's not a massive fan of cucumber unlike our other piggie.. is tomatoe okay?