Dental Suspected tooth problems

[Julesie]

So yesterday I suspected something was off with Yugi. She came running over like she wanted food so I gave her it. She ignored the food and kept staring up at me like she was trying to tell me something.

Fast forward to today I was trying to give her some food and she wouldn't leave her spot. Very worried I tried fresh grass and dandelion but she picked it up, dropped it and turned her back.

She adores coriander so we tried her with that. Same thing. Tried to eat it, couldn't seem to bite? Then dropped it. Tried again a few times and gave up. She can't seem to bite?

I took her out and had a look at her front teeth. They were slanted like / I'm not sure if that could be the problem? Both top and bottom were like it.

I phoned my guinea pig savvy vet in Broxbourne and could only get an appointment for Tuesday. I'm worried that's too late so I phoned various local vets and got an appointment. However the lady said she doesn't really know guinea pigs well but agreed to have a look.

Is there anything I should ask for? Pain relief? I've not had a piggie with teeth problems before and I'm worried. I still have the Tuesday appointment booked in at Broxbourne and this is just to hopefully help her make it to Tuesday.

Extremely worried after only losing Eevee last month

 

[Julesie]

My vet appointment is for 1.45pm today with the general vet

 

[Tnoz]

Hope all goes ok for your baby, sending love and pls keep us posted x

 

[Julesie]

Hope all goes ok for your baby, sending love and pls keep us posted x

Thank you I definitely will

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.
Slanted incisors can often point to a problem with the molars - often that they are not chewing evenly and therefore the molars are not not wearing evenly.

It would be better to ensure a savvy vet deals with dental issues - what you don’t want is an inexperienced vet touching the teeth (potential for things to get worse).

Weigh her daily and syringe feed her to replace any reduction in hay intake.

I hope she is ok

 

[Julesie]

I’m sorry to hear this.
Slanted incisors can often point to a problem with the molars - often that they are not chewing evenly and therefore the molars are not not wearing evenly.

It would be better to ensure a savvy vet deals with dental issues - what you don’t want is an inexperienced vet touching the teeth (potential for things to get worse).

Weigh her daily and syringe feed her to replace any reduction in hay intake.

I hope she is ok

Thank you. The vet has given me metacam to give her until I can get to Amir at vets and pets in Broxbourne on Tuesday.

I'm just going to head to pah to get some critical care to syringe her. The vet said to give her baby food but I'm not sure if that's ok or not?

Thank you

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Slanted molars are generally a sign of one-sided chewing; i.e. one-sided pain. Often a developing root abscess is the cause.

Painkiller would be great (ideally with a good whack of dog metacam if the vet is prepared to give it), also an antibiotic to help your girl over the bank holiday until her regular appointment. These things always happen at the worst of times, unfortunately. All you can do is run with whatever you can get out of the vet in this kind of scenario.

Please step in with syringe feeding support asap. Here is the link to our new updated guide: All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

All the best!

 

[Julesie]

I have to give 0.9ml to Yugi once a day.

Can I just check this is the correct dose I have put in the syringe before I give her it? It seems a lot because the bottle is tiny

 

[Julesie]

Hi!

Slanted molars are generally a sign of one-sided chewing; i.e. one-sided pain. Often a developing root abscess is the cause.

Painkiller would be great (ideally with a good whack of dog metacam if the vet is prepared to give it), also an antibiotic to help your girl over the bank holiday until her regular appointment. These things always happen at the worst of times, unfortunately. All you can do is run with whatever you can get out of the vet in this kind of scenario.

Please step in with syringe feeding support asap. Here is the link to our new updated guide: All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

All the best!

Thank you. I didn't get given an antibiotic but I have a bottle of sulfatrim from another piggie appointment. I'm not sure if that is the correct stuff? It's still in date luckily.

Thank you for the links

 

[Gem789]

I have to give 0.9ml to Yugi once a day.

Can I just check this is the correct dose I have put in the syringe before I give her it? It seems a lot because the bottle is tiny

Yes that's the correct dose, that would equal 0.3ml in dog metacam so it's a good dose. I wonder whether it's worth splitting the dose and giving every 12 hours? Sending healing vibes to yugi xx

 

[Julesie]

Yes that's the correct dose, that would equal 0.3ml in dog metacam so it's a good dose. I wonder whether it's worth splitting the dose and giving every 12 hours? Sending healing vibes to yugi xx

Yeah she said I could do that if I wanted. I might try that thank you

 

[Wiebke]

Yeah she said I could do that if I wanted. I might try that thank you

Please do give the metacam every 12 hours. Don't give antibiotics on spec.

All the best.

Here is the link to our one stop emergency and crisis care collection, which you may want to bookmark anyway - you never know when it comes in handy. You can find everything you need when in a panic in one place with practical tips and what to look out for etc.: Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

 

[Piggies&buns]

I'm just going to head to pah to get some critical care to syringe her. The vet said to give her baby food but I'm not sure if that's ok or not?

Thank you

Regarding the baby food - she needs the fibre from recovery feed so while you can add a little bit of baby food to it to make it more palatable if necessary, it cannot be much as obviously if she fills up on puréed veg, she will be reducing fibre intake even further. She will probably just eat the recovery feed as is. Mushed pellets is the alternative

 

[Julesie]

Regarding the baby food - she needs the fibre from recovery feed so while you can add a little bit of baby food to it to make it more palatable if necessary, it cannot be much as obviously if she fills up on puréed veg, she will be reducing fibre intake even further. She will probably just eat the recovery feed as is. Mushed pellets is the alternative

Thank you. I have an aneseed flavour critical care which she absolutely hates the taste of (wouldn't eat it when healthy and I was giving it to another piggie whereas she usually steals) so I'm going to try and do some mushed up pellets instead.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you. I have an aneseed flavour critical care which she absolutely hates the taste of (wouldn't eat it when healthy and I was giving it to another piggie whereas she usually steals) so I'm going to try and do some mushed up pellets instead.

Try a mix of mushed pellets or puree with the critical formula to help cover the taste. If you use mushed up pellets, please follow the advice re. syringe prep in our syringe feeding guide.

 

[Julesie]

Try a mix of mushed pellets or puree with the critical formula to help cover the taste. If you use mushed up pellets, please follow the advice re. syringe prep in our syringe feeding guide.

Thank you. I was just reading that

How often should I give her it? She gets extremely stressed out by me picking her up so I don't want to overdo it with her

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you. I was just reading that

How often should I give her it? She gets extremely stressed out by me picking her up so I don't want to overdo it with her

If she is not eating at all, you need to aim for ideally 60-90 ml but at minimum of 40 ml in 24 hours.
See how much she takes with every feed and then adjust the frequency accordingly. Hopefully she will be a bit more willing to take on feed with the painkiller.

At this stage (as with any piggy that is not eating at all) it is more important that you keep her going than whether she likes it or not; you have to follow the crisis advice. It's never pleasant but her life is potentially at stake and you have to get her through the weekend by hook or by crook.

 

[Julesie]

If she is not eating at all, you need to aim for ideally 60-90 ml but at minimum of 40 ml in 24 hours.
See how much she takes with every feed and then adjust the frequency accordingly. Hopefully she will be a bit more willing to take on feed with the painkiller.

At this stage (as with any piggy that is not eating at all) it is more important that you keep her going than whether she likes it or not; you have to follow the crisis advice. It's never pleasant but her life is potentially at stake and you have to get her through the weekend by hook or by crook.

Thank you. She is trying to eat. I've seen her taking tiny nibbles of things as best as she can.
Joey is eating it all though which isn't helping. I'm trying to decide whether to partition her into half the cage and him in the other.

Thank you for the help.

40ml in 24 hours is roughly how often? I'm not the best with maths

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you. She is trying to eat. I've seen her taking tiny nibbles of things as best as she can.
Joey is eating it all though which isn't helping. I'm trying to decide whether to partition her into half the cage and him in the other.

Thank you for the help.

40ml in 24 hours is roughly how often? I'm not the best with maths

Feed every 2 hours throughout the day if she takes less than 10 ml in one session and every 3 hours if you get more than 10 ml into her in one sitting. Aim to get ideally 60-90 ml into her - 40 ml is the bare survival level; a healthy guinea pig in their prime is eating the equivalent of 90-120 ml in a day. The more you can keep up her weight the better.

1 ml = 1 small syringe full

 

[Julesie]

Feed every 2 hours throughout the day if she takes less than 10 ml in one session and every 3 hours if you get more than 10 ml into her in one sitting. Aim to get ideally 60-90 ml into her - 40 ml is the bare survival level; a healthy guinea pig in their prime is eating the equivalent of 90-120 ml in a day. The more you can keep up her weight the better.

1 ml = 1 small syringe full

Thank you so much that's very clear and helpful

 

[Piggies&buns]

And use your daily weight checks as guidance that she is getting enough

 

[Julesie]

Here's a video of her trying her hardest to eat the veg I've just put in for them

 

[Julesie]

I managed to get 75ml into her today via syringe feeding. She has tried to eat herself (however I can't really tell if she is). We suspect she at least had a tiny bite or two of cucumber and she keeps trying to eat hay/foilage herself though if she's getting any down I'm not sure.

I'm going to try and get another 10ml in her at 2am then I'll need to sleep.

I have to go out to my sister's birthday tomorrow/easter. Will she be okay for a few hours without any feeding? I don't plan to stay as long as we usually would so I can get home and feed her.

 

[Julesie]

I got a total of 85ml into her today. She has lost weight which I'm worried about despite it all.

I've set an alarm for 6am to hopefully feed her another 10ml. I just hope she is able to make it to the vet safely Tuesday. She's still bright eyed so far and feisty but I can't help but worry, especially because I won't be home all day tomorrow nor can I take her with me (family has allergies.)

 

[Piggies&buns]

How much weight has she lost?

While you are out, can you try to leave a big bowl of the mushed pellets/critical care in a dish in her cage? She may be able to lap at it herself? (Cage mate eating it instead a risk there though)

 

[Julesie]

I left a bowl of mushed banana and mushed pellets when I went to bed last night however the pellets haven't been touched and the banana is gone but not sure who ate it.

I've attached a photo of her weight

 

[Piggies&buns]

Were those weights done at the same time each day?
Are you certain the weights are correct?
Have you weighed her yet today?

257g in 24 hours is a huge amount of weight to have lost. 100g in that time would be considered an emergency.

Weight - Monitoring and Management

 

[Julesie]

Were those weights done at the same time each day?
Are you certain the weights are correct?
Have you weighed her yet today?

257g in 24 hours is a huge amount of weight to have lost. 100g in that time would be considered an emergency.

Weight - Monitoring and Management

I didn't do them at the same time. One was after I cleaned her cage out and the other was at night before bed. I think the first was about 5pm? And the second 2am I supposed technically today's date.

I'll try and do it at the same time each day

 

[Piggies&buns]

Best to do it at the same time each day as it is then in the same place in the feeding cycle

So she was weighed at

5pm on 16th
( no weight check on 17th)
2am on 18th

257g is concerning for 33 hours

 

[Julesie]

Best to do it at the same time each day as it is then in the same place in the feeding cycle

So she was weighed at

5pm on 16th
( no weight check on 17th)
2am on 18th

257g is concerning for 33 hours

Yeah I'm worried about it but all I can do is wait until tomorrow the vet isn't in until then

Should I weigh her today at 5pm then or wait until 2am tonight?