• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Teeth filing down.

Luca_jones

Luca_jones

New Born Pup
Joined
May 21, 2024
Messages
16
Reaction score
36
Points
135
Location
England
Hello all, my sow squirrel is getting her teeth filed down on Friday at the vets under sedation. She’s struggling to eat as her teeth are wonky and her jaw is misaligned, so she’s lost some weight. I don’t know much about sedation, so does anybody have info/advice? I’m so worried for my girl, especially because she’s a weak pig already and I don’t know how her body will cope being under sedation. All advice would be appreciated! :-)
 
Someone experienced will be along with advice soon.
In the meantime are you giving her support feed, ie: critical care or emeraid to help with the weight loss?
 
Been trying to-but she doesn’t like critical care at all so it’s hard. I have been mixing her pellets with water and feeding it in a syringe which she seems to really like. She can eat, it’s just hard for her and she takes a very long time. (which isn’t ideal because she has two very greedy cagemates!) I’ve read online that porridge oats can help, so I’ll be trying that out soon.
 
I was in the same situation, my boar's jaw is misaligned which caused molar spurs and the front teeth to need filing.
All I can advise is to keep feeding her critical care (or mushed pellets) until she gets her filing done, then slowly try to get her to eat hay. Hopefully a much more experienced member, like @Piggies&buns can give you more helpful advice. Hope the filing goes well and she gets back onto eating as normal soon.
 
Luca_jones said:
Hello all, my sow squirrel is getting her teeth filed down on Friday at the vets under sedation. She’s struggling to eat as her teeth are wonky and her jaw is misaligned, so she’s lost some weight. I don’t know much about sedation, so does anybody have info/advice? I’m so worried for my girl, especially because she’s a weak pig already and I don’t know how her body will cope being under sedation. All advice would be appreciated! :-)
Click to expand...

Hi

Please step in with feeding support asap. Unfortunately, there is no alternative to dental treatment. If left, the teeth will continue to grow, the faster your piggy is no longer able to chew and possible to swallow if the tongue gets trapped by bridging spurs. :(

You can find all our practical advice and how-to tips in these guides here:
Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency

Tips For Post-operative Care

Fingers firmly crossed for Friday. The more you can help stopping the weight loss before Friday, the better. You my need to continue with feeding support afterwards.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

Please step in with feeding support asap. Unfortunately, there is no alternative to dental treatment. If left, the teeth will continue to grow, the faster your piggy is no longer able to chew and possible to swallow if the tongue gets trapped by bridging spurs. :(

You can find all our practical advice and how-to tips in these guides here:
Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency

Tips For Post-operative Care

Fingers firmly crossed for Friday. The more you can help stopping the weight loss before Friday, the better. You my need to continue with feeding support afterwards.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for all the advice. I’ll have a read and continue trying with critical care and the mushed pellets. :nod:
 
Hello again (sorry for posting twice in less than 24 hours! 🤣) Currently trying to get my sow squirrel to gain some weight before her teeth filing down on Friday. I’ve seen that porridge oats are great for weight gain, so I’ve been trying to get her to eat them. Problem is, she absolutely detests them. I’m wondering if blending them would be ok? Or does anybody have any other advice to try get her to eat some? (I'm giving her over stuff too of course but I’ve seen that the oats are so high in calories so I really want her to have some)
thanks :lol:
 
Luca_jones said:
Hello again (sorry for posting twice in less than 24 hours! 🤣) Currently trying to get my sow squirrel to gain some weight before her teeth filing down on Friday. I’ve seen that porridge oats are great for weight gain, so I’ve been trying to get her to eat them. Problem is, she absolutely detests them. I’m wondering if blending them would be ok? Or does anybody have any other advice to try get her to eat some? (I'm giving her over stuff too of course but I’ve seen that the oats are so high in calories so I really want her to have some)
thanks :lol:
Click to expand...

You really need to focus on plenty of syringe feeding with fibre rich critical care and/or mushed pellets rather than worrying about oats at this point.
You can try blending some with water and seeing if they will still go through a syringe but I’d she doesn’t like the taste of them now then she won’t like them blended. Plus if you were to add them to critical care/mushed pellets then she may also refuse that as she will still be able to taste the oats (piggies have considerably more taste buds than we do).

Syringe feeding at this point is about stopping any further weight loss. Weight gain won’t happen for quite some time after she is recovered and eating hay properly for herself.
You may get her to gain some weight before Friday but it isn’t going to be much and you would need to be syringe feeding a lot to her each day.

Are you weighing her each morning?
How much weight has she lost up until this morning?
How much syringe feed are you getting into her in each 24 hour period?
 
oh yes of course! Doing lots of syringe feeding but I thought the oats would just be an added benefit. Just tried adding them to mushed pellets and actually she’s still eating it which is good.

Been weighing her as much as possible- I think the last time she was weighed was thursday and she was 672g, (I’m aware we need to weigh her more, I’m in the flow of doing it daily from now, me and my family have been quite busy with all her appointments and figuring out treatments) this morning she weighed 704g. I don’t know if that’s genuine weight gain or if it’s just the daily weight going up and down, but hoping it is.
ive been syringe feeding her as much as possible throughout the day; maybe like every two hours?
Her weight before she lost some was on average around 730-750g.
(Also just realised I might’ve posted this in the wrong place, very sorry!)
 
Luca_jones said:
oh yes of course! Doing lots of syringe feeding but I thought the oats would just be an added benefit. Just tried adding them to mushed pellets and actually she’s still eating it which is good.

Been weighing her as much as possible- I think the last time she was weighed was thursday and she was 672g, (I’m aware we need to weigh her more, I’m in the flow of doing it daily from now, me and my family have been quite busy with all her appointments and figuring out treatments) this morning she weighed 704g. I don’t know if that’s genuine weight gain or if it’s just the daily weight going up and down, but hoping it is.
ive been syringe feeding her as much as possible throughout the day; maybe like every two hours?
Her weight before she lost some was on average around 730-750g.
(Also just realised I might’ve posted this in the wrong place, very sorry!)
Click to expand...

I merged your posts so don’t worry about that!

So long as you don’t let the quantity of oats get too high at this point.
If you weigh her each morning then you are getting her accurate weight.
It sounds as if she is doing well though if her weight has gone from 672 to 704.
30g is a normal swing so she sounds stable.

She needs to have 60-90ml of critical care/mushed pellets each day. It is important you log the quantity she is getting at each feed so that you can ensure she gets enough in total each day and that her weight is stable.
 
Thanks!

Yeah, I’ve been watching how much I’m trying to give her. Will start weighing her options very morning. That’s very usefull to know how much she should be having- I’ll keep a note of that. I just pureed some veggies for her dinner and she loves it, so maybe that’s another hack.
 
Luca_jones said:
Thanks!

Yeah, I’ve been watching how much I’m trying to give her. Will start weighing her options very morning. That’s very usefull to know how much she should be having- I’ll keep a note of that. I just pureed some veggies for her dinner and she loves it, so maybe that’s another hack.
Click to expand...

It’s fine to give her some blended veggies but make sure it’s not too much to detract from her critical care - anything which reduces her fibre/critical care intake isn’t always a good thing if she isn’t eating enough hay

What you can do, once she has had her dental work done and gains more ability to chew, is stop half way through a critical care syringe feed and offer her some veggies (chopped into matchsticks are easier for dental piggies), fresh grass blades and hay strands. Then continue with the critical care syringe feed until complete and then offer some more veggie matchsticks/grass blades/hay strands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top