Hi everyone,
My 7.5-year-old guinea pig has developed as strange-looking incisor - it is like there is an extra sliver of tooth coming off the front of the right incisor. I've attached a photo. I'm planning to have it looked at by a vet but was wondering if anyone has had experience with this and ideas of what causes it. I'm not sure how long it is has been like that - I was away for a month-long work trip and don't remember it being like that before I left, but it's all the way from the gum to the tip so must have been growing in like that for a while.
Her eating doesn't seem affected, and weight is usual, but I did notice her twitching her head in a way that seems strange. She is on daily metacam (for arthritis and ovarian cysts) and I also syringe feed her water with a 1 mL syringe (she likes drinking syringe water more than using the water bottle). She often pulls the syringe from my hand and chews on it - I hope that isn't what caused this. The reason I looked in her mouth is that during syringe drinking she suddenly jerked her head back, lifting it into the air and craning her neck to the side, so I was worried that she'd hurt her mouth by biting the syringe. She also has recently started the habit of biting on her cage grids - she isn't even kept in a cage, but has some tunnels made of cage grids that she goes into to gnaw on the grids if I'm too slow getting her a snack. Then there is a metal water bowl, which she has figured out how to make a loud ringing sound with using her teeth - she uses the bowl like a bell to call me when she wants syringe water. I wonder if biting the bowl, grids, or syringe caused some trauma that made her tooth grow strangely.
Has anyone else experienced something like this? How worried should I be? I'm afraid that the vet is going to recommend a tooth extraction or something like that under sedation - at her advanced age she doesn't seems as strong as she used to be and I really don't want to risk putting her under anesthesia.
Thank you for any insights!
My 7.5-year-old guinea pig has developed as strange-looking incisor - it is like there is an extra sliver of tooth coming off the front of the right incisor. I've attached a photo. I'm planning to have it looked at by a vet but was wondering if anyone has had experience with this and ideas of what causes it. I'm not sure how long it is has been like that - I was away for a month-long work trip and don't remember it being like that before I left, but it's all the way from the gum to the tip so must have been growing in like that for a while.
Her eating doesn't seem affected, and weight is usual, but I did notice her twitching her head in a way that seems strange. She is on daily metacam (for arthritis and ovarian cysts) and I also syringe feed her water with a 1 mL syringe (she likes drinking syringe water more than using the water bottle). She often pulls the syringe from my hand and chews on it - I hope that isn't what caused this. The reason I looked in her mouth is that during syringe drinking she suddenly jerked her head back, lifting it into the air and craning her neck to the side, so I was worried that she'd hurt her mouth by biting the syringe. She also has recently started the habit of biting on her cage grids - she isn't even kept in a cage, but has some tunnels made of cage grids that she goes into to gnaw on the grids if I'm too slow getting her a snack. Then there is a metal water bowl, which she has figured out how to make a loud ringing sound with using her teeth - she uses the bowl like a bell to call me when she wants syringe water. I wonder if biting the bowl, grids, or syringe caused some trauma that made her tooth grow strangely.
Has anyone else experienced something like this? How worried should I be? I'm afraid that the vet is going to recommend a tooth extraction or something like that under sedation - at her advanced age she doesn't seems as strong as she used to be and I really don't want to risk putting her under anesthesia.
Thank you for any insights!
