doglovinpiggylover
Senior Guinea Pig
nawwwwwwww x)
awww bless her, she's certainly landed on her paws with you :-) it's so worrying when they have dental issues isn't it? Made me laugh that she loves her chin strokes. My piggy Ethel loves them too and would stand for hours with her chin up for them! My pig Dory has just had a bladder stone removed I'll put a post on later with pigtures. Mad how big it is! He seems quiet but eating ok so fingers crossed he'll recover ok.
Dont worry about daisy she's probably just jealous that someone else is sharing the attention. Little diva that she is ;-)
Alyson x
Thanks Alyson and also for what you said about the shop
Betty is just wonderful, the most affectionate, loving piggie we've ever had. I can't believe we've only had her a month, it feels like she's been here forever.
She has some very unusual quirks but they just make her more lovable. She still curls up in a ball to go to sleep. The first time she did it I thought she'd died but now its really cuteShe's also the only piggie we've had who just loves chin-strokes but only from her Dad - I call her the little tart because she purrs and leans into his hand!
She's now 825g (she was 635g when she arrived) and has a lovely round tummy.
She's still struggling a little with her back teeth I think. The vet said they were overgrown (but backwards into her jaw causing swelling). Hopefully they'll sort themselves out but she needs to eat hay to wear them down and is reluctant to eat hay because they're hurting. Hopefully giving her pain meds for a bit longer will break the cycle.
She loves Peggy and Mabel. Her and Daisy have the occasional falling out which upsets me but in the main, all is well. Hopefully the stronger she gets, the less she'll react when Daisy tries to wind her up and with a bit of luck Daisy will get bored of it. Its only every few days or so.
I hope you and all your piggies are doing well.
Do feel free to drop in for a "Betty-visit" if your ever over this way again.
Lots of love, Louise x
So glad she is feeling better and is gaining weight. However, I am a bit concerned re the back teeth being overgrown and hoping they will sort themselves out. In my experience these sort of things don't sort out by themselves. How well is she eating? Is there in fact a real problem with the teeth, or is it that the vet doesn't know what guinea pig teeth are actually like. So many times I have had people tell me that the vet has said their guinea pigs teeth aren't right, when in fact they have been absolutely fine.
Hi, I really appreciate your post. I haven't had any experience of dental problems before but the vet I'm seeing does seem quite good (Molly Vagra in Holmes Chapel). She said the teeth look fine on the inside of the mouth but she can feel swelling in the jaw that appears to be teeth growing backwards into the jaw. Betty came from a home where she was fed rabbit food and came to us with lots of symptoms of a vitamin C deficiency.
She is actually eating very well now the front teeth have grown again. She was a bit reluctant to eat hay but is getting more enthusiastic about eating it now she's back on metacam.
What would you normally do in these cases? I really appreciate your feedback as I know you're an expert in this area!
Louise xx
Without seeing her it's difficult to say, but I would be very wary of swelling in that area as in my experience it is usually the start of a tooth root abscess that can take many months to actually come to anything.
How did your vet look in her mouth? Did she use buccal pad separators or just a scope?
I wish you lived closer so you could get Simon to have a look at her teeth.
The vet just used a scope but said she could see them and seemed perfect inside. I can't feel any different between her and her friends but then I've no idea what I'm feeling for.
It was about 3 weeks ago now that the vet 'felt' her teeth and since then her front ones have grown back. Not really sure what to do. I was planning on keeping her on metacam until the weekend and then seeing how well she eats hay without it.
I'm happy to take her back to the vet but she doesn't really have any symptoms now (unless she stops eating hay once she's off metacam).
Would you just leave it until symptoms develop or x-ray her? x
It is really impossible to see the back teeth properly just using a scope. However, for now I would keep a very close eye on how well she is eating. If she starts to look as though she is eating awkwardly then the alarm bells should be ringing, even if she is still managing and her weight is still stable. Gently feel around her jaw regularly and if you detect any swelling or if her front teeth start to look misaligned then get her checked out immediately. It sounds as though she is doing really well at the moment, but the signs can be very subtle and can come on very slowly, so vigilance is so important.
Whilst there are no obvious symptoms, I would just monitor. x
Thank you - I really appreciate this. I'll do my absolute best. I do 'paranoia' very well at the best of times so monitoring her won't be a problem! x