Worried about Piggy’s condition a day after sedation

[Meganmex]

At 11:30am yesterday (Monday) morning (about 25/26 hours ago) my boy Piggy was sedated (not fully anaesthetised) to have a molar filed down. I had started to notice that his poops were softer than usual at the beginning of last week and realised he wasn't eating and barely pooping Thursday/Friday. I own my own business and the nearest exotic vet is an hour drive from me so I couldn’t do anything until the weekend. I couldn’t get an appointment until yesterday so for at least 3-4 days he was only eating a couple of bites of whatever veg he would take.
The procedure went well yesterday although the vet did nick the poor guy’s tongue, and he was released to me after he woke up with pain meds and antibiotics for the next few days. He also gave me a pouch of powdered recovery food to syringe feed him for the day. I was told he should be willingly eating by today but the problem is he’s not. This morning when I came to give him breakfast and medication, he began full-body shaking which scared me to death. I gave him recovery mix and medication and phoned the vet who said it was likely from the pain and discomfort but in a couple of hours he should be better. Again, it’s been 3 hours and he is just so quiet and still and not active at all. He hasn’t pooped since Sunday night, even though he was syringe fed yesterday.

Could this be gut stasis? Side effects of sedation? Pain? Cold? What can I do to help? I can’t take him to the vet until tomorrow morning but I obviously don’t want my boy to be in pain or suffering.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear he has been unwell.

What dosage of pain medication is he being given?is it being given twice a day?

Are you weighing him daily so you can syringe feed accordingly to keep his weight stable each day? If he is not eating for himself then he needs a minimum of 40-60ml per day until he does start to eat enough hay independently.

Poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake so it is not a reliable me method of gauging hay consumption.

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

 

[Meganmex]

Thank you so much for replying, what you mentioned about poop is really reassuring.

I live in Spain so the names may be different. The food pouch has measurements and instructions. The vet weighed him at 700g yesterday so that’s what i’m going by.

- He has a bottle of 0,5mg/ml meloxocam which i believe is pain relief. Today, the vet recommended 0’4ml, and 0’2ml after every 24h.

- 1 tablet of enrox 15mg every 12 hours for 4 days. I believe this is antibiotics.

- 1 pre-measured syringe of anti-inflammatory every 12 hours for 2 days

Since having his morning dose of meds he has only shivered once more. He has had more syringe food and some syringe water and is a little bit more “alive”. He doesn't like being held so he is squirming a bit but i guess it could be taken as a good sign. I just wish i knew how long it will take for him to be back to normal. The vet made it sound super important for him to be eating normally by today so the fact that he isn't is really worrying me.

 

[Piggies&buns]

To clarify, as he hasn’t pooped since Sunday night then that means he likely hasn’t eaten enough since Friday or Saturday (or earlier given you noticed he wasn’t pooping earlier in the week also).

The issue is that when syringe feeding you can’t always go by the instructions on the packet - you go by daily weight checks of your piggy.
He will need to be syringe fed every couple of hours if he isn’t eating anything independently.

You need to weigh him yourself at home every morning and use that as a guide as to how much he needs to be syringe fed each day. Ie - If he loses weight (beyond normal fluctuation) the following day, then it means he isn’t eating independently and isn’t getting enough syringe feed so you need to increase.
When theyve had dental work done, it can take then a while to get back to eating independently. Yes, it is very important he is eating enough to keep gut function but they arent necessarily able to eat immediately.

The syringe feeding guide I linked in explains.