Found Overgrown Teeth (3rd Try)

[nismosmama]

I'm so sorry Admins, I don't know what happened, I was trying to post and it wasn't happening right. This is what I was trying to post:

So as I was petting Nismo this weekend, under his chin, I felt a scratch. I thought that was odd, Nismo never nips at me. So I looked closer and discovered 1 of his teeth was overgrown. Its weird, his left front tooth is overgrown over his lip, but his right one isn't, they are crooked. My poor baby :(. I am calling his vet today to set up a time to get him checked out and figure out what we need to do to get his teeth back to normal. I'm jsut so surprised, Nismo has been to the vet like at least 5 times in the past year and half for illnesses, I can't believe they never saw this happening. But I had some questions:

Have any of you had experience with this? What are the methods they use?
Are the methods traumatic for the piggies? Will my Nismo have to be put under?

My poor baby has just been through SO much this past year and half, with his URI, and having to get medications on and off, getting shots twice a day 10 days straight, constant visits to the vet. I feel so bad that my baby is constantly having to be poked and proded :(....I just want the easiest least invasive thing for him.

[nismosmama]

No advice?

I have an appointment with his vet this week, hopefully all will be ok for my baby. It's sad, but a little bit funny too, to see Nismo eating and trying to grab the lettuce from one side of his mouth. I never knew why he did this, duh, now I do. Hopefully we can get this fixed ASAP.

[piggly wiggly]

I have never had to deal with this. I am not sure how they clip the teeth. I hope it does not bother him too much.

Good luck Nismo!

[ematthws]

I've never had my piggies teeth clip either, but I do have a book about guinea pigs that says you can just cut their teeth with nail clippers, so I don't think Nismo would have to go under for that. However, this same book told me to only give my pigs a handful of hay a day...so take my advice with a grain of salt because it might not be correct.

Hope I helped!
Good Luck Nismo!

[CF#5]

It's just his top front teeth? Is there anything wrong with the molars inside his mouth? Has he been eating normally?

Chances are he just broke the tooth that's shorter, and the other one only looks long now by comparison. They were probably both the same length as the long one before he broke the shorter one. The good news is these broken teeth tend to grow back very quickly. It would still be a good idea to take him to the vet and have all his teeth checked professionally. Broken front teeth can sometimes be an indication of calcium problems, most notably bladder stones/sludge or other kidney issues. So you should definitely keep the vet appointment. If the vet recommends an x-ray, you should let him do it.

[nismosmama]

Thanks for your input. His teeth are actually not broken, they are both the same size, except one is growing outwards, like its already over his lip, and the other one is inside like normal. So they are just very crooked for some reason, causing one to grow outward. They are also kind of long though. Compared to Momo's teeth, which are perfect and ground down to normal size, Nismo's are way too long. He eats fine though, I watch him eat, he eats his veggies and his pellets and his hay, and drinks water. I think he just eats slower because he has a harder time picking up the food because of his front tooth. Hopefully the vet can have a good solution that won't be too painful or invasive to my little nugget.

[clotho]

From everything I've read on here and on guinealynx, it is almost never necessary to clip a guinea pig's front teeth!! Almost every tooth problem originates with a problem in the back teeth. You need to make sure a cavy savy vet does a thorough examination of your piggie's back teeth and you should probably get an xray done too. I believe your piggie will need light anesthesia for the procedure but I"m not positive.

You should do a search on "teeth" "overgrown molars" things like that - and read the threads over. I would suggest you go to guinealynx and read over some of the threads there on teeth. Maybe even post your own thread and get some advice there about Nismo's teeth. So many people have let inexperienced vets clip front teeth and I think you would be best to educate yourself before you see the vet. You may save yourself and your piggie a world of hurt.

Are you weighing Nismo frequently to make sure he's not losing weight?? He may seem like he's eating ok, but maybe not enough to keep up his weight. You may need to handfeed. In fact, I'd bet you will need to handfeed at some point soon, so you should make sure you have Oxbow Critical Care on hand for him. You should be able to get that from your vet.

Please keep us updated on how Nismo is doing.

[nismosmama]

Thanks :). He actually had an xray not that long ago, and everything looked fine. I asked the vet about his molars late last year, and they were fine. Even his front teeth were fine not that long ago, its weird, its like he got this sudden growth spurt on his teeth. His weight is ok also. My vet is pretty cavvy savy, so hopefully I can get some good answers this week :).

[sophistic_chick]

Cavy molars can grow 1-2mms per month. If he needs his molars planed (filed down) he would need sedation. Usually if there is a problem with the front teeth there is something up with the molars.