Teeth Sly's Medical Thread

Well, Sly has been losing weight again for the last two weeks. He's lost an ounce in the last 15 days so I picked him up this morning to check his teeth, and they are starting to angle in the other direction, the opposite from last time. I fear he is going to need dental work on a regular basis now and I know that this may signal the beginning of the end for my other precious boy.

Yes, Sly's issue I believe started back in October, possibly even earlier. Wasn't caught until December. Shameful of me really, but it was caught and corrected. He turned 5 in November. He's still doing really well, he's out playing with his little brothers as we speak. It just pains me to know what's coming. The finances I don't even care about, I just want him to be well. Not for my wallet's sake, but his own happiness.

Just a very quick update about Sly. He had a checkup with his vet yesterday, after having to be rescheduled a couple of times, due to a snowstorm and the vet having an emergency. His weight is excellent, his mandible is great, his incisors are straight and his molars look fantastic. Dr Ker said to absolutely monitor him just to be on the safe side, but 3 months after his surgery everything appears to be fine.

It was definitely a relief to hear that everything was as it should be. I know he's getting old so knowing that whatever happened in the first place is likely corrected and he's going to be fine is tremendously relieving. His teeth did start angling again in the opposite direction a few weeks ago, which prompted this visit. His vet seems to think that he likely just had a sore or something that caused him some discomfort and made him chew on one side.

Well, here we are 2 months after Sly's last vet visit. He has been dropping weight (Only gained some for 3 or four weeks after his initial surgery in December)

I noticed that his teeth are angled again, and I wanted to give it some time because the last time his teeth angled in March they straightened themselves out again on their own. Now, he doesn't want to eat any hay but Alfalfa and his water consumption has risen, to the point that he will almost empty a 12 ounce water bottle in 48 hours. I've read that one of the reasons a pig will binge drink like that is to help alleviate mouth pain, so I began giving him some metacam that I had. .15ml in the mornings. His water consumption immediately went back to normal.

After weigh ins this morning he has dropped to 1196g. It's a long weekend here, so I will call his vet on Tuesday and schedule for his usual Thursday visit. Looks like molar planing number two is in the works.

These are just updates now for anyone to read in the future in case they have similar problems with their pig.

Sly now has an appointment with his vet Thursday morning, details of what happens will follow.

Sly has gone to his vet this morning, and had to stay there. His molars had overgrown again, one to the point that it was actually a spike growing across his mouth and trapping his tongue down again.

He is having surgery this morning, and provided all goes well he should come home this afternoon.

spy9doc said:

Ah......how well I know those hours of waiting. He may be a little sleepy and lethargic afterward and it may take a day or so for his appetite to return. Sparky & Chip send their best to Sly!

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Thank you so much, your support means a great deal to us. As soon as I left the Vet's office, that nasty old tension headache returned.. and it won't go away until Sly is home safe. His vet is actually going away for the weekend, but he promised to have Sly looked after before he left. The look on his little face in his carrier when I left the office just breaks my heart.

The little bear cub is home now. He's rather groggy and he wouldn't eat anything at the vet's office. After he came home I gave him some assorted vegetables and some alfalfa hay. He stumbled around like a little drunken sailor for a bit, ate some of the veggies and ate some of the hay. He had a drink or two but it seems to hurt his mouth, he opens his mouth wide almost like he's choking. All in all though he's doing fairly well. He's to get critical care if he's not eating, and he has a 4 day supply of metacam for the pain.

lisa325 said:

So happy he is home and safe, although still a little out of it. Hopefully by tomorrow he will be a lot brighter and eating well for you .

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He's well on the way already. He's eaten almost all of his vegetables, he's had some hay and he had a full 12cc of critical care. He's been exploring but he's still kind of wobbly. He's eaten more than I thought he would and, I never thought I'd say this but, he's leaving nice big normal poops behind. That's not been the case for the last week or so.

RodneyLuv30 said:

I hope Sly feels better soon and makes a full recovery : )

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Thank you Rodney, we appreciate your well wishes

lisa325 said:

Good boy, Sly <3 Keep up the good eating and let those nice big poops continue

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He's enjoying himself a baby carrot right now. Gingerly, slowly, but he IS eating it.

spy9doc said:

As I said, it's going to take a couple of days for him to recover. The fact that he had a spike digging into his tongue is not uncommon, but that tender tongue needs a bit of time to recover. Happy that he's home and interested in food again! If you are going to give him carrots, I would cut them in slivers for the first couple of days.

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You're absolutely right about slicing the carrots, I was going to do exactly that and I got sidetracked. He's actually eaten quite a bit now, more than I thought he would. Since he got home he's had hay, most of a bowl of vegetables, the carrot, a thin slice of cucumber and two full 12cc syringes of critical care, and some pellets. He's gone to bed now with his pigloo parked on top of his pellet bowl. I know that's probably too much vegetables, but his vet said for a few days just get him to eat.

Update:

Sly ate most of a bowl of vegetables overnight, had a good healthy dose of pellets and was in his hay pile as well. He was actually climbing the bars this morning when I got up, waiting for a morning treat. His appetite seems very healthy today, He's eaten cucumber slice, most of a baby carrot, a large slice of red pepper, and more pellets and hay.

He still appears to be a bit groggy perhaps, kind of waddling and dragging his back legs just a bit, almost lazily. All in all I'm very pleased with his progress so far.

Update:

Sly seems virtually back to normal. Again climbing the bars this morning for his treat, but a new development. His cage was trashed. He had hay EVERYWHERE, so I'm sure he was into it and eating it. He even had all of the hay pulled out of the cardboard tube which he's NEVER done, and his pellet bowl had a big empty spot in it. Seems to me he was eating most of the night. His water consumption has also returned almost to normal levels, still drinking more than normal but I know his mouth likely hurts so not worried about it. Nothing even remotely resembling last weeks binge drinking.

Update:

After Saturday mornings' post, things took a bit of a dive. Sly stopped eating. He had his morning slice of pepper and after that, very little. Didn't touch his afternoon vegetables, couldn't eat a baby carrot (he kept opening his mouth wide again as if he was choking)

I gave him a full syringe of critical care with his cookie, then one more at bedtime. He ate them both very slowly.

Not sure what happened but 6am Sunday morning and Sly was in his pellet bowl, and although a bit slower, he has eaten everything he has been given since Sunday morning.

Well, it WAS the 2nd day after surgery, so all of the anesthesia was likely out of his body by then. He got his last dose of metacam this morning. What was alarming wasn't the not eating, it was the abrupt stop that scared me. Eating fine all morning until noon and then nothing. The funny part was he was interested, it just seemed like he couldn't eat. He was even very slow eating the critical care.

Now we are back to normal. I even weighed him yesterday, expecting a big loss due to his inability to eat well, even though I was supplementing him with critical care. Then add the surgery to that and I expected a loss. He actually gained 2 grams, which I know is nothing. The fact that his weight remained unchanged through all of that for a week amazed me.

We are now one week post surgery. Sly spent a fair bit of time yesterday eating hay, whether it was the bluegrass that spy9doc so kindly sent me, some alfalfa hay and he especially seemed to rediscover his western timothy hay. Water consumption is still up, but I'm sure his little mouth is still sore so that isn't too surprising.

Sly had his weigh in this morning. After two weeks of a very slight gain, he's lost 13 grams again. He's now down to 1192 grams. He seems to be eating regularly and his water consumption appears to be back down to normal, though I haven't seen him eating much hay again and he's still much slower at eating vegetables than the little ones are. I don't get it. Is there ANYTHING I can do to stop the downward slide?

spy9doc said:

Not much to my knowledge. It's very difficult to get a senior cavy to gain weight. Does he currently have access to pellets 24/7? At this point, you may want him to eat just about anything that appeals to him and isn't harmful. You might also mix some oats (plain rolled oats) in with his pellets. Cavies typically like them and the extra calories and nutrition will be good for him.

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Yes, he's always had 24/7 access to hay, pellets and fresh water. I would love it if he would gain weight, but at this point just stopping the loss would be a win. I'm guessing a bulk food store would be a good place to start for the oats?

I know it's difficult to get a senior cavy to gain weight, but I know it can be done. When Poopy was sick this time last year, he got down as far as 1035 grams and when he passed away I had him back up to 1200. At one point he was up as high as 1280, around the beginning of August. I just wish I could remember what I did to help that weight gain.