Not Eating Not eating for 5 weeks, had 2 dentals

[Kaeli]

My Guinea pig Squiggle started struggling to eat and was pulling funny faces so went to the vet, no obvious teeth issues but detected infection after looking at blood so was put onto antibiotics and they said we would do a dental once the unknown infection clears up and she's in better health, over the next 3 days which was a weekend she stopped eating completely so we started syringe feeding but she had already developed bloat and then didn't poop for 48hrs, i was massaging her tummy, feeding poop soup and luckily kept her alive until the vet could see her Monday morning. I really thought she was going to die.

Monday they did a dental under gas only, not GA, and noticed sharp spurs which were cutting into her, she stopped breathing under the gas so they had to be quick with filing them down. A week later and she still wasn't eating.. They did an xray and noticed an elongated root near her jaw so put her on meds more specific for nerve pain (gabapentin) which worked well and 5days later she took her first few bites of hay. We were so happy, it had been two weeks since the start of the ordeal! Literally the next day she stopped eating completely again.... The vet noticed she had a fever, and her eyes were darting so told us she strongly feels it is a middle ear infection which is putting pressure on her jaw and causing discomfort, which is why she won't eat. She had injectable baytril for a week with anti inflammatories then oral baytril for another week but her stomach got upset so we put her on flagyl for a week. Still not eating but then we noticed drooling and realized her teeth had now overgrown after 4 weeks of no hay, only critical care. So she had them filed down right away. Two days later her weight started dropping and she looked unwell so we thought taking her off the baytril caused the ear infection to return.... It has been 8 days since her 2nd dental and 4 days back on the baytril and she still wont attempt to eat..... Not even veg...nothing..... Its like she is too scared to try as she has had so much discomfort in the area..... I am at a loss. She is at the best exotics vet we have in the area

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

How is she doing? Has there been any improvement?

 

[Kaeli]

How is she doing? Has there been any improvement?

Stilk the same, happy and healthy but can't seem to eat

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

If she is on the Baytril she likely won't want to eat period. Recognizing that as the first problem is half of your battle. You WILL have to force feed her the Critical Care in order to keep enough nutrition in her to save her. Baytril is VERY hard on a pigs gut, and it more often than not will kill their appetite to the point where they starve themselves. Guinea pigs are built in a way that requires food to be moving through their gut at all times. A probiotic such as benebac would be beneficial to restore good gut bacteria to help her digest.

 

[Kaeli]

If she is on the Baytril she likely won't want to eat period. Recognizing that as the first problem is half of your battle. You WILL have to force feed her the Critical Care in order to keep enough nutrition in her to save her. Baytril is VERY hard on a pigs gut, and it more often than not will kill their appetite to the point where they starve themselves. Guinea pigs are built in a way that requires food to be moving through their gut at all times. A probiotic such as benebac would be beneficial to restore good gut bacteria to help her digest.

She is on injectable baytril as we do not want to upset her tummy. We have been syringe feeding critical care all day every day for 5 weeks, she goes to the vet while we are at work to be syringe fed. She has been on probiotics throughout. Her weight is pretty stable although she lost a lot initially. She has an appetite and tries to eat veg but as soon as it's in her mouth she starts pulling faces and spits it out, then won't try again

 

[bpatters]

Is there another exotic vet around? I'd want a second opinion, I think. Not only is her problem not getting better, but Baytril is not usually given as an injection because it can cause sterile abscesses, and those are difficult to manage.