Teeth Guinea not eating one week post teeth trimming/surgery

[ashley8028]

Hi all,
I am just wanting to touch bass with other experienced guinea pig owners to make sure I am doing the right thing. My 1 1/2 year old guinea pig Leo had surgery on his back molars last Tuesday the 10th of March. I had noticed on Friday the 6th of March that he wasn't eating and his chest was always wet so I took him in to my usual vets, who do see a lot of small animals, and they gave him some pain medication and referred us to a specialist exotic vet near me, The Unusual Pet Vets. I took him there straight away and was informed that his back teeth had overgrown, not massively but enough that they were stopping proper movement of his tongue and thats why he wasn't eating. Because he had lost quite a bit of weight, I had to syringe feed him 10mLs of dual care pellets mixed into a slurry every 2 hours, to try and get him to gain weight back before his surgery on Tuesday. I was freaked out the whole weekend because the vets made it very clear that guinea pigs only had a 50% chance of surviving the surgery, and even then most never recover from the anaesthesia and learn to eat again, therefore have to be euthanised. He gained almost 100grams in those few days and pulled through surgery, the vets said he was great and he was picking at some food while he was recovering. I was told he would start eating small amounts again that night and that by the following day, Wednesday, he should be back to normal and I can stop syringe feeding him. He wasn't ok Wednesday morning, he wouldn't eat by himself and he was spitting out the critical care, he also seemed to be in a trance, like he was high as a kite and not fully present, which concerned me. I took him back to the vets that afternoon and they had a look and said everything looks fine but he could be in a bit more pain than anticipated so they upped his painkillers and gave me a seperate one which was supposed to target nerve pain, incase that was an issue. Wednesday night he started chewing tiny pieces of lettuce if I popped it in the corner of his mouth, so I was happy he was improving. Thursday when I fed my other guinea pig, Max, his veggies, Leo was showing interest and trying to tip the bowl to get some, so I ripped some up smaller for him and watched him get through quite a bit of lettuce and grated carrot (he wouldn't touch anything else). He wouldn't eat any solid food for the rest of the day though, and same thing Friday, except on Friday he actually started pulling bigger bits of lettuce himself and chewing (very slowly). I also managed to stick little pieces of hay into the back of his mouth, which he would chew through slowly. I thought everything was looking good and he was improving every day, but then Saturday he just wouldn't take any food all day, so I had to roll up little pieces and stick it fully in his mouth for him to chew; to me it looked like he wasn't able to pick anything up but could chew with his back teeth. Sunday (yesterday) same thing, except he was refusing to let me put any food in his mouth, despite showing clear interest in it when it was in front of him. I also noticed last night and this morning that his chest is wet again, so he has been drooling again. I have had a look and his front teeth do touch, however they are on a massive angle; this started when he stopped eating, and the vets didn't do anything for it in his surgery, which I guessed was because they would correct themselves once he started eating correctly. Could this be what is affecting his eating? I am scared to ring the vets again and have them tell me he needs to be put to sleep, when his behaviour other than eating is totally normal and happy, even though I trust them and their skills, I have read on various forums from experienced guinea owners that it can take weeks for them to recover. Obviously feeding him every couple of hours is getting tiring and putting a strain on my University work, but I'm terrified to completely listen to the vets and essentially giving up on him. Just feeling a bit stuck about what to do. Sorry for so much information, I wanted to make sure you all had the full picture incase I missed something.

 

[bpatters]

FYI, it makes your posts much easier to read if you'll break them up into paragraphs. Most people will look at a "wall of text" and just skip it.

Slanted front teeth indicate a problem with the molars. Proper diagnosis would include skull x-rays, as that's the only way to see whether there's an abscessed tooth or elongated roots that might be causing the problem. But if neither of those is present, the only thing to do is to plane the back teeth.

It's entirely possible that he's in pain because his gums or cheeks got nicked during the planing process. A guinea pig's mouth is very small, and it's nearly impossible to work on the teeth without accidentally hitting the cheek or gums.

If they trimmed his front teeth, they may have trimmed them so short that he can't pick any food up. Putting matchstick-sized pieces of food into his mouth and pushing them toward his back teeth will help that problem, and the front teeth should soon be long enough that he can pick up food again.

Keep feeding him the pellet slurry until he's able to eat again on his own -- the most important thing you can do for a sick guinea pig is to hand feed it. They're wired to need food moving through their GI tract all the time, and can die from an extended period of not having any food.

I do wonder whether you vet knows what s/he's talking about, because euthanasia is NOT the usual outcome of a tooth planing, and the survival rate is a LOT higher than 50%.

 

[ashley8028]

Thank you so much for your response! I will definitely edit my original post into paragraphs to make it easier to read.

I know they definitely didn't trim his front teeth, they are on such an angle that they would be quite short if they had. Unfortunately I worried the same, I thought it was a bit weird to see such conflicting information when I did my own research online. I will keep on feeding him and give him more time, hopefully with time and extra TLC he will learn to eat on his own again.

I am still worried about what might happen in the future if he has to have another surgery in 6-12 months as my vet has said. I did also have a look and there isn't any other exotic vets in my state (I live in Perth, Australia), so unfortunately I am a bit stuck in regards to that.

Thank you again for your response, I have been feeling quite lost and unsure of how to proceed here

 

[bpatters]

He may or may not need more trimmings, and the time frame could be as short as just a few weeks. It all depends on what the problem was.

If he's getting good quality hay and plenty of it, he shouldn't be having any problems cause by a lack of grinding motion of the molars. But he could be genetically inclined toward various tooth problems. He could have an abscessed tooth, which possibly could be treated by a vet with rodent dental experience. He could have elongated roots, which require repeated, fairly frequent planings and which have no cure. He could have a problem with his jaw that prevents proper chewing, which might be correctable with a chin sling -- see https://www.guinealynx.info/chinsling.html.

But unless they did skull x-rays, you won't know what the problem really is, and maybe not even then. But you could definitely see abscesses and elongated roots, and probably spurs trapping the tongue.

Good luck with him, and keep us posted on what happens.