Malocclusion Experiences and Links To Gp Illnesses

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daisymay
Supporter 2016-2021

Post   » Sat Nov 27, 2010 4:16 pm


Jessie is a mix breed a bit of this and a bit of that-that's what makes her so special! Jessie had just turned 3 when she developed abscesses,these were marsuplised but always returned, finally proper dental X-rays were taken which showed a bad tooth, this was removed but then was told the jaw was broken as incisors were badly misaligned. The Jessie developed motility issues and was put onto medication. She got her teeth filed evry 6-8 weeks, then she got the chin sling and things have gone down hill since then because we put it on too soon after a filing. X-rays show she has elongated roots, badly misalined molars and left side her teeth are brown.
The worse part of all this is the incompentence of the vets and the refusal to treat Jessie the way I know she should be treated medically, they admit I knowmore about guinea pigs than they do but won't listen when I ask them to do something a certain way.
Like for elongated roots it is recommended you file teeth down to gum line but NOOOOO the vets here know better and say this won't help, yet is because of them Jessie's mouth is so bad, So i recomend you get second opinions, speak up, do research and blow the vets it is your fur baby you do what you think is right and if the vet disagrees change Vets! Just wish Jessie and so many of our fur/feathered babies didn't have to suffer at the hands of vets!
Jessie's story( a looooong one) can be found under emergency and medical-Jessie and the vet. https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55290

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SimplyRachael
Sweet boys!

Post   » Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:20 pm


1) Oscar - American Smooth Hair - 10/12/07-4/15/11

2) Tooth trims occurred on 12/30/10, 2/03/11, 2/28/11, 3/24/11

3) As a young pig (3 mo.) Oscar experienced an abscess under his chin from a hay poke. Aside from that he was healthy and fine until the end of 2010. He had pneumonia starting 12/25/10. On 1/19/11 his right eye was removed and it was discovered that he had a retrobulbar abscess behind his eye. The vet never found any signs of tumor or cancer or other ailments, despite looking at his surgery site many times and drawing blood for lab work on 2/10/11.

4) Treatment - We began using the chinsling after his 3/24/11 tooth trim, this was as early as we could given his eye that did not seem to want to heal. It did seem to make a difference, however after Oscar stopped eating at the end of December 2010 he never ate on his own (at least not anything of substance) again.

5) Did treating the other problems (eg heart prob or others) hinder, delay or stop the malocclusion? - I don't believe that we got to the heart of what was wrong with Oscar. The malocclusion may have caused the abscess. I'm not sure how the pneumonia comes into play. He may have had an undiagnosed cancer or something that caused him to continue to lose weight despite my hand-feeding, although it was nothing that showed up in the lab work (I was feeding plenty enough to sustain his weight, and he ate it very well for me). I don't believe he had heart disease, mostly because he was sedated 7 times this year and did beautifully with it each time. Though I could be mis-informed about heart pigs and sedation.

Pandageddon

Post   » Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:35 am


1) Willy/American?/Unknown, possibly between 4-5 years
2) First and only Nov 16 2011
3) Hasn't had any previous medical issues in the (almost) three years we've been together
4) He had his teeth reshaped under anesthesia. The teeth were not very over grown, but he had shown difficulty associated with malocclusion hence the surgery.

Now we're entering the 'wait and see' period to know if further problems occur or if the surgery has solved the problem.

Clairebert

Post   » Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:40 pm


Hello,
I'm new to the forum. I have decided to join as the last few days I've been reading various threads in the hopes of getting more information about Guinea pig teeth problems.

1) Odwyn (male)/Abyssinian/3.5-4 years old (I adopted him about a year and a half ago).

2) I noticed last week he had difficulty biting into his food and had stopped eating hay. He had his first teeth-filing this tuesday passed.
3) No issues before this.
4) Teeth-filed, put on Oxbow Critical Care and given anti-inflammatory meds.
5) Guinea pig still hasn't resumed eating like normal.

I have a question, as I am very worried. The vet said she couldn't find any lesions or any symptoms that could indicate an abscess, and he also had an x-ray done and nothing strange showed up. Yet, Odwyn has yet to resume eating normally. I still syringe-feed him the Oxbow Critical Care four times a day, I cut up his veggies in tiny slices (yet it still takes him a while to get through it), and I syringe-feed him apple sauce. I haven't seen him drink from his water bowl, so I also use the syringe to give water to him. Other than that, he seems happier and more energetic but still not eating on his own.

He was anesthetized for the teeth-filing, and apparently he didn't wake up on his own so they needed to do so with the help of something or another (I forget what it's called).

I was wondering what your thoughts on this were? I just called the vet to ask her what to do, she said in the meantime to put him back onto the anti-inflammatory meds and give it another couple of days.

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Regiane
Cavy Slave Since '08

Post   » Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:35 pm


Hi Clairebert! You should start a thread about your pig, so the members can help you.

My experience:
1) Name/Guinea pig breed/age
Pantufinha, american female, 2 years and 8 months old.

2) How old when first malocclusion treatment and how many treatments since
She was 2 years and 2 months old when she started to have teeth problems. She had to make 2 procedures in a short period of time.

3) Heart problems/other illnesses experienced by pig (please specify before or after onset of malocclusion)
She is a heart pig, and the malocclusion was a symptom of it. We found out it after the teeth problem.

4) Treatment
2 teeth procedures; heart medication (Lotensin).

5) Did treating the other problems (eg heart prob or others) hinder, delay or stop the malocclusion?
Since we started the heart medication, she is fine, no more teeth problem or other problems.

Pantufinha's Medical Thread

Sange111

Post   » Thu Oct 11, 2012 4:20 pm


so sorry for your losses. Piggies are just so darn lovable that we hate to say goodbye.

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jadebeloved

Post   » Wed Apr 17, 2013 5:58 pm


Just starting to go through malocclusion issues with one of my pigs.
(medical thread : viewtopic.php?t=67846)

1) Carlie, Abyssinian(at least in part), 4 years 8 months old

2) First treatment today, April 17, 2013.

3) No known illness/problems to date. Crossing fingers she is not a heart pig. Vet felt some lower-molar root elongation. Did not X-ray this time.

4) Teeth procedure: bottom molars not quite meeting, but tongue getting caught. Top left side a touch longer than the right. Supplementing with CC, on metacam for two days following procedure.

5)No xray was done, no evidence this soon to say what the cause could be. Still interested in food. Will post if we find something relevant. [/url]

GPIG

Post   » Thu Nov 14, 2013 5:53 am


I know that hay is generally the only thing recommended to keep teeth in good health, and it's definitely important for them to have hay all the time. I have also found that roughly a 5" long x 1/2" diameter piece of fresh cut cherry branch (free of all chemicals) for each pig, about once a week and then removed once bark has thoroughly been stripped will help with teeth as well. I've done this with every pig I've ever had. Their teeth have always been maintained at a perfect length without any problems. Maybe just luck.

I've also heard that some pigs won't eat at the bark but I've never had any that won't. Some of mine were and are much more vigorous about it than others but all, about 23 now in total, have chewed on it and seem to enjoy it.

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Jaycey
Supporter in 2014

Post   » Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:04 am


I'm not sure where I read about it, but I was told not to feed a piggy branches/bark from a tree that the fruit contains stones. So, no to cherry trees.

Not sure where that came from though, so can't back that up at all.

I used to feed apple tree branches to my piggies previously. I'd take them out once they're stripped off the bark. They seemed to enjoy having them to play with.

GPIG

Post   » Thu Nov 14, 2013 6:24 am


I've heard that before and once posted a question in chat forum here about apple vs cherry and if anyone knew why. In some places I've searched both are recommended and in others cherry is frowned upon. I have both type trees but find they like cherry much better than apple. I didn't hear from anyone able to tell me why cherry wasn't good. I've researched pretty extensively and found some posts in different places that say no to cherry because it's a pitted fruit tree but again no one has ever been able to tell me why exactly cherry bark isn't good. No one, not a vet, anyone on the internet or personally has been able to say why it's not good, ever. I've posited that people may think if you can give them the bark then why not the fruit. They could easly choke on the stone so perhaps it's just not wanting anyone to misinterpret that they can eat the fruit also?

So in my experience alone it's never caused a problem. If you're in doubt don't do it I woudln't want anyone's pig to be sick due to my suggestion but I will continue until I can find somewhere that offers an explanation of why it isn't good.

Ladley

Post   » Sat Nov 16, 2013 11:16 pm


Cherry Wood and Apple wood are essentially the same wood. There is no reason apple wood be alright and cherry not

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PoopiePigs

Post   » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:30 am


Hello everyone. I just had my Poopie die this morning. I hope to share my story in case you had the same experience.

Backtracking 2 years ago, I had my oldest piggy, Maddock losing weight so we brought him to vet and vet decided to trim molars because he was not eating nor drinking. We hand-fed Maddock for a month. He developed an abscess so another round of Baytril plus handfeeding for a month (2 now since he got sick) before he started to eat by himself. Maddock refused handfeeding but when we handfed him, he gained some weight slowly. He is now a healthy old boy and pushing 6 years old.

3 weeks ago, we noticed our Poopie, 3 years old, also a boar, was not his lively old self. After observing him, we found him not to be eating by himself so we hand-fed him from Saturday to Wednesday before he could get a schedule with vet that Thursday (July 3). During this time, he had lost weight from 1,100 grams down to 800 grams. This is despite hand-feeding. He sometimes drank water or slowly ate a corner of a basil leaf. Vet who did molar trim on Maddock also felt up Poopie’s teeth the same way by sticking gloved finger and feeling teeth. No xrays or other checks were done.

After his operation he was so weak. He also had some signs of colds and since he was on Baytril for 1 week, we figured it will go away as well. He slept in between hand-feeding. We fed him Critical Care up until it ran out last week, then we fed him pellet slurry, a mix of carrots and apple juice and wheat grass. By this time he was no longer drinking water nor eat any of his favorite food on his own at all. Even a sliver of basil.

After his antibiotics, we noticed that the hand-fed food we gave, half of it dribbled off his mouth. So we handfed him, alternating with water to help him get food in his tummy. Last weekend we noticed that he was keeping food in his cheeks and then leaving it in the cage once we put him back. He was also coughing a bit during feeding. This morning, he was coughing more than he used to so we checked his mouth and there were some food in it. We rushed him to the vet, and there he died while the vet was taking some bits of old food out. In retrospect, I noticed that he did not swallow as vigorously. I attributed this to his weakness. I thought that since he was pooping some small poop, he was swallowing all his food, apart from the dribbled ones and the ones he left in the cage after we put him back. We did not think that there were some he was leaving still in his mouth.

Why would he not swallow his hand-fed food? We have had several piggies on antibiotics and refused vigorously to eat, but always swallowed all the food or at least some of it. We had never experienced this before where a piggy was keeping food from being swallowed. I am suspecting that his operation might have injured his jaw, which made swallowing hard. But we are unsure. Our vets here in the Philippines are not adept in rodents. Guinea pigs are considered very exotic pets here.

We are still in shock and in pain. Poopie was our first piggy, our alpha male. He was the most ‘macho’ of all our 3 boys. I had always thought he would outlive all the other pigs as he was so strong. He had once climbed his way into the other pen where Maddock was and got into a fight with Maddock. We had to rush him to the vet because his thighs got torn from fighting. But he quickly healed and regained his strength. He was always the noisiest. Chut-chutting all the time. He was also our first piggy and he is his daddy’s favorite. I hope you can help us shed some light into why he died.

Thank you in advance.

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