Purdie - Blindness?

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Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:27 pm


Sending good thoughts, and I hope the next visit goes well. It is wonderful that Purdie has been so healthy!

Sedation is usually required by vets in the states for dental trimming. I've read here that other vets in other countries do not always use sedation.

Maybe a light(er) sedative?

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:36 pm


Poor girl! That is a huge amount of weight to loose! I take it you're aggressively hand feeding her right now?

I would read over the malocclusion info and see if you can get a dental xray. www.guinealynx.info/.html

Veterinary dentist generally do use sedation for trimming at the very least.

Hoping for the best!

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:56 am


Ditto the advice you've received.

Get the vets to sedate her as lightly as possible ... i.e., give her a whiff of iso through the mask, work quickly, give her another whiff. Give her just enough to keep her still; she doesn't even really need to go full under.

Charybdis

Post   » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:17 am


I've had pigs much older than that sedated. Rain was 9 at her last dental. Dusty had eye surgery at 8. And Lil Sugar had 3 surgeries between 6.5 and 7 years. If the vet knows what they are doing, it can be done safely.

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Trick

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:23 am


Got her teeth trimmed yesterday and all went - thankfully - well. She was a bit sleepy the rest of the evening but had perked up by the end of the night.

X-rays showed nothing more serious going on but her back teeth on one side were jaggy.

But, as well as trimming the back teeth they've also trimmed her bottom lower teeth right down to the gum - why, I do not know :S Purdie uses those teeth to use her water bottles so now can't drink by herself, and doesn't seem able to eat anything herself either. She's very willing - she got really excited at veggies last night and went around trying to pick up food and not managing. She can't eat hay either despite trying.

Is trimming the front teeth like that normal? How long will they take to grow back a little?

We're now handfeeding and syringing water round the clock to desperately try and keep her weight and hydration up.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:45 am


"Is trimming the front teeth like that normal?"

Sigh. Yes. Normal but not necessary. Done unnecessarily by an enormous number of vets. Agh. For reasons unknown to me they look at the pig's bottom incisors and decide "they are too long" against some photo in some book or other. Whatever. This happens altogether too often on this board.

Having said that:

"How long will they take to grow back a little?"

Not very long at all. In a couple of days (or less) she should be able to learn to scoop things up and work her water bottle. She will continue to learn to adjust how she drinks and feeds as they grow back.

Roll or trim her greens into cigar shapes and insert them into the side of her mouth, behind the incisors. Do the same with her hay until she figures out what you're doing. As soon as she gets it back to the molars, she'll know what's going on.

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Jaycey
Supporter in 2014

Post   » Thu Mar 15, 2012 5:10 pm


Ditto to Talishan. She should be okay within a few days to scoop up the food herself. The vet has done it to my pigs before, all unnecessarily.

I believe that sometimes even cavy knowledgeable vets cut their teeth too short because they assume guinea pigs teeth are like rabbits, and they're not. Guinea's teeth are longer, so vets assume they're too long.

I cut the food into strips, or roll into the cigars and post them into their mouth behind their front teeth. After a couple of days my pigs have managed to get the cigars/strips themselves, so hopefully Purdie will be fine soon

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Trick

Post   » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:39 pm


God dammit. I can't believe it. Or rather, I can which is worse. I shall be sure to point this out to the vets! We were doing so well with them on heart issues too... Had they asked me I would have said no, but I didn't think they would just assume they could do that :/

She's started eating hay again and we gave her her veggies like that too so she could eat them. Still supplementing with critical care and fluids but I saw her eating pellets today and trying to use her water bottle which is fantastic.

Thankfully she is a very good natured pig so is quite unfussed about it all. Thank you for the reassurance, it's helped a lot :)

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:25 am


My very best, most open-minded, reads-GL-threads vet still trims them too short on occasion (or unless I stop her). I think it's what Jaycey says. To them it's a "normal", standard-ish procedure, so I'm not surprised they did not ask for your specific approval and authorization.

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