Broken tooth and trapped food

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:16 am


Our newest addition, Finley, came to us last July. One thing we noticed that was different from our girls who had passed away was that he gets food trapped between his two top front teeth. Sometimes a piece of carrot, sometimes it's brown... But most usually something is there. I took him to the vets for a worry I had which turned out to be nothing, but I brought up his teeth. He said I shouldn't worry, it's just the way his front teeth are. His front to teeth grow in such a way that they leave a tiny, tiny, V shaped gap.
His diet consists of twice daily cucumber, 3 colored peppers, and either a carrot or celery. Greens, and occasionally fruit are thrown in, too. He has a constant supply of Oxbow pellets, and Kaytee orchard grass/hay.
He trims all of his own nails beautifully, which has never been the case in my experience with having guinea pigs! I've never had to cut his nails.
He has monitored floor time daily and is snuggled daily, too. Today I noticed that one of his front top teeth is broken which I've never had happen before! He gives us a yawn every time we hold him so I know this happened today. The only thing I can think of is that I really startled him when I walked into the room today for some reason and he stayed scared for a couple of minutes until I picked him up for a calm down cuddle. Maybe it happened when he was scared. It's a clean break about half way up. I will weigh him daily and keep a close eye on his food, but I wanted to give an overview of how we are treating him to make sure it sounds like we are on the right track with him in just expecting it to grow on its own.
Update: I KNOW it happened when I startled him bc I just found the broken tooth there. 😣 He was probably so scared bc he had just broken it!

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Mar 03, 2019 4:36 pm


I'd have an exotics vet file down any sharp edges if needed.

JJGiebz
Make Good Choices

Post   » Sun Mar 03, 2019 7:40 pm


I had this exact thing happen last month!! My male pig had a small gap in his front teeth that I was always having to help him get food out of. The week before Valentine’s Day I noticed he was using his water to soften his food so I checked and he had broken off his entire left front tooth, down to the gum. I still have no idea how.

I took him to the vet to have the other teeth checked but they were all fine. The entire tooth grew back in a little over a week and the small overgrowth on the bottom was evened back out in about ten days.

I would take him to a vet just to make sure nothing else is going on in there, but as long as the tooth grows back in straight/in alignment, he should be ok.

JJGiebz
Make Good Choices

Post   » Sun Mar 03, 2019 8:23 pm


Forgot to mention - the tooth grew back WITHOUT the gap. So strange. We are both happy about it, but I’ll miss his farmer brown look (hay sticking out of his mouth).

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:50 pm


Hahahahah no! It is a completely clean break and I stayed how with him today to be sure he was ok. He is fine eating and picking up pellets and he can get his water, too. And absolutely no problems with veggies. I'm glad that I found the tooth, too, meaning he didn't swallow it. It is unfortunate that his gap will still be there as only half broke off, but I'm sure he'll be ok. Thanks for sharing your experience!

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Mar 03, 2019 10:53 pm



MarlowePieper11

Post   » Mon Mar 04, 2019 7:50 am


Thanks so much, I pinned that article to keep it handy

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Sat Oct 29, 2022 3:46 pm


Here I am again. About a month ago my guinea pig was making a motion towards his mouth like he had a piece of hay stuck in his teeth. When I went to help him I realized that one of his front upper teeth had a strange shard growing down behind it, very sharp, about a half to a quarter width of his regular tooth and about the same length.

I took him to the vet and she didn't quite know why that would have happened or exactly what it was. She suggested oral surgery which we went through with. She said that unfortunately with the tools she had that after the surgery she wasn't able to get the entire tooth out.

We have already gone back for one to follow up appointment and the tooth was hardly growing back at all after a week afterwe saw her. We go back to see her on Monday but I decided to look again and noticed it's growing back and much the same way from what I can see, which is very disheartening.

She mentioned that if this were the case that she would suggest bringing him to an oral surgeon who has the tools to get everything out. Obviously there are no promises that it would work or be successful. And she said this time instead of just going through his mouth he would go in through the side of his skull.

The guinea pig, Finley, is 4 years old and this would be his third surgery in his little lifetime, the first was to get a bladder stone out. I've already talked to my husband because I want to prepare myself mentally ahead of time for the fact that it may be more humane and reasonable to put him to sleep. We'll see what the doctor says when we see her on Monday with the follow-up but if she says that we should go for the surgery with the specialist, I think we would opt to just live out his days until he's no longer comfortable and then put him down humanely.

He has had one problem after the other since we have gotten him when he was a baby and I'm happy to help him in any way! I have never ever"given up" on any of my pets because of money but it feels like too much to put him through, and it is getting very costly as this $1,000 surgery didn't help anything. I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Oct 29, 2022 11:52 pm


An alternative is to clip/file the side tooth. If you do a search on "peg teeth" you will likely find images showing this. Some links further down on this page:
https://www.guinealynx.info/teeth.html

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Oct 30, 2022 5:33 pm


We had one with this issue.

The surgery took four (4) hours. I am amazed to this day that he made it, but he did and recovered well. Then, the gnarly tooth began to grow back. It is extraordinarily difficult to get the entire root. Thing grew back looking like a small octopus.

We either took him in to the vet to get the randomly growing shards clipped when they began to bother him, or clipped them ourselves at home. A really good quality, stout toenail clippers will do the job; alternatively you can file the shards with a glass nail file (Amazon should have these).

We only clipped the odd pieces when they irritated his mouth and lips, or if they began to interfere with his picking up food. Most of the time it didn't bother him. He lived quite well for quite a while after all this with maintenance trims on the fragmented tooth.

If he were mine I would NOT do another surgery, and help him with trims when necessary and supportive care at home. Weigh him regularly to make sure he's holding weight; be prepared to handfeed him and/or cut his vegetables up smaller for him if he starts to have trouble before you can get the fragments trimmed.

My experience is that this is manageable with good care -- and surgery does not necessarily even solve the issue.

Blessings and best to him and to you. Please let us know how he's doing.

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Sun Oct 30, 2022 11:16 pm


What a sweet, helpful reply! Thanks so much for reaching out to respond. That's great advice and very reasonable. I feel better knowing we're not selfish to decide against the surgery, and we will play this out and see what happens. He will not suffer on our watch and we'll see what the vet says at his follow up tomorrow. Ty again! This is such an appreciated platform for help!

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Oct 31, 2022 8:46 am


Talishan has had guinea pigs for a very, very long time and I also would value her advice. Knowing this kind of surgery can have unexpected consequences and not even fix the issue, is extremely helpful.

Post Reply