Guinea pig teeth problem

Outkast_IRE

Anyone ever have any issues with guinea pig teeth i have 2 the problem is only with one hes roughly 9 months old .
Have started to notice when hes eating his carrot he has little bits coming out of his mouth . I have checked his front teeth and they seem to ok same length as normal guinea pigs , i did some research and think its called Malocclusion anybody have any expericence getting this treated

doctor evil

Are you giving them anything like fresh branches to chew on?

Are they kept in or do they have a run attached to asleeping quarters

Outkast_IRE

Kept in, they have a wooden house they chew on and are given small branches to chew on , but they prefer to chew the house . They are given as much hay as they want and are fed burgess supa guinea pellets, and fresh fruit and veg at least 3 times a week .

Dublin13

do you mean when your guinea pig is eating carrot some of it falls out the side of its mouth? if so, its completely normal.. my piggy does this with the likes of carrots, celery, strawberrys, apple, anything solid enough.

Outkast_IRE

well he didnt used to do it before its just the last month iv noticed it . Iv read up on it here http://www.guinealynx.info/ . As i said front teeth seem fine just worried in case it becomes serious . He is still gaining weight and has a healthy appetite but it seems like my other guinea pig eats more etc.

Sigma Force

Could be the back teeth or he could just be a messy eater. Keep an eye on his weight (weigh a couple of times a day, writing down the time weighed and the amount) just to be able to say to the vet wether he's been loosing or gaining etc.

If you are worried though there's no harm at all in popping to the vets (one that has experience with guineas) and having the teeth, mouth and tongue etc. checked over.

If there was something wrong with his teeth or if there were to be in the future guinea pigs shouldn't be put under anesthetic to have their teeth filed down. There's possibly some info on the link you provided anyway but proper towel wrapping and an experienced vet will know how to do it without anesthetic.

I would increase the veg to daily and the fruit to once a week.
Apple can cause sores on the mouth if fed too often (being a bit acidy) but from the sounds of it it could be just he's a messy eater.
There's usually one pig that eats a bit more than the other but if he's a good weight, not loosing, bright in himself and eating very regularly he's probably just a slower eater than the other one.

It can be a tad tedious but if you can watch him on the hour over the course of a day, just to make sure he's eating hay regularly and passing poops regularly. Not comparing him to the other pig but just watching him to make sure. Everytime I look at my pig she's either in a deep sleep or stuffing her face, even when she's half asleep she's chewing away lol.

If in doubt or just to ease your own mind no harm in taking him to the vet.

Dublin 13 does your pig like strawberries, I've offered them to guineas over the years and only the occasional pig would touch them I thought they'd love them but they just turn up their noses..unusal considering they try to eat the newspaper lol.

Dublin13

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Dublin 13 does your pig like strawberries, I've offered them to guineas over the years and only the occasional pig would touch them I thought they'd love them but they just turn up their noses..unusal considering they try to eat the newspaper lol.

oh god ye she loves them, its her little treat, i give her them maybe once or twice a week, sometimes though she might only get them once every 2 weeks. Ye she loves her newspaper too, she is always eatin the stuff, I used to try stop her, but gave in cos she was so determined. I think all piggies vary i suppose... My previous piggy used to love celery, now my piggie i have now is not too pushed. Her favourite veg of all time is string beans without a doubt. She will pick these out of the pile in the morning, or mini sweet corns... chomps them right down.

Outcast, i agree with guineapigrescue, you should find a vet that is good with piggies, if your in the dublin area, and near to clontarf, i could recommend a very good vet there, he has his own piggies and knows the full ins and outs of them, 100%, like outcast says, its very bad to put a piggie under general anastetic, it can kill them, they've very weak little hearts. There is also only 2 anti-biotics a guinea pig can take, the rest can kill them (so i've been told). I also agree that you should increase the veg diet. I give my piggie a nice portion of veg every morning, baby spinach, celery, string beans, carrot, and differnt kinds of lettus (not iceberg, it can cause laxative affect).

Emmo

We have 5 Guinea Pigs and none of them like Strawberries.

They like the green parts but wont eat the fruit itself.

As for the messy eater / malocclusion.

We had one rescue pig who had quite a severe malocclusion. She lost weight quite quickly and had to be syringe fed.

We had her teeth filed and trimmed a few times. It was at the rate of once every 5 weeks or so. It can be very expensive and if the problem is underlying, IE jaw has been pulled out of place by the muscles then there is little you can do for the pig except for the chin sling. http://www.guinealynx.info/chinsling.html

Unfortunately we never got a chin sling in time for our little pig. She developed an ulcer from her teeth growing incorrectly and had to be put down after having 3 vets look at her. She spent 9 months with us.



Look for tell tale signs like not being able to chew properly, jaw not closing properly, weight loss, drooling onto the chin. Bits of food falling on the ground can be down to Guinea pigs being greedy and biting and chewing fast to compete with other pigs.

best of luck, hope your pig is just messy. If you need a good vet for Guinea pigs in the Dublin south area pm for a recommendation.

Emmo

Dublin13

Emmo wrote: »

Bits of food falling on the ground can be down to Guinea pigs being greedy and biting and chewing fast to compete with other pigs.

This is deffo the case with my little one, she's a greedy little thing.

Outkast_IRE

Chin sling is only usable in some cases i think , if its a problem with under developed muscles etc.
Weight wise he is defo gaining , anytime i look at him hes eating hay and food. he seems to have no problem eating so i think i will just keep a close eye on him.
He has plenty of energy when hes let out into the play area with the other guinea pig they take turns chasing each other around the toys and they then start messing with the toys

Emmo

what toys do you have for your pigs?

Emmo

Sigma Force

Mine doesn't really play anymore she's an older girl now and just spends her days stuffing her face and walking about a bit. She does love her upturned carboard box, over the years I've tried various toys and the carboard box wins every time.
Zooplus do great piggy houses I did have a little house with a wee ramp and that was popular it was safe wood so they could chew it too. Also those carrot type toys they feel like paper but are fully digestable and sometimes that would be thrown around. I found the dry corn you can get in pet shops tended to make pigs cough a lot so stopped giving them that. Must try the fresh one been meaning to for ages.

Vet bed although not a toy they loooove it, need to get some new vet bed it's a pain to clean (hairs and hay get stuck to it) but they really love to snuggle up esp. as they get older their wee joints need somewhere soft to rest.

Outkast_IRE

I have two main toys , One is a tunnel thats a t inertsection and its all woven together with material that is safe to chew on , they liked it more when they were smallers now the fatties fit through but not as easily as before:D
the other is a hollow woven ball with differnt holes around it they can run through and roll the ball around. they like cardboard boxes with entrance holes cut into it .
Im on the look out for the new wooden house the current one is a bit small for the two of them in it at the same time .

Emmo

yeah ours have got tunnels and a pigloo and they have sleeping areas, boxes within their C&C run thats filled with hay so they can bury themselves and sleep in or on.

I found the best toy is a paper bag, they love hiding in it, biting through it to jump out on other pigs and just generally ruin it before its replaced and binned.

was thinking about getting them a little ball with a bell but I dont want one that they will chew to bits and potentially choke on.

Emmo