[Gpdd] HEALTH Doris and teeth

[Penny Charlesworth]

Hi Pat,

Sorry to read that Doris is not eating very well. Have you weighed her as piggies lose weight very quickly when their teeth prevent them from eating properly? Lost weight often indicates a tooth problem. Sometimes a sore mouth will put them off their food. This happened to my Gulliver a few months ago and I found a sore place in his mouth. After treating this with Daktarin oral gel twice a day, he was soon back to his gluttonous self.

By not eating properly, especially if hay is not wanted, the teeth rapidly grow incorrectly, even if there was not a dental problem to begin with.

Look at Doris' front teeth. If there is a problem with the back ones, which you cannot see, it can cause the front ones to grow incorrectly. The front teeth should be horizontal and if you see that there is a diagonal slant, this can indicate a molar problem.

I am one of the digesters who has posted about piggy dental work without anaesthetic. My rodentologist trained at the CCT ( Cambridge Cavy Trust ) a specialist cavy hospital in England. All of my herd have regular dental check ups and to look at their teeth he uses a set of buccal separators. These were devised by the lady who started the CCT and there is a picture of them here  http://www.guinealynx.com/send_separators.php

He wraps the piggy up securely, using a pillow case, then holds him/her over on his/her back while he inserts the little wire clips into the mouth as shown on this page  http://www.guinealynx.com/teeth.html

This takes a matter of seconds. With these separators he is able to see right to the back of the mouth and can very quickly trim and/or file any overgrown teeth. The clippers that he uses retain any bits of teeth so they are not lost in the piggy's mouth and he has a little diamond file. He works so quickly that before the piggy has time to be stressed, the wires are removed, the piggy has been unwrapped and is enjoying a piece of veg. The procedure is soon forgotten and eating can start up again as normal. No need for syringe feeding while they recover from an anaesthetic.

The big plus to this method is that it can be repeated again and again for piggies with really bad recurring dental problems without the danger of an anaesthetic every time. A secondary plus is that there is no charge for anaethesia.

You could print out the GuineaLynx pages for your vet. Such a shame that your regular vet is away at the moment.

Good luck at the vet tomorrow. Do let us know how Doris gets on, as there are many other things that could be causing her lack of interest in food, not just teeth.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.