Lost a molar

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Dorisandmabel

Post   » Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:20 am


Hi all,

I have another post going about my guinea pig Doris at the mo and her bladder stones but I’m having an equally hard time with my other pig Mabel.

A couple of months ago (maybe slightly less) Mabel started grinding her teeth. I took her to one exotic vet who checked her teeth and said they looked “perfect” and to give her some meloxaid/ meloxicam for a couple weeks and see if that helps. If he goes and then comes back to go back to see her. I knew it must be something with her teeth as something just wasn’t right. Anyway the grinding actually stopped for about a week and the. Started again so I gave her some meds and it didn’t make a difference. I booked in for the next week with a different exotic vet nearer to me (she was on furlough) when she looked she could see that her back teeth on one side didn’t look right so wanted to put her under and have a better look.

The next day she put her under and found that she’d lost one of her back molars - root and all! There was a hole there and it was filled with food and very infected. She cleaned it out and filed down the teeth and let me know that she’d need on going dental. She put her on baytril and said to keep giving her the meloxaid. She was on ranitidine for a bit as well.

She didn’t cope well after the anaesthetic and surgery and got cystitis pretty quickly which cleared up after about a week with lots of water and cystease.
3 weeks later she had to have another dental. The infection hasn’t gone down at all so have added in a second antibiotic. She’s reacted pretty much the same way but worse. Blood in her wee again and hurting to go to the loo. Have started giving her cisapride to keep everything moving right (vet aware and don’t have more ranitidine) but just trying to get her to eat. After seeing the blood in her wee I tried to get an exotics appointment. My own vet is part time at the practice near me and the one at the vet hospital (doing scans for Doris today) said she didn’t have space to see her. I took her to a first opinion vet by me who have her an injectable pain killers in hopes that she’d perk up a bit and start eating more.
He said that the blood could be the cystitis come back but may need scans so will talk to my normal vet when she’s back about it. He said to keep getting water into her and hand feeding every 4 hours.

I know I need to do a bit more investigating regarding the blood in the wee for sure but definitely don’t want to stress her out right now. I wish money wasn’t a factor but I paid the vets £700+ last week and owe them nearly £900 this week and I’m very quickly running out of money. I’m waiting for a new credit card to arrive so will feel a bit better when it gets here. I just wanted to ask about the tooth mainly.

My question is if anyone has experienced something similar? She’d Showed no signs of any issues and ate so much all the time I had to put her on a diet and then suddenly was in pain and the tooth had gone. Over the 3 weeks after the dental she was uncomfortable the whole time up until the next dental and she does not seem to cope well once the dental has been done. Do you think she can live a long happy life with this? If we manage to clear the infection? how do they suddenly lose a whole tooth and the root?

Just some background on her - I got her at 6 months old from the animal shelter that I volunteer at as a dog walker. She came from a massive hoarding situation where there were 150 pigs in a one room flat. She’s spayed and has small poops (always has done).
She’s on Timothy hay, gets fresh veg although since the first dental has found it hard to eat so turns her nose up at it most of the time now) and is on low calcium no grain pellets but doesn’t get as many as she used to (science selective supreme).

Thanks for any advice in advance.

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Thu Aug 13, 2020 7:06 pm


I have not heard of a molar falling out, with root. I would think it is fairly uncommon, and could point to a serious infection in the jaw. Hopefully others will weigh-in on it.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:41 pm


Having a molar fall out does sound unusual. I am sorry to hear she is having these problems. Are there any veterinary dentists you could consult? What I wonder is if a veterinary dentist might do something like pack antibiotic beads into the tooth root.

Dorisandmabel

Post   » Fri Aug 14, 2020 5:26 am


I think she’s going to have to get some xrays etc due to her bladder and passing blood so I think we’ll get answers about everything then.
I feel bad for her because every time she has dental and anaesthetic she stops eating and started bleeding and finding it hard to go to the toilet.
I will speak to the vet about her teeth again, she hadn’t mentioned anything about antibiotic beads.
@Lynx Is that something that can be used with small animals?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Aug 14, 2020 5:08 pm


I ran across its use years ago in raptors with pododermatitis. Supposedly an animal can take an antibiotic bead with stronger antibiotics that could help more than the limited ones we usually give because they go through the digestive system.

This item is out of stock but kind of is what I was thinking of:
https://veterinary-instrumentation.co.u ... gory/2578/

Veterinary dentists deal with a wide variety of oral infections and I am sure have different ways of dealing with them that a general veterinarian might not be familiar with.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Fri Aug 14, 2020 10:06 pm


The idea of finding a veterinary dentist, if possible, is a good one. They will have smaller x-ray machines that should be able to home in on the mouth and jaw, that should reveal any underlying bone problems.

Just make sure the veterinary dentist knows something about guinea pigs, even if they're not an exotics vet. Make sure they know about antibiotics that are fatal to guinea pigs and fine in dogs and cats, for example.

Blessings to her, and good luck to her and to you.

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