Can they be on CritCare for too long?

[Pebbles139]

Hi,
Our Piggie Meatballs is 2.5 years old. he was recently diagnosed with Silky syndrome, although now they arent sure because his bones are showing up dense again on his latest two xrays, where they were almost invisible when we first took him in. The joint and bone chews that he's on seem to be working really well, but it made his incisors grow fast while he was still feeling too sick to chew things.

We had his teeth trimmed and he's doing a ton better moving eating and drinking, but now since his incisors are so short, he cant take good bites off of pepper pieces and even leaf lettuce, so we've been giving him critical care and dicing his pepper, carrots and or leaf lettuce. (for some reason the pieces of carrot are easier for him to keep in his mouth than the other two.) OK sorry for the long story, but I wanted to being it up to date. Now he eats a just bit of green pepper, carrot, and leaf lettuce daily. We cant get him to try hay again since he stopped eating it almost completely when he was sick and when his teeth grew out of control.

But he LOVES critical care. hes easily getting the recommended amount a day, and since if it does happen to be silky syndrome, thats not curable, so im wondering that, if he loves it so much, can we keep giving it too him even when he starts eating his other things again? I figure its great no matter what he really has, but i wanted to make sure him getting some daily pretty much the rest of his like, or if and until this condition reverses, is ok for him? Basically, is it safe for them to be on at least some critical care for good or a very extended period of time?
Thank you,
Beth, Eric, Meatballs, Pebbles, And Rocky

[Lynx]

You might want to try feeding him pieces of hay, if you have time.

Your vet appears to have cut the teeth too short. A lot of vets have a mistaken idea of how long incisors should be. Read this page and tips for feeding until the teeth grow to the proper length.
https://www.guinealynx.info/teeth_broken.html

I think giving Critical Care until he starts eating better is fine. Weigh daily right now. Unfamiliar with silky syndrome. Sounds like being prone to bone loss? If there is no danger of stones, you might want to provide food higher in calcium.

[Pebbles139]

Thank you! yeah, I agree she snipped them a bit too short. we're trying to get him to eat hay again but he gets frustrated with it because its almost like he forgot how to keep food in his mouth and it falls out really fast, unlike some of the veggies that he kinda shakes his head ti keep them in a little better, but even that doesnt work all the time.. even the critical care comes out some but he just licks it up and keeps on going. It does make them prone to lose bone density almost like Osteoperosis in us, but there joint chews from oxbow are like liltle miracle workers.
The Calcium ill have to loo up safe amounts and get over your fear...we lost one of our first two after bladder stone surgery. Do you know if CritCare is ok long term?
Thanks for the reply, we appreciate it =)

[Lynx]

I believe some people have given Critical Care long term - in cases of genetic problems that affect the ability to eat. Supplementing older guinea pigs with extra calories helps too.

[Renonvsparky]

Critical Care can be given indefinitely. It has everything guinea pigs need in the way of nutrients. The problem with giving only Critical Care is that they don't use their teeth nearly enough to prevent overgrowth. I learned that the hard way with BJ. Their teeth grow very quickly so if your vet did cut them too short you still need to keep an eye on them for overgrowth and keep trying to get your pig to eat hay. You also have to make sure there's plenty of things for him to chew on and try to encourage him to use them. I'd try mixing up a small batch of Critical Care extra runny and putting it on his chew toys. Since he likes it so much, it might encourage him to chew on them.

Watch his molars in particular! I cannot stress that enough! BJ was on critical care alone for over a month and unbeknownst to me, his molars overgrew, curved inwards and pinned his tongue to the bottom of his jaw. The only thing they could've done for him was to remove all of his teeth. We ended up having to put him down because he was nearly 6 years old and the issue that caused him to be on critical care wasn't getting resolved with medication or any of the treatments we tried. There was little chance he would have even survived the surgery, to say nothing of resolving his digestive issues. Putting him down was a very difficult decision, but it was better than having him suffer.

[Pebbles139]

Im sorry you had to do that. Its tough to put them before ourselves to keep them from suffering, ive been there and I feel your pain.

Thank you so much. You and Lynx have given me some good ideas I almost forgot about keeping the molars down. My wife even suggested a similar idea of putting critical care on his peppers to so hes crunching and wear down all the teeth. and since he'll even eat it right from a plastic spoon, i could start putting some hay into it to encourage that as well. Thanks so much guys, i really appreciate the advice

[Renonvsparky]

No problem! If anyone can learn something about how to save their guinea pigs from my experiences, I take that as a positive. It's also why I share my guinea pig stories. I wish you and your guinea pigs the best.

[mmeadow]

I have had two pigs on exclusive Critical Care handfeeding for a month each with no tooth overgrowth. As stated before, it's designed to be all they need nutritionally. I did watch closely for any changes in jaw movement or drooling. (Unfortunately for me and partner, that month each was--the SAME month. A ton of work, but both pigs recovered.)

[Renonvsparky]

I don't know why BJ's teeth overgrew and yours didn't. I do know that BJ didn't chew on anything or eat hay once his digestive issues caused him to stop eating. His teeth were fine, but it didn't take them very long to overgrow. He didn't even try to chew the critical care. I had to inject it far enough into his mouth for him to have no choice but to swallow it. I was able to keep his weight up doing that. BJ was a very large guinea pig, weighing nearly 3 and a half pounds at the onset of his illness. He was still just under 3 pounds when we had him put down, which is still a pretty good weight for a guinea pig his size. I'm at least proud of that much. Anyway, perhaps your guinea pigs still chewed to keep their teeth from overgrowing?

[Pebbles139]

Guys, we ran out of critical care and no one around here has any. We're giving him Sherwood but its not flavored and he doesnt like it, I think he got addicted to the Anise lol. Do you guys know what Anise flavorings are safe for piggies? I want to add some to the new stuff, but i dont know if the extract is ok, or if theres something else they use.

[Renonvsparky]

I get mine from Amazon. I keep at least two bags of it on hand at all times. If you do order it from them, use the link at the bottom of this page. It helps this website.

[Sef]

Apparently Oxbow paused the manufacture of CC in May of this year due to issues with sourcing the ingredients. Of course I have a little guy who right now is suddenly not eating, so I'm using up the last of what I had on-hand and trying to figure out what to give him as an alternative. I do have Emeraid here, too, but haven't tried it with any of our guys. The few bags of CC that I have found online have jacked-up pricing, or a delivery date of anywhere from 1-2 weeks, which doesn't help me at the moment.