[Gpdd] HEALTH Juliet's teeth

[Penny Charlesworth]

Dee and Joe,

Such a worry over Julier's teeth. We can't have a LAPS piggy losing weight!

Here's my experience with dental work on the Piggyfriends.

Our favourite vet had left our practice, so when my piggy Jasmine needed her teeth clipped I was reluctant to go ahead. I could feed her finely minced veggies but she was unable to eat her hay or grass so I had no choice but to go ahead with the op.

Some years previously my son had lost his piggy, Rainbow, following dental work as he never regained consciousness after the op so I was hesitant to let Jasmine have the surgery. I was assured that anaesthetics were safer now for GPs so, with trepidation, I went ahead. She survived the surgery but was still unable to eat properly so I continued with syringe feeding and she was still able to eat her minced veg from her bowl.

At the same time, another piggy, Amber had teeth problems, so he had to have the dental work done too. He survived the op but still wouldn't eat and fought the syringe all the way. I was sure that I would lose them both.

Jasmine had two more ops to correct her teeth. Amber's weight dropped alarmingly. By this time, Jasmine weighed only 600g. She looked like a baby piggy but still munched away at her minced veggies and eagerly emptied the syringe.

I had to take them both back to the vets, without any hope of success, but the boss vet said that they had a new vet just starting, who was interested in what he called, to my disgust "pocket money pets".
So my piggies were the new vet's first patients.

He trimmed their teeth to what he called "baby size teeth". He found a sharp piece of tooth embedded in Amber's mouth - no wonder he couldn't bear the syringe. Was it left there by the previous vet? Or, if it was already there, why had he not seen it?

I brought them home, put grass in front of Jasmine, and to my immense relief she started to eat straight away. Amber needed to be syringe fed for some time but without the pain from that piece of tooth he was happy to take the syringe and eventually started to feed himself.

Jasmine lived to be a very old lady and never needed her teeth looked at again but Amber needed to return a couple of times for another trim. With this new vet, I was less terrified of the anaesthetic and came to trust him with all my guinea problems.

All of this cost me a small fortune, as you can imagine, and I felt that I was only working to pay the vet, so I was delighted when the CCT developed a way of doing dental work without anaesthetic. Now I have the wonderful Cavies Castle not far away I don't have to go through all that worry ( and expense ) again. I don't begrudge anything that I spend on the Piggyfriends but I would rather use that money to buy food for them and to be able to afford to take in more piggies.

So.......if you trust your vet you will have to go ahead with the dental check up for Juliet unless you can find someone who can do the work without anaesthetic. It is a tragedy that this treatment is not more widely available as it can be done so quickly, without stressing the piggy ( as vets will insist is the case - of course they do, they want our money! ) and the little one can be eating properly as soon as it is done.

Have you tried the CCT syringe feeding formula for Juliet? Or you can use the little jars of babyfood, which go down a syringe very easily. If she has the dental work done, you may need to syringe feed her for a while until she recovers. If she will be hand fed, this is better for her teeth and may prevent them from deteriorating.

Do ensure that your vet uses Isoflurane anaesthetic as this is the safe one for piggies.

Sorry that this is so long but I can never use one word when I could use a whole sentence and piggy dental work is a subject close to my heart. I could write a book about it.

I'm sure that Glynis will have a few words to say on this matter too as Duke is an expert at having his teeth done.

Keeping all of our paws and whiskers crossed for Juliet,

Penny and the Piggyfriends ( who have the whiskers ).