[Gpdd] Health: Guinea pig unable to eat & Update on Toby

[Mieke Staaks]

Hi there,

What you are describing sounds very much like my Toby the last 2 weeks.
We took him to the vet exactly 2 weeks ago, because he ate his vegetables
very slowly.
We wanted to have his teeth checked, in case there was something wrong
there, we could catch it early.
The vet, who was a very nice lady and seemed quite knowledgable about
piggies, checked his teeth thorougly,
especially his back molars and said he was very healthy, no problems with
his teeth whatsoever.

Slightly relieved we went home, but still I had this gnawing feeling
something was wrong with him.
Why else would he eat so slowly?

He continued to eat slowly. Last saturday I first noticed he had a lump on
his right jaw line.
Feeling how it felt, and doing some research on the guinealynx site and on
Peter Gurney's site.
I was pretty much convinced he had an abcess.
(for info on abcess on pertergurneys site see:
http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/abcess.htm).
Since it grew pretty big over the day, It must have been what was causing
him trouble eating.
He also showed all the symptoms for having an abcess, written on Peter's
site.
Peter mentions a piggie can be bothered by an abcess (and thus eating
slowly), before we can actually see it...
So hoping it's something insignificant, I would advise you, Dinah?, to keep
an eye on him developing lumps.

Not wanting him to having the pain and trouble eating we took him to the vet
on sunday (they will see pets in one of their practices on Sunday). Hoping
they would lance the abcess.
The vet (another one than last time) checked him and thought there was a
problem with his teeth. She thought she might see a little hook on one of
his molars. She was not convinced the lump was an abcess (might be, could
also be infection of jaw, thickness of jaw..), and wanted to have that
checked out, plus his teeth treated.
She made it sound that his teeth were bad, which meant it was hard for him
to eat. That really amazed us, since his teeth were said to be just fine
less then 2 weeks ago. We found it more likely that his teeth had gotten bad
because he could not eat... for example caused be the abcess in the
making... (seemed like cause and effect were turned around).
I was quite upset she did not try to lance his abcess/lump so he would be
able to eat better (if it was an abcess of course). We were given critical
care, painkillers and antibiotics.

All this was to happen today under anaesthetic, to be able to better see
what was wrong.
So we took him in this morning. I asked about the anaesthetic, since it's
best for piggies to get the gas (isoflurane) anaesthetic. They said he would
get an injectible, because keeping him under with gas was not possible when
wanting to treat his teeth. Taking the gas mask of his little nose would
mean he would wake up... (Does anyone know that is the case?) It sounded
quite likely...
I was to call at 15:00PM to hear how it went and make an appointment
If something was the matter they would call me earlier.
At 13:00pm I was called by the vet's assistent.
His teeth were almost fine, hardly anything bad going on there.
The lump on his jaw was indeed an abcess (like i thought).
Though they were a bit troubled by that. Apparantly Abcesses on the jaw line
are mostly caused by an infection of the jaw or the roots of the molars.
That would mean lancing the abcess and treating with antibiotics, would only
give a short term solution to the problem, as it was very likely the abcess
will close again (even with flushing it clean) and fill up again.
An other option was to remove the whole abcess, then treating with
antibiotics. There is still a chance the abcess occurs again, but less
quickly and the chance of recurrance was most likely smaller.
Third option they gave, which I thought was not an option, was giving it up
an have him put to sleep.
He was a very healthy one and half year old boar until 2 weeks ago!

If I decided to have them lance the abcess, there was quite a chance it will
recur, and him then having to undergo anaesthetic again for surgery to
remove the whole abcess. At the time they called me he was still under
anaesthetic.

Not wanting to take the risk (or at least wanting to minimize the
risk/chance) of having him under aneasthesia again, I decided they best
remove the abcess. So they did.

I called in around 15 pm and was told all went well. He was recovering (and
waking up) on an little warmth mat(ress).
They are keeping him there overnight for observation.
Will call in again tomorrow morgen at 9.30 to make an appointment for
picking him up.
Chico is missing his friend very much, so I really hope we can take him home
tomorrow and he will get back to his normal healthy self soon! (he also
hates the critical care, so am hoping he can soon eat by himself again!)

Sorry this is so long,
Hoping for a quick recovery,
I hope this will help you on determining what is wrong with your guinea pig.
Grtz
Mieke



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