[Gpdd] HEALTH: Update on Donald and his teeth problems

[Julie Juwles Johnson]

Hi all my lovely GPDD friends,

Firstly, I want to say the biggest thank you for all your emails of support, advice, love and comfort.   I have been overwhelmed by your concern, and humbled by your love.    

I'm going to give an update on the situation re Donald, it might be a bit disjointed, but I guess all the info might be relevant or helpful to others.

Friday, 26th August 2009
I took him back to my local vet (who doesn't know much about piggies but is learning from me!), and she x-rayed his teeth/jaws today without anaesthetic - and filed a bit more off the molars (even though it's not yet a week since that other vet put him under anaesthetic & filed them back - not too impressed there because it cost just under $200!).

Then today, Debbie, my vet, sat there and fed him a strawberry.   She broke it into little bits and he took it from her finger and ate.  Still with problems, and still slowly, but he did eat it.    

I brought him home, tried the same with cucumber, but he wouldn't even try.   Maybe he's playing up for his mummy?

Anyway, my vet did email a copy of the x-ray of his teeth to Vedra at Cambridge Cavy Trust, and she's tried to ring her as well to see if there's anything else that can be done.   Debbie found no sign of fractures, the mouth hygiene was perfect - no infection at all.

Ann Evans from GPDD Tampa emailed me with some wonderful advice, so I sent that on to Debbie the vet, as well as some photos I have of guinea pig teeth views from front on and side view.   She desperately wants to help me - she doesn't want me going through what I did with Archie - she looked after Archie where I had to take him weekly or bi-weekly, to have the teeth trimmed - which went on for 7 months before Archie died at only 400 grams.

Tonight, I put the veges in his bed, he showed interest, tried to pick up some tomato, and just dropped it.   He really wants to eat.      One good thing, he hasn't lost any weight - he's still 1.1kg, so the vet was very proud of me - she said that his non-weight-loss was not because of good luck, it was because of good management on my part.

At his last feed for the night, I managed to get 25 x 2ml syringes of food into him.   I had 3 containers - one pure Critical Care, one baby food, and the other his favourite veges blended down to mush.   I wanted to keep the CC up because that will help his bowels and hopefully he won't get diarrhoea as well.

Monday 31 August 2009
Unfortunately, no change.   Yesterday, I'd given up all hope because he wasn't keeping any syringe food down, it just kept dribbling out.       I was just sitting there at the table bawling my eyes out, cuddling Donald, thinking I'm going to have to euthanase eventually.

Then my sister came along and got hold of those rasps and filed both sides of his back teeth, which she said were pointy.    The little darling just sat on the table whilst my sister filed those teeth, and was so good, he never struggled nor made a sound. 

After that Kathy said go away, cause you are crying and he'll feel your emotion, and she proceeded to finish feeding him about another 30 x 1 ml syringe fulls of food.

On Tuesday, after a very emotional night, I tried again - and that morning he had 50 x 1 ml vials; that afternoon I gave him another 62 x 1 ml vials; that night I gave him 25 x 2 ml vials, and I got  up at 3am to give him another feed to keep him going to the morning.   I hadn't seen him doing any poos those past few days, although his kidneys are working causing he's doing wees.

I read notes kindly emailed to me from Ann Evans about corrective dentistry for rodents, and it says that it might be necessary to file the points of teeth back every 3 days.       I do not intend to give up on my boy.    So, I've put him on to Daktarin oral gel, as well as Nilstat oral drops (all for fungal infections).   I'm assuming it must be because he's in pain that he can't eat - and he still very much wants to.  But I can see sadness in him too, because he doesn't understand what is going on.

Tuesday, 1 September 2009
I took Donald back to the vet today, because he's started to slobber and his incisors are showing when I lift his little face (normally only his little mouthie is showing).   So, I virtually "gave up" today - just went back to bed, hid under the covers, tried to sleep, couldn't, let my darling mother get all of the other 9 pigs out of their night cages for their daytime romps, let my darling mother feed Donald, let my darling mother do the washing of piggy towels, hanging them up, washing up their vege bowels, until it was time to go to the vet.

By then I was a bawling idiot!  

Anyway, as things stand, my vet (Debbie) has not been able to make contact with Vedra (she's emailed the x-rays, etc.), so after lots of investigative work, 2 days of phone calls, etc. she's found who she says is the top rodentologist in Australia!   This lady (Vanessa Gray her name is) is not a dentist (cause I don't trust straight out dentists), but strictly an expert in rodents and exotic pets.       She and Debbie the vet talked ages about food they should eat, how much I should be syringe feeding him, how often, discussed his weight (still 1kg), said it still sounded like tooth problem (probably I've fed them too much veges or green grass and not enough roughage); then Debbie the vet sent x-ray of Donald's teeth to Vanessa, who was going to examine them and ring Deb back.   Apparently Vanessa worked for years in theUK, so maybe she even trained under Vedra?

The outcome is that tomorrow (2 Sept) I will take Donald back to Debbie, she will put him under isofluorane (I've been talking about euthanasing, so isofluorane would be safer!), and really examine his teeth, cut them back, grind them, and great news - that vet practice has finally bought a scope so she will be able to look down Donald's throat to see if there is anything wrong a bit further down.

Donald has finally done some quite good pellets, which I was thrilled to find in his bed.   So Debbie said at least his gut is working.

She said not to overfeed - only 40-50ml per day because he might become dependent; and another good thing is the rodentologist said to try him on an old human medication called cimetidine (no longer made now, but used to be fantastic for people with peptic ulcers).   The owner of the vet practice's wife is a chemist, and she might (we are hoping) be able to compound the medicine together, and then we can give Donald the medicine to soothe any upset in his tummy and to stimulate his appetite.

I'm still giving him Daktarin gel, just in case - it can't hurt can it?

Oh, and the vet said we'll up his painkilling medication to twice a day, because if pain is stopping him the only way to help is to relieve the pain. 

Wednesday 2 September 2009

To be continued...........

Thank you so much for your emails and thoughts and caring, I am so humbled by all the advice I've received, and love and prayers, from members of our wonderful group.      I'm not ready to say goodbye to Donald yet - so, tonight I've scraped myself off the floor and am back in fighting mode!

The final outcome of all this will be that my local vet Debbie will end up an expert in guinea pigs won't she?!!


Hugs and sincerest thanks to you all,
Julie & Donald & my other lovely boys  xx





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