Son´s teeth again: bad, not eating.

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Teresa

Post   » Mon Apr 15, 2002 1:33 pm


I noticed some soars on Son´s mouth last night. He actually had a little scab thing on the tip of his nose! Almost seems fungal. He has soars on both sides of his mouth. He has that calcium buildup on the base of his teeth again, the incisors are at an angle again. Gunk on the top of his teeth. The top lips look sore and crusted over, too.

Yuk. I tried putting just a little ointment on yesterday and some mineral oil to soften up the lip area. This morning he did not come out of his pigloo for breakfast. :(

Gave him some Critical care, banana and barley in a pellet dish. He took the CC, ate a bit of banana, and was munching on the barley.

It´s been 5 weeks since he had his teeth trimmed last time.

His mouth is basically a wreck. His breath stinks again. It does most of the time.

In his past, he´s had two surgeries to have a cancerous mass removed from his jaw.

Suggestions on treating the soars? Time to trim teeth again?? This is one damn expensive pig. But he´s worth it.

I can get photos later. Will call the vet when he gets in.

pinta

Post   » Mon Apr 15, 2002 2:08 pm


You have no choice. He has to have his teeth done. The bad breath indicates infection or food collecting around his molars and rotting.

Are the actual incisors angled or are they worn on an angle. If they´re worn at an angle it means his molars are overgrown on just one side indicating jaw weakness on one side.

I have had an animal physical therapist manipulate pig jaws back into position. Yeah, she was surprised she could do it.

He´ll need to be on antibiotics for the sores.

pigpal

Post   » Mon Apr 15, 2002 2:31 pm


Sorry to hear he´s in bad shape again.

In case you need a dental specialist - my neighbor, Steve Holstrom, is a veterinary dentist. I´ve never needed to use him but he´s told me they see guinea pigs in the practice. His office is on Laurel St., in San Carlos.

pinta

Post   » Mon Apr 15, 2002 3:48 pm


Ask him if he knows Loïc Legendre. Most likely he does.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Mon Apr 15, 2002 10:26 pm


Yes, certainly address the teeth. He may have a secondary problem going on with the lips. Usually it´s a staph/strep infection? I have a great pic in Rosenthal and Brown´s color anatomy review. Just picked it up yesterday and have had an 8 month battle with one of my sows with the same chelitis (infection of the lips--there´s a name for everything, I tell you)!

After trying many therapies from systemic and topical antibiotics/antiseptics and dietary changes (fresh grass or VERY soft hay and pellets with veggies only), I finally figured it out. Topical BNP (like Neosporin). I had used some debridement and chlorhexidine and betadine, but it proved to be quite painful for her and not very successful. Systemic Baytril was given for some time also, but it wasn´t the key I think. I was quite worried about her possibly injesting the BNP, but I did watch her like a hawk for antibiotic intolerance. I never had to change the treatment and to this date it is the only thing that worked for her.

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Sunny

Post   » Tue Apr 16, 2002 11:14 am


Good luck with Son Teresa. :-( Poor little guy.

pigpal

Post   » Tue Apr 16, 2002 11:36 pm


Pinta, yes he does know Legendre. When I saw him today I asked and he said, "Oui, oui! I know heeem!"

Apparently he´s coming to SF in August.

pinta

Post   » Tue Apr 16, 2002 11:58 pm


What - making fun of ze accent? I´m gonna tell....

He must be doing a lecture. Definitely worth vets attending. He does animal dentistry on creatures from elephants to cavies. Our Veterinary Clinic cat sports a gold fang he put in to replace the missing one. And he looks after a lot of the RCMP dogs´ teeth. We´ve been providing him with a rather sad collection of pig skulls for tooth research.

The latest "fun" project for him that probably won´t end well is calcified saliva glands on one of our pigs that appear to be interfering with her bite. Right now it looks like surgery is the only option, since the glands are getting larger and keep calcifying (xray diagnosis) but it´s never been done before so the prognosis isn´t great. He´s researching on the net to see if anyone is familiar with the problem but I have my doubts he´ll come up with anything. Which means we´ll just make it up as we go along as per usual.

Hey, if anyone knows anything about calcified saliva glands......

User avatar
Cordelia
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Wed Apr 17, 2002 12:12 am


Teresa,

I hope Son pulls through this okay. I read the updates on your site about him whenever available, he sounds like a special pig. He is lucky to have you in his life. My thoughts are with you and Son.

Evangeline

Post   » Wed Apr 17, 2002 9:42 pm


Ok, I´ve had it! What´s with making fun of francophones every chance you get?

pigpal

Post   » Thu Apr 18, 2002 1:03 am


Ribbit!

pinta

Post   » Thu Apr 18, 2002 1:14 am


Reebeet

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