Lion and his dodgy tooth and Abscess.

[Hannah_xx]

(I just typed a long post, but accidentally deleted it so sorry this one will be more rushed)

Well over a year ago now Lion somehow damaged one of his bottom incisors,Ever since i have been taking him to the vet every 4-6 weeks to have the tooth trimmed and checked. We was managing it well without too much weight loss or concern.
In the past 6-8 months the tooth has grown back gnarly, thick and ugly, but still managed well. My vet has never wanted to remove the tooth due to Lionhearts age (7+) and concern of his jaw breaking during the procedure.
Now in the past few weeks Lion has suddenly lost a lot of weight, he’s gone from around 1000grams (at his best) to a skinny 630g. I noticed an abscess below his jaw and bad tooth so made him an emergency appointment last week. It has slightly opened and started draining so I’m cleaning it with salt water and giving him antibiotics and Metacam twice a day.
Poor lion has been through so much with his tooth, I started to think recently that I may have to have him PTS. But since finding the abscess I’m hoping once we can fight the infection we will be able to get weight back on him. He is also still very happy, active and eating as best he can. He still picks up hay, slowly eats his veggies and still gets excited for pellets. His poops are great and he just seems to be a little fighter and doesn’t let his concerns bring him down. Lion is at least 7 so considering all this, he is doing fab. I just really hope I can get some weight back on him, I’ve read Wiebke guides on weight loss and gain and have taken.l note of a few things on there.
I have also been critical care feeding him everyday for the past 2 weeks.
I guess I haven’t got any questions, but just wanted to write about poor Lions problems and see if anyone has dealt with anything similar that’s gone on for a long time like this.

His tooth today..


Critical care time! (I usually syringe feed him but sometimes I don’t have time with the baby so he happily eats it out a bowl)

 

[weepweeps]

Hi @Hannah_xx. I’m sorry poor Lion has an abscess. My RB piggy Pepper had a tooth root abscess. He lost 400g in total. My advice would be to make sure Lion has a good amount of pain killers. The antibiotic that worked for him was Zithromax. But it did stop his appetite completely while he was on the 6 week course. I also had to flush the wound three times a day. He made a complete recovery but it was a long process with the syringe feeding. He took about 6 months to regain the weight he’d lost. Good luck I hope Lion is soon feeling better.

 

[Roselina]

Ah dear lovely Lion
I hope you can get the abscess healed
While he’s doing all the Lion things I’d keep doing what you are
He’s so sweet

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

I'm very sorry that Lion has developed an abscess. My late boys Nicky, Muffin and Odi all had dodgy teeth and they were doing as well as can be expected with regular teeth trims, pain medication and hand feeding. They also were on long time Baytril to prevent an abscess.
But unfortunately, you can only keep a situation like this stable for some time. I think it was about two years for Odi and Muffin. Nicky was PTS due to lymphoma but his teeth were also pretty bad for quite some time.
I hope that you will get rid of the abcess.
Sending healing vibes!

 

[Merab]

So sorry to hear that gorgeous Lion has an abscess.
Hopefully the treatment will work and the abscess will clear up.
Lion is in excellent hands with you.
Look after yourself too.
Hugs