yet more dental problems *sighs*

[ellie_jo3213]

Pig has had bad teeth for a long time now, I'm not sure i mentioned it but a while back i noticed a hard lump on the side of her lower jaw, which was radiographed and its an enlarged molar tooth root or possibly a ondontoma (tumor of the tooth root tissues). Which is probably pushing all the molars out of line and creating her teeth badness!

Her last dental was back in september and shes been maintaining a stable weight and still keen to eat. Anyway tonight i noticed one of her lower incisors has broken probably due to her biting the cage wire when shes demanding food! I know it will grow back quickly but i thought i would share the picture with you guys. Silly piggie. I bet she feel really weird and gummy! (i know her teeth look a right mess In the picture!)

 

[Glynis]

oh heck! woah that other incisor is long........... yes her other one will grow back.

Meanwhile just cut up food into long strips to help Pig

 

[ellie_jo3213]

Ha yeh it is. But as shes fine in herself and eating fine I'm holding off an anaesthetic.

 

[Glynis]

Oh yes tis best not to use the anaes if possible...... at least a lot of the vets in the UK will do toofie trims without....sadly not in Australia mallethead

 

[ellie_jo3213]

I would NEVER have her teeth done without a GA. For numerous reasons, i feel that its causes them so much unnessessary stress to be restrained and have their teeth burred, thet are delicate creatures who if are put under such stress as that can die. Many vets have had pigs die in a consult just due to the stress of a car journey, unfamiliar surrounding and unfamilar people handling them when they are ill, imagine what they go through with being restrained and having a gag in their mouth and having their teeth filed. Also theres such little room in the mouth that one slip of the file and the file can penetrate blood vessels at the back of the mouth, its quite risky doing that on an anethetised pig let alone one whos awake and wriggling around. I personally would rather that happen when my pig was asleep and not bleed to death while awake!
It only takes 5-10mins to do her teeth which is a very short time to be anethetised. They recover fro isofluorane in a few minutes, they biggest worry is hypothermia, and heat loss can be minimised if heat pads, bubble wrap warm fluids are all used which they are at my vets.

I personally prefer 10mins of an asleep animal where the vet has better control and visualisation of what they're doing rather than struggling against an wake pig.
At the end of the day, my opinion is that it is traumatising to them. I know many will dissagree but i know my pig and her temprement isnt very good, she stresses out if i catch her to clip her nails, i think the stress of it would be more likely to kill her than the aneasthe

 

[ellie_jo3213]

*anaesthetic.

Rant over now lol

this is not aimed at anyone, for someone *** probably take it personally. These are just my opinions on a topic of disscussion.

 

[ellie_jo3213]

*will*

its very difficult to type replys on a phone keyboard! Lol!

 

[Glynis]

Look i know what you mean..... i've never had them done without a GA (a snifter of iso actually) but i'm going by what others have said for their piggies.

If your baby is one who'll worry you're doing it then for her sake


silly phone keyboards....... i did a reply the other day and it came out all gobbly gook had everyone laughing |)

 

[ellie_jo3213]

I think many people tell people that doing teeth when awake is the best option and dont even consider the temprement of the pig. And when people do have the teeth done under GA i feel many people hound them into feeling they have done the wrong thing, which they havent.

At the end of the day, would people feel more comfortable with their vet doing a procedure which they have done many times and are confident in, or try something different that they are not familiar with and test it out on their pet?

 

[Glynis]

You also need someone who knows what they're doing and be confident too!
Our boy Duke was an experimental piggie for toofie probs our vet had never done many piggies before. In the end i'd have Duke back in my arms so quickly and he'd come out of it with a cuddle and some little treats One time the other vet had him under for ages....... they sent me home and Duke flopped to his side, i panicked and roared back to the vets..... whee never had her again! and from then on until i was sure he was fine i'd stay in the waiting room.