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Difficulty chewing? Dental?

LucyP

LucyP

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Hi all

Mabel is our almost 3 year old pig and she seems to be having some trouble chewing, at least some of the time. Took her to the vets who can’t see anything obvious and were happy with everything they could see with their instruments etc but obviously they can only see so much. I took some food with me to show them what I meant and of course she ate normally in front of them!

But a few times since yesterday she seems to be taking quite a lot longer than normal to eat things and is maybe struggling to move things around her mouth in the normal way? She does eat hay but she’s lost about 50g so I wasn’t sure she’s eating as much. We gave her several syringes of emeraid earlier to boost her and will keep an eye on thay and keep it up as needed.

Is it possible it’s a small cut that might heal?

I’ve (hopefully) posted a video here, sorry it’s not clearer. I wondered if this looked like anything familar to others, or most likely it’s impossible to say?



We’re going to monitor her weight (which we do daily anyway for other reasons) and her chewing and go back if it doesn’t improve. There is the possibility of a CT scan.

I doubt relevant but she also has cysts which we’re not operating on due to her having chronic respiratory issues but managing with pain relief. If we did a CT scan for her mouth we could also check how shes doing elsewhere in her body.

But for now I wondered if anyone has thoughts re what this chewing looks like?

Many thanks!
Lucy
 
I'm afraid I have no advice just wanted to say that she is gorgeous 🥰
 
Ah! she says thanks and that’s cheered her up! The vet also told her that he loves her. She’s quite a regular up there these poor thing.
 
Just to add that she seems ok with thin strands of lettuce. She seemed to struggle with a pea flake for some reason and spends a long time chewing it. She can eat hay all the way to the end of the strand.
 
Hi all

Mabel is eating somewhat and maintaining her weight (we’re topping up with emeraid too which she is happy to have). But she still doesn’t seem right, she takes longer than normal to chew even soft veg and isn’t totally devouring the hay as she normally would. The vet found nothing obvious wrong so our next step would be further investigations.

Previous to this we suspected she was in pain as she was self barbering (we didn’t realise what it was straight away as she was losing hair on her sides anyway due to her ovarian cysts). The vet explained that stubbly hair loss means it’s come out from biting rather than just hair falling out. Because of her long term breathing and lung issues we agreed with the vet a plan of long term pain management to see how that goes rather than a spay. She’s been on metacam 0.4 twice a day for about a month and I think it’s helping but she may still be self barbering a little bit so we also now have gabapentin to add to the mix.

I’m wondering-

Re the mouth: how long should we wait before going for a CT or x ray to look at her mouth, is she is eating somewhat but not quite normally? If it’s a minor lesion in the mouth or sore that might heal, but if it’s something else, presumably that’s not going to go away on its own is it?

Re the gabapentin for her pain (assumed to be related to the cysts because she was barbering her sides but could be more systemic pain I guess) - if we add gaba twice a day as prescribed, does it need to be at a particular interval from the metacam? Is it good to pace them for more pain relief?

I’ll ask the vet too but wondered if anyone here had similar experiences re either dental or cysts.

Poor Mabel, she’s a complicated but completely adorable lady.

Thanks so much
 
LucyP said:
Hi all

Mabel is eating somewhat and maintaining her weight (we’re topping up with emeraid too which she is happy to have). But she still doesn’t seem right, she takes longer than normal to chew even soft veg and isn’t totally devouring the hay as she normally would. The vet found nothing obvious wrong so our next step would be further investigations.

Previous to this we suspected she was in pain as she was self barbering (we didn’t realise what it was straight away as she was losing hair on her sides anyway due to her ovarian cysts). The vet explained that stubbly hair loss means it’s come out from biting rather than just hair falling out. Because of her long term breathing and lung issues we agreed with the vet a plan of long term pain management to see how that goes rather than a spay. She’s been on metacam 0.4 twice a day for about a month and I think it’s helping but she may still be self barbering a little bit so we also now have gabapentin to add to the mix.

I’m wondering-

Re the mouth: how long should we wait before going for a CT or x ray to look at her mouth, is she is eating somewhat but not quite normally? If it’s a minor lesion in the mouth or sore that might heal, but if it’s something else, presumably that’s not going to go away on its own is it?

Re the gabapentin for her pain (assumed to be related to the cysts because she was barbering her sides but could be more systemic pain I guess) - if we add gaba twice a day as prescribed, does it need to be at a particular interval from the metacam? Is it good to pace them for more pain relief?

I’ll ask the vet too but wondered if anyone here had similar experiences re either dental or cysts.

Poor Mabel, she’s a complicated but completely adorable lady.

Thanks so much
Click to expand...

Hi

If it is a brewing root abscess (including one in an incisor whose roots are way back just in front of the back teeth), then it can be difficult to spot while the abscess itself is still really tiny but it is causing increasing toothache in my own experience without any other obvious pointers like overgrowing back teeth.

Have you checked the incisors as to whether they are slanting? Keep feeling around the jaw for any signs of swelling. If there is slanting, syringe feed from the lower side because the pain is on the other. A piggy is generally more accepting of a syringe where it doesn't hurt quite as much.
 
Ps sorry if I should have put this in my previous thread about long term pain meds. I see them as separate issues, but it’s the same pig so apologies if that was wrong!
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

If it is a brewing root abscess (including one in an incisor whose roots are way back just in front of the back teeth), then it can be difficult to spot while the abscess itself is still really tiny but it is causing increasing toothache in my own experience without any other obvious pointers like overgrowing back teeth.

Have you checked the incisors as to whether they are slanting? Keep feeling around the jaw for any signs of swelling. If there is slanting, syringe feed from the lower side because the pain is on the other. A piggy is generally more accepting of a syringe where it doesn't hurt quite as much.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much. The vet checked all the teeth he could see and felt they were fine. He also had a feel around in her mouth. The video looks like she might be chewing on one side of her mouth.
 
I’ll try and have a feel around her jaw.

She also keeps grabbing the syringe and
chewing it and trying to run off with it, which can’t be helping her mouth!
 
LucyP said:
Thanks very much. The vet checked all the teeth he could see and felt they were fine. He also had a feel around in her mouth. The video looks like she might be chewing on one side of her mouth.
Click to expand...

It is the one case in my own - admittedly limited - personal experience that would correspond with the lack of obvious signs but the clear evidence of symptoms. The problem is that in this case you have to basically wait until an abscess develops. It's not a nice place to be in. :(
 
Oh dear I hope it’s not that but helpful to know it could be. Would a CT scan be helpful? Or maybe not if it’s very small?!

I might start her gabaoentin tonight anyway and that might help in addition to the metacam.

Thanks
 
Update- she started drooling and struggling just now, her tongue was almost sticking out and she kept pawing at her mouth, looking like she’s chewing but nothing there, uncomfortable looking, so we’ve rushed her back to the vets. They’ve taken her to the hospital area to examine and I think x ray her. Very worried.
 
I hope they can find out what is wrong and it’s something easily treatable 🤞🏻
 
Thanks. She had very sudden and severe bloat, theyre treating that and keeping her in. The vet was initially concerned about twisted gut (GDV?) but thankfully the x ray showed not. The bloat was very severe though. She’s on motility meds and pain relief and will be fed by the overnight nurses with the vet on call if she deteriorates. She seemed ok (in the bloat sense) just a few hours ago and was begging for her emeraid. I’m really confused and worried - this was so sudden. but glad she’s getting care. Winnie will stay in with her. Thanks all.
 
She is in the best place. Sending her healing vibes ❤️
 
Thank you. The before and after x ray showed how much she had blown up but it looked less after they removed some air. Hope the meds will help. Poor thing. I hope they can sort her bloat. And then we’re still left with what’s causing the mouth issues she had before the bloat. She can’t have had bad bloat yesterday as the other vet would have felt it when he palpated her cysts and examined her etc surely.
 
My boys send healing rumbles and kisses for her. It's good that you got her to the vet ❤️
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Poor piggy, sending her lots of healing vibes 💓
How did they remove some gas?
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Maybe I got it wrong when I thought that they did something other than the medications - I’m not sure tbh as it was all a blur (and I wasn’t in the room when they tested her).
 
Update-she is taking recovery food still and she is alert which is good.. but the bloating is still very bad. They may need to try IV pro kinetics next if the oral drugs aren’t shifting this. Her x rays this morning show that her stomach is still in position which is good but until the bloat shifts she remains at high risk. I was really hoping that the meds overnight would have started to shift this. The fact we still don’t know what’s casing it is also not helpful I guess.
 
Thanks for all your support. And they did remove some air from her yesterday with a procedure - they had to as the distension has been putting pressure on her diaphragm. Poor Mabel.
 
Update on Mabel:

She’s still in hospital but her bloat is very much reduced, she’s bright and responsive and eating again, pooing and eating her poos, doing more normal piggy stuff. The vet said a pig with good poos who is eating them is a good thing to see. She also apparently did a massive fart which I hope has made her feel better.

She’s still on very strong pain relief, gut stimulants and some syringe feed but they said if things keep going in this direction we should be able to bring her home hopefully tomorrow or Monday. We could try sooner but as we don’t know the cause the of bloat and there’s still some gas there, we’re playing it by ear.

Interestingly the strange chewing/mouth movements she started doing on weds and the pawing at her mouth that started just before we raced her in on Thursday have apparently stopped. This may be because it was related to pain and nausea which is now better controlled (?) but I’m also aware the vet team can’t monitor her all the time so we’ll have to keep an eye on her when she comes home on that score.

it’s worrying not to know the cause of what has been bad bloat and I'm aware it could mean something else is at play. They’ve given her a thorough hands on exam to check for any obvious growths and tumours but that only goes so far. There is a worry the boat will return.

But for now I’m glad her gas is so much better and she sounds much brighter. We’ll take each day as it comes.

I’m so glad she seems to have turned a corner as there is a limit to what we would want to put a small animal through in terms of ongoing interventions etc and I’ve felt so distressed about her going through this. We’ve always been clear and the vets have agreed that the suffering/risks/benefit balance has to be about her wellbeing and there is a limit. We have been assured she’s on good pain relief and the fact she’s eating and appears bright makes me feel better. But I do hate the thought of her being in hospital and having things done to her.

Anyway in
 
A further update from the vet - the bloat side of things is still going well and her eating and pooing is good, they’re very pleased with that.

She’s not moving around as much as they would like. Her foot is slightly sore from the IV which may be playing a role and this is being cared for. And she is a bit zonked from the pain meds. Her pain scores are looking good and they are due to slightly reduce pain meds anyway so hopefully she becomes more mobile over the next 24 hours. She’ll definitely be in tonight and then we see how she is tomorrow.

The main thing for now I guess is that her guts are moving and there’s much less gas.
 
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