Eriathwens piggies

Poor Ebony was back at the vet today, I found her drooling and very unhappy at lunchtime so got her seen. Luckily her teeth seemed ok, and she had already improved by the time we got her in, but she's to go back Thursday to have a proper check under aneasthetic if she's no better by Wednesday. So fingers crossed! 😞

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Ebony is about the same today, I haven't seen much if any drooling but she seems to be having a hard time picking up and eating hay, yet she will wolf down grass and wild plants no problem. If it were a physical issue, I dont think she would be able to do that?

I'm going to call the vets tomorrow anyway, and have her booked in for Thursday because she cant stay as she is, unless of course she makes a miraculous recovery overnight. But I don't want to leave her to get any worse, luckily she hasn't lost any more weight although she is becoming a pain to syringe feed. She likes to just spit it out 🙃
 
Thankyou! I'm very worried, in my experience with drooling, you really want to find a dental issue.. the only pigs I've had that drooled all had cancer/tumours 😔
I am hoping that her little appetite blip due to pain not so long ago created a tiny spur right at the back that hasn't been found yet.
 
So, good news is it does seem to be a dental problem, her upper right incisor has a split in it. Unfortunately it goes all the way up under the gum line, so I don't know how bad it actually is. She has an appointment for 5pm, likely to have them burred right down but he wanted to see her to check first.
Touching the tooth seems very uncomfortable so that would explain why she can pick up and eat soft grass but not hay!

Without incisors she's going to be needing round the clock care for at least a week, which I cant say I'm looking forward to, but I'll have to suck it up and cross my fingers the new growth comes through OK and not also split!

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Eriathwen said:
So, good news is it does seem to be a dental problem, her upper right incisor has a split in it. Unfortunately it goes all the way up under the gum line, so I don't know how bad it actually is. She has an appointment for 5pm, likely to have them burred right down but he wanted to see her to check first.
Touching the tooth seems very uncomfortable so that would explain why she can pick up and eat soft grass but not hay!

Without incisors she's going to be needing round the clock care for at least a week, which I cant say I'm looking forward to, but I'll have to suck it up and cross my fingers the new growth comes through OK and not also split!

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Hopefully it’s only split to the gumline 🤞This is likely what’s putting her of eating, does her gum look pink and not inflamed
 
Her gums look lovely and normal luckily!

She's had her incisors burred down, and as soon as she realised that tooth didn't hurt anymore she has been trying so hard to pick up hay! She's eaten a few pieces she managed to force into her mouth but she hasn't quite got the hang of new her teeth yet. Hopefully as she wears a new chiselled edge in she begins to eat more normally. She is slowly figuring out things with some grass and grated carrot bless her.

She's got the right ump though 🤣

Made my day, too bless him..I'd been having quite a crappy day until he said he wasn't charging me for it, which was lovely of him considering he was having a hell of a day himself!

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Eriathwen said:
Her gums look lovely and normal luckily!

She's had her incisors burred down, and as soon as she realised that tooth didn't hurt anymore she has been trying so hard to pick up hay! She's eaten a few pieces she managed to force into her mouth but she hasn't quite got the hang of new her teeth yet. Hopefully as she wears a new chiselled edge in she begins to eat more normally. She is slowly figuring out things with some grass and grated carrot bless her.

She's got the right ump though 🤣

Made my day, too bless him..I'd been having quite a crappy day until he said he wasn't charging me for it, which was lovely of him considering he was having a hell of a day himself!

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Aw that’s great news, let’s hope the split isn’t too deep and it will grow out normal. It does take them a few hours to figure out but not that long once they have lost that pain x
 
So, Ebony was doing well.. After her tooth trim she ate perfectly for about 2 days, now she's back to only being able to eat grass and very soft pieces of hay. At the very least, the new growth seems to be coming out much healthier which kind of confirms my suspicion she isnt using vitamin C properly and her teeth weren't mineralising correctly (would explain the slow healing of the wound on her foot, which is still scabbed over too)

I'm not entirely sure where we go from here but at least we have identified the problem, the boys go in for their incisors to be burred Wednesday so I may bring her along to have another little bit taken off, see if that gets her back on the hay. She is at least not losing weight and is alert and happy in herself. I might ask whether a short course of much stronger pain relief may be an option while the split grows out 🤷‍♀️ but we will see.

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Aw poor little Ebony, I wonder if it would be a good idea to burr it a bit further up so that crack can’t split up any further up too?
 
Bill & Ted said:
Aw poor little Ebony, I wonder if it would be a good idea to burr it a bit further up so that crack can’t split up any further up too?
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Yes I'd imagine that would be the plan this time, I'm hoping the lower incisors can be left this time as she is using 5jem to pick up food mostly. Unfortunately the crack in the middle seems to go higher than can be removed so this might be an ongoing issue for a little while, but at least we know what's wrong now! And now it's spring, finding grass isn't much of an issue.
 
So, I've decided to postpone Ebonys return to the vet as she has started eating hay again! I think she was just adjusting to her teeth changing shape again as they wore in a sharp edge. I sat her down with some celery earlier and encouraged her to chew on it, she ate the entire lump, strings and all, and then took a dive into some orchard grass and started munching, I suppose sometimes you've got to nudge them towards some confidence that they can do it 😅

I will however be making her her own appointment for a recheck when my vet has the availability, I noticed it isnt actually a split, its an extra piece of tooth/small splinter of new tooth similar to the ones she has growing at the sides of both bottom incisors. I'm not entirely sure what would be done about it to be fair.. I'll see what he thinks when he sees her, but for now while she's eating, I don't want to upset her again by having the tooth shape change again 😅

Shes enjoying all the extra attention and forage she's been getting at least!

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Yes your devotion is amazing! Hope she carries on eating well. Sometimes when a piggies loses an incisor the remaining tooth will expand and become what’s called “fat” but she has all four so not quite sure about hers? Simon Maddock would probably know what’s going on in there
 
Thankyou!

Yes I was wondering about asking for a referral to the Cat and Rabbit clinic for her, especially when she wasn't eating.
I had a friend in Michigan who had 2 pigs do the same, but her vets were unable to figure out why or what do to about it, and being at the sides of the teeth never really caused an issue.

I'm going to see how things go, but its definitely on the table. I'd imagine they would have seen similar with all the teeth they've seen over the years!
 
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