The last three weeks have not been the greatest time for me! With Simon Maddock away on his Easter holidays, I have been nursing my Nesta with what I suspected was a developing dental abscess for two weeks by topping her up with syringe feed and metacam and by keeping my fingers very firmly crossed that we could hold on until his return!
Angharad's unexpected death on Palm Sunday halfway through this period has not helped, of course. The last 2-3 days at the beginning of the his week were the hardest when Nesta started to deteriorate and increasingly struggled with chewing and swallowing as her premolars started overgrowing.
Nesta back from the doctors and sporting a nice shaved area with a big hole under her chin!
Anyway, Nesta has finally had her dental operation yesterday; it was indeed an abscess under one of her bottom incisors which by then had just started to blow up. Because of the wait, the issue at the front had also started to impact the back teeth as Nesta has been chewing unevenly because of her wobbly tooth and the pain in it. We had to leave her overnight for the op, which has meant two trips to Northampton for me in the last couple of days.
It has been a somewhat bigger operation than planned as Nesta's affected incisor needed to be removed and her teeth require burring from the mouth while her abscess has been lanced and stitched open for regular flushing with saline solution (or any other mild disinfectant) from below. While she is nibbling on preferably soft foods as long as her jaw is feeling so sore, she still needs syringe food support at the moment.
Her removed incisor. They curve along the jawbone under the gap between the molars and the front of the mouth, so they go in fact a long way back!
The x-ray picture is attributed to Guinea Pigs Today.
Not one of my favourite jobs, unfortunately, especially after the experience with Hywel last year where his abscess healed shut very quickly and my local vets were helpless in Simon's abscence, which meant that the abscess had to dig deeper into the jawbone before Simon could reopen it.
Wish me luck that all goes well with Nesta and that her abscess remains a one-off!
PS: On top of that, my oldest piggy Calli, developed an eye ulcer on Wednesday. It is thankfully only an abrasion of the surface from a bit of hay with some seed capsules attached that had got stuck under lid, so with prompt treatment the infection has thankfully not spread deeper into the eye and it is starting to heal now. That is another 6 treatments a day (antibiotic gel plus lubricating visco tears to be given separately) with a very skittish old lady who has a habit of dashing blindly into the hay...
No rest for the wicked here!
Angharad's unexpected death on Palm Sunday halfway through this period has not helped, of course. The last 2-3 days at the beginning of the his week were the hardest when Nesta started to deteriorate and increasingly struggled with chewing and swallowing as her premolars started overgrowing.
Nesta back from the doctors and sporting a nice shaved area with a big hole under her chin!
Anyway, Nesta has finally had her dental operation yesterday; it was indeed an abscess under one of her bottom incisors which by then had just started to blow up. Because of the wait, the issue at the front had also started to impact the back teeth as Nesta has been chewing unevenly because of her wobbly tooth and the pain in it. We had to leave her overnight for the op, which has meant two trips to Northampton for me in the last couple of days.
It has been a somewhat bigger operation than planned as Nesta's affected incisor needed to be removed and her teeth require burring from the mouth while her abscess has been lanced and stitched open for regular flushing with saline solution (or any other mild disinfectant) from below. While she is nibbling on preferably soft foods as long as her jaw is feeling so sore, she still needs syringe food support at the moment.
Her removed incisor. They curve along the jawbone under the gap between the molars and the front of the mouth, so they go in fact a long way back!
The x-ray picture is attributed to Guinea Pigs Today.
Not one of my favourite jobs, unfortunately, especially after the experience with Hywel last year where his abscess healed shut very quickly and my local vets were helpless in Simon's abscence, which meant that the abscess had to dig deeper into the jawbone before Simon could reopen it.
Wish me luck that all goes well with Nesta and that her abscess remains a one-off!
PS: On top of that, my oldest piggy Calli, developed an eye ulcer on Wednesday. It is thankfully only an abrasion of the surface from a bit of hay with some seed capsules attached that had got stuck under lid, so with prompt treatment the infection has thankfully not spread deeper into the eye and it is starting to heal now. That is another 6 treatments a day (antibiotic gel plus lubricating visco tears to be given separately) with a very skittish old lady who has a habit of dashing blindly into the hay...
No rest for the wicked here!
Sending healing vibes for Nesta and Calli.
for an uneventful recovery for everyone.
I hope you well see brighter days! Praying for you and your little girls!
