[Gpdd] Health: Sonny's teeth or lack thereof

[Lisa Choiniere]

Hi everyone,
 
Thank you all so much for your heartfelt words about the loss of my Murr-burr and all the personal responses as well. I will thank you all individually once I can put more than two sentences together about him without bursting into tears. He is sorely missed...
 
Sonny is one of my retirees. He is the one that had only one top incisor. I say "had" because now he has no top incisors. I took him to the vet to get his bottom teeth trimmed since he was being such a stinker-butt and wouldn't let me do it, and I noticed that top tooth was loose. So I thought this is a problem, we gotta go in since he is being a stinker-butt anyway.
 
So we go in, he was a perfect angel for the vet to trim his bottom incisors! LOL But the doc put an otoscope with a long attachment on it in his mouth (yes an odd use for an otoscope but it worked) to check his molars. Well, lo and behold, his molars were all ground down to these funny points that met in the middle and pinned his tongue down!! I had no idea! SO the doc took him off, anesthetized him real quick trimmed him up and that was when the upper incisor flopped right out.
 
So here we have Sonny-stinker-butt with no top teeth in front... Has anyone ever had a toothless pig before? He is eating, but it takes a lot of effort on his part just figuring out how to get it in his mouth. Greens and stuff are pretty easy for him so I give him lots of those. I was crushing his pellets into a meal for awhile and now he ignores that and goes for the others. 
 
I give him a liquid Vit. C supplement which he adores! He comes running when he sees the syringe and he makes slurpy noises! It is so funny! I just got a gram scale and plan to start weighing him weekly. When he was at the vet 2 weeks ago he was 820. Today, he is 815. That is pretty sad for a full grown boar especially since I know he was quite a bit more, ummm, plump, shall we say? a few months back.
 
So if anyone has had a toothless pig, let me know what you do to pack the weight on. He does not particularly like to be syringe fed food and we wear more than he eats. I sprinkle CC on his veggies. I also switched him to orchard grass as it is a little softer than timothy hay, although maybe he needs the timothy to keep his molars in check. I don't know! Help!
 
OK, so I guess I need teeth advice. Never have I had problems with piggy teeth until my Murr-burr and now Sonny-stinker-butt. Although I am super careful about it now! I am constantly checking everyone's teeth! Drives them crazy, but makes me feel better anyway.
 
And also, the good news is I think Sonny's secret tryst with Tabby, of which I found the mucus plug evidence in Tabby, has come to naught! It has been six weeks and there are no signs of pregnancy and I am SO HAPPY! She is too old for that sort of thing and I am getting too many gray hairs! The Fort-Knox-like fortifications on their divider are holding up well and there have been no breaches in security. 
 
Let me know what you think about Sonny...
 
Thanks!
Lisa and the gang at Wheeks and Squeaks
Murray, Mr. Zippy, and Jack in mem
 
 

		
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