[Gpdd] HEALTH: Piggie Dental Problems

[Candy G.]

Greetings, Digesters -
Because of Topper's last problems before he went to the Bridge, I have read with 
great interest all of the posts on today's digest (Vol. 7, #91, 03/19/08) regarding 
dental problems - particularly overgrowth, filing, and anesthesia vs. non-anesthesia.  
I am reminded again, as I am so often when reading posts, of what knowlegeable 
and caring people we have here in the digest and how grateful I have been through 
the years for your advice and support.  Best bunch of folks in the world!!!!!
I'd like to add my two cents about piggie dental problems.
Topper never had any kind of dental problems in his 6 1/2 years until the final few 
months.  He developed an overgrowth of his molars (I called them his "cheeky teeth" 
because they misbehaved and overgrew!).  I was quite puzzled by this because it 
seemed to me it would have started much earlier if he were going to have that kind 
of trouble.  He was still eating the same diet and the same amount - no changes.
My vet (also an avian expert as someone else mentioned theirs was) did prefer to 
use anesthesia.  I told her that I had heard in the digest of teeth being filed or 
"clipped" without anesthesia.  She said that it is done, but she prefers anesthesia 
for two reasons: [1.] Sometimes the tooth being clipped can be fractured by the 
clipping if it is weak or diseased or if a clean quick movement isn't made just right 
and that causes further damage to the tooth and to the piggie; [2.] Many times, 
there are underlying dental problems that are unknown at the time, and the filing 
or clipping without anesthesia ends up being very painful for the piggie.  So, she 
said that she has nothing against doing it other ways but had just come to prefer 
in her practice to use anesthesia.  She has done exceptional work with my piggies 
all these years and I trust her implicitly so we went with the anesthesia (which 
Topper did great with and was doing fine within about 20 minutes after she finished).  
 
She mentioned that while she was filing, Topper's jaw trembled a bit.  She checked 
the anesthesia and continued, but his jaw-tremor continued.  She finished quickly 
(about 20 minutes total start-to-finish of everything), came out and told me what 
was going on, and that she would like to do more xrays to see if there was something 
going on that she had not previously spotted.
When we looked at the xrays, it was very clear that Topper had more serious 
problems than suspected.  Many (if not most) of you may already know this, but 
I had never heard of it.  Piggie (and rabbit) teeth continuously grow and that is 
why they need food and hay, etc., that keep them ground down - we all already 
knew this.  BUT - they can not only grow out into the mouth as they are supposed 
to, they can grow the opposite direction as well -  IN towards the upper and lower 
jawbones.  Topper's molars were also growing on the "root" end into his jawbones.
Our vet said that it is not as uncommon as one would suspect, but that - while it 
seems to be much less problematic in rabbits (if there is discomfort, Metacam, etc. 
takes care of it) - in piggies, for unknown reasons, it can be very painful.  If there 
is infection and the tooth (or teeth) is loose, it can sometimes be extracted and 
that solves the problem.  However, if there is no infection and the teeth are still in 
tightly and strong, then trying to pull the big grinding molars can fracture the 
piggie's fragile jawbone because the larger teeth are so firmly seated into the bone.  
This, unfortunately, was poor Topper's situation.  His teeth were still very firm with 
no infection and there was a good probability of doing serious and further damage 
with extractions.
He was very obviously still in extreme pain, could not chew, no medications 
relieved him, and - even with syringe feedings and a million other things we tried, 
he was slowly starving to death.  We couldn't see him and know what pain he was 
in and just keep him suffering, so we helped him to the Bridge.  [[And our hearts 
are still smashed all to pieces.]]  We were still very puzzled, though, as to how this 
situation could develop, become serious, and then move to being life-threatening 
in such a few months.  The ONLY symptom that he showed (leading up to when the 
problem became severe enough that it was obvious) was that I noticed ever-so-often 
that his left eye would be just a tiny bit crusty.  [These little rascals are so good - 
TOO good - at masking symptoms of pain and illness. <sigh>]  We decided to have 
a necropsy (autopsy) done on Topper.
Much to everyone's shock - because it did not show up on ANY of the xrays - it 
turned out that Topper had developed severe arthritis in his jaws and they had 
gradually become locked almost completely in place so that he could not open 
his mouth to really take in a lot of food or grind his teeth to chew.  This was what 
was causing the trembling in surgery - even having his jaw opened a little bit hurt 
(even through the anesthesia) due to the arthritis.  Our vet is now in the process 
of communicating with other exotics vets to try to figure out a way to xray the jaw 
area that would show arthritis damage to see if this could be caught quicker for 
other piggies in the future.
I don't know if that would have helped the Topmeister.  He had old-age arthritis 
and was already on Metacam, so his jaw problem developed and got worse even 
with arthritis drugs on board.  But, hopefully, this information will help somebody 
else who is trying to figure out why the dental problems aren't seeming to be 
corrected by the dental work that the vet is doing - work that should be correcting 
the problems.  Topper was in such good health other than his ongoing arthritis 
which we were treating successfully (we thought).  He was still frisky and full of 
life and moving around freely and well and, up until the dental problems developed, 
his weight was steady and his appetite was great.  We (including the vet) thought 
that we'd just get his teeth filed down and he would be good as new within a day 
or two.  It was agonizing to see him just keep going down and not know why.
BOTTOM LINE:  Teeth can grow at the "root end" as well.  When these ends start 
growing into the jaw bone, and especially growing upwards into the sinus cavities, 
the piggie might have a runny nose and/or a crusty eye on that side (or both sides 
if the problem is bilateral).  This dental problem is more serious in piggies because 
they have more pain associated with it but, most of the time, it can be controlled 
with Metacam or other meds.  It can usually be seen on xray if the piggie's head is 
in the right position.  ALSO: Arthritis can develop in the mandible/jaw and lock the 
joints so that the piggie can't get adequate food into the mouth and cannot use  
the chewing/grinding motions that keep the teeth at a proper length and allow for 
adequate nutrition.
I hope not a single other piggie ever has to go through this, but I fear that will not 
be the case.  I just wanted to tell it in detail so that if there are any of you who are 
seeing these symptoms and, like me, didn't know about any of this then maybe you 
would have some information to ask your vets about if your piggie is having puzzling 
dental problems that do not seem to be getting better with treatment.
Love to all peoples and piggies, and strength and gentle healing to those who are ill, 
in pain, or in sorrow.
Candy and the Notorious Cat X(With Topper and Mollie always in our hearts)