Hard lump under jaw post-incisor removal.

Sooz · Nov 23, 2008

History to date:

We've given them every chance to straighten themselves out but now his molar spurs have pushed them further out of alignment, and that coupled with the low grade enamel on his lowers means they are not wearing well at all. As the lowers are so thickened they are wearing so slowly that the uppers have almost vanished and Anita is worried this means that because they cannot grow downwards they will start to grow upwards.....into his skull via root erruptions .

So they are all coming out next week alongside a molar tidy but the chances are that the lowers will probably snap and this increases the chance of regrowth to about 25%, meaning they may have to be done again in future.

went to pick Mack up at 4:30 and due to building work at the surgery had to wait a long time to see Anita ho was consulting when I got there....it was a bit touch and go whether they would release him as he was so very woozy and the general consensus was if he had been anyone elses rabbit they would have kept him in , I have never yet had to have a bun admitted so was very suprised.

Anyway Anita said it was the worst incisor removal she has ever had to do and he was under GA for ages....so much so he was on fluid & heat therapy for a few hours post-op to aid recovery. Three of his four incisors had broken below the gumline before surgery had even started so it was a fiddly and tedious job to remove them, also one of the uppers had started to twist towards his skull so we had decided to operate in time to prevent further problems.

The lowers caused the biggest issue, they crumbled everytime they were touched and kept splintering away. Apparently the rotton enamel ran all the way into the root and Anita has never heard of anything like it in rabbits before (apparently distemper causes a similar condition in dogs though). His peg teeth were taken out but were so awful they will probably grow back again.

So he is on Vetergesic for the next two days (then Metacam for the next three) and abx for a fortnight, I also have Hartmans & Metaclopromide just incase but despite being totally out of it when I got him home with a face twice it's normal size the little chap demolished a bowl of mushed pellets within the hour.

I got home at half five last night and after a cup of tea checked on all the bunsters. When it came to Mack, I picked him up and I could smell something was wrong before I even opened his mouth.....the poor little guy has infection in all his incisor gaps and they are oozing white pus which reeks.

He has had some Metacam and a large dose of abx but because I had to clean the wounds he has now stopped eating too. Anita is away so I have had to book him in with Rob this afternoon. I strongly suspect they are going to have to put him out to clean everything up properly.I can only imagine how awful he must be feeling at the moment with all that in his little mouth....he was healing so well at his check-up.

We're back and it's not as bad as I was expecting. He does have an infection but there was also some necrotic tissue which had developed from him having a damaged blood supply to the area after the operation because it was so invasive, this probably prompted the infection to start.

It hasn't gone too deep into the cavity so with much cajoling, praising and adopting a trance position we managed to get most of it out without the need for sedation....and although Rob's face had a near miss from Mack's foot we are all in one piece!

He is back on Baytril for 14 days but has a check-up next week....if needed he will then be switched onto Ceporex. All in all he actually dosn't seem that bothered by it, so hopefully that's a sign that it isn't all that serious.

Well done if your still with me!

Mack has now been on Baytril for nearly two weeks and should have another week to go. At his last check-up (Tuesday) everything seemed to be healing well. However tonight when giving him his Baytril I have noticed a very hard lump underneath but at the front of his jaw near where his lower incisors were removed (these were the bad ones with the very unusual bone consistancy).

It is very hard and seems hot to the touch, hard to tell if he objects to me touching it particularly because me going anywhere near his mouth elicits a negative reaction after all the syringes of Baytril. He hasn't been as gutsy the last couple of days but is still eating and pooing.

Does this sound like an abcess or the start of a bone callous? I'm not sure when it started to appear as I only noticed it tonight.

I will of course be back in contact with the vets.

ecudc · Nov 23, 2008

woodhouse my foster bun developed a very hard "area" on his jaw which turned out to be an absess. I was checking them quite often after their spays and he got the absess about 3 weeks after his spay. I'd noticed that when stroking him, one side of his jaw seemed larger than the other but there wasn't a lump as such it was more like the whole side of his jaw was raised. I wasn't to concerned at the time as there wasn't much of a difference. The next day we were taking them in to be mixi'd and the vet said......absess and it was even bigger. I think it must have developed over about a week and grew pretty fast.

halfpenny · Nov 23, 2008

Hi Sooz, a similar thing happened with Jess and it turned out to be an abscess. Just after her op she started to get pus coming out of the wounds and was given baytril, and this 'seemed' to clear it up. A couple of weeks later she went off her food and we discovered a lump under her jaw and she was put onto baytril again, but before the end of the week the abscess had burst out under her tongue, the vets operated to remove as much pus as possible. As a last ditch attempt she was put onto betamox and given injections every 2 days, I also decided to try feeding her manuka honey, as she had an open pussy wound in her mouth. The vets gave a very poor prognosis, but she is still here, although she was was on betamox for 7 weeks. To begin with all I could get her to eat was dandilion and spinach, but gradually she regained her appetite.
Basically, it sounds like it might be an abscess, but your vets should be able to tell by putting a syringe into the lump and seeing if they can draw out any pus, if not and the syringe hits something 'hard' it would be more likely to be bone.

Sooz · Nov 23, 2008

I was wondering about the syringing this morning, I would far rather it was opened up and drained now from the outside than left to work it's way into the inside of his mouth where it will be harder the sterilise and clean.

Only the vet I wont see is in surgery today so I will take him in tomorrow when Anita is there. Hopfully if it is an abcess she will agree to putting him straight onto Depocillin.

Hard lump under jaw post-incisor removal.

Sooz

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ecudc

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halfpenny

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Sooz

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