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He hasn't bounced back

katie2000

katie2000

Alpha Buck
I recently took on a dental rescue bun and he had his first dental with me on saturday. The vet kept him in overnight on saturday night and I got him back yesterday. He still isn't back to his normal self :( he is very hungry and trying to eat hay and grass but it just slides in and out of his mouth and he is unable to chew it and he eventually drops it out soaking wet. I have been feeding him mushed up pellets and some soft veg because that is all he can chew but its like a vicious circle because the more pellets I feed him the longer its going to take him to eat on his own. Oh and I gave him some pain relief yesterday but hasn't made any difference, he is still unable to eat. Any advice?

The dental work he had done was molar burring and the spurs hadn’t caused any damage to the tongue or cheek so his mouth in theory shouldn’t be too sore. I have never known this before, I have always had buns eating on the same day!
 
How much pain relief did you give him and what sort? It sounds like he needs a higher dose. I'd ring the vets to ask max dose for his weight of metacam. Shouldn't be given on an empty stomach - will he eat critical care? It's nice and mushy and the vet should sell sachets if you don't have any in.
 
Did he have skull radiographs taken ?
Aswell as dealing with the crowns of the teeth its useful to know what's going on with the roots. Post Dental pain is likely to be more protracted if tooth root elongation is involved.

If he has a severe malocclusion it may be that he cant eat much hay as opposed to he 'wont' eat it. It is not unusual for Buns with more severe Dental problems (involving root elongation) to take a good week to be able to eat anything but softened food.
 
following the dental the vet should've given you a weeks dose of medicine to deal with the infections in the mouth which will feel sore for a while:)
 
I would go back to the vet and ask for:

a re-check that all the spurs were taken down as it sounds to me as though they may still be bothering him
also ask for some pain medication
also ask about possible problems with jaw muscles aching so much he cannot use them (happened to one of mine once)

The jaw clamps they use are pretty big and can cause a sort of muscle spasm that takes a while to resolve.

In the meantime syringe feed him as much as he wants to take in to avoid stasis,

good luck (and see vets as an emergency)
 
Thanks to everyone for your replies :)

I took Pipkin back to the vets last night and I have some metacam for him which has seemed to help. He is still happier eating his mushy pellets so I will continue with that for now but I did see him eating a piece of hay (very slowly!) this morning so really pleased about that.

He didn't have any skull radiographs taken and I don't really know much about tooth root elongation :? Is this something I should consider getting done in the future? The vet said his teeth didn't look too bad apart from being a bit long but I don't really know how much she can tell just from looking
 
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