Tear duct flush

[Pokei]

Once again thanks for the advice

 

[Pokei]

Update

Hi everyone,

Pancake seems to be doing well after GA. I've been feeding him LL and CC on top of his pellets and hay to make sure he is ok. Just letting him eat whatever he wants and not forcefeeding him. I do have metacam on hand as well just in case.

Today at the vet he got his head xrays done, and the tear duct flush was not performed because they could not find the duct opening. None of his teeth had spurs. His x-ray did show that the roots of his teeth in his upper jaw are longer than usual; its considered mild but there. It would explain his tearing eye and not eating as much as before. However, the vet doesn't know if he was born like this or it eventually got this way.

Treatment right now is to monitor him and see if it worsens. I'm looking for "rougher" hay to add to the timothy hay to possibly wear his teeth down a little more. Is there anything out there?

Also, a last resort that the vet suggested that they can do is to pull the teeth out (top and corresponding bottom). That sounds extreme....has anyone done that?

 

[saphire]

Oxbow has Oat hay which is rougher to work his teeth. Although you will need to start him of on it slowly because is some chins it can cause softer stools.

 

[Essentia]

Also too much Oat hay (or oats/grains in general) can throw off a chin's calcium due to the phosphorous in the hay.

 

[ticklechin]

I have done selective teeth removal and it does not work-when the upper and lower teeth are removed, the teeth on either side of the missing tooth tip into that space causing pockets where food gets trapped and periodontal disease occurs. The tipped teeth do not make a good chewing surface and the chin still won't eat.


APD's high fiber hay and oat hay are good quality coarse hay's/

 

[Riven]

If he has problems now, but not before then he probably "got" this way. Wearing down the teeth with rougher hay won't do any good if they are not long. The root will continue to grow, and if he's not eating on his own, it's because it hurts to eat.

 

[Pokei]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I've been doing some digging and it seems people who have done the teeth extraction dont' really have too much success with chins. There are a few, but I think they are the exceptions. It just sounds so extreme....and so painful....with tough aftercare....

ticklechin, sorry to hear you and your chin had to go through that. I was thinking something like that would happen. I was told by the vet that bone usually replaces the area where the tooth was extracted. And when they have removed the teeth, the other teeth dont shift. That`s what they experienced. But I wonder how old that chin was....Pancake is just over 2 years and I don`t know if bone would really form that quickly in the jaw....

Riven, I hear ya...I was thinking of non-invasive options to try.

The good part is Pancake is acting like himself. He just destroyed a pumice stone and is giving me attitude

 

[Pokei]

Oh I wanted to add one more thing, has anyone seen a chin hiccup and possibly know why it hapens?

Pancake on occasion gets hiccups after he drinks water. He also thrashes around his tail afterwards. He gets a few in a row then all is good.

After a few hours from visiting the vet Pancake started to have the hiccups. Then it looked like he was heaving and hiccuping (you can hear it before every hiccup). The episodes of hiccups were so frequent that night I was able to get it on video (sorry for the darkness!). I should add that he did not drink water before each episode.



Luckily the frequency of the hiccups lessened and the day after it all disappeared....and no hiccups were heard at all since that night.

 

[Tillygizmo]

I have had a chin have her tear duct flushed and it hellped only for a few days

 

[Pokei]

Oh interesting! Tillygizmo out of curiosity, did your chin also have the root elongation problem? Would that be why the effects didn't last? Or was it something else altogether?