What does this mean? Is this gagging/choking?

[Nef]

A little background: my girl had a very tiny spur on her teeth on her upper left cheek and two weeks ago the vet removed the spur. There was no trauma on the surgery. The spur was so tiny that the vet didn't think that was the problem causing her to lose so much weight so she drew blood but came back normal. So we think it really was the tiny spur that bothered her and caused her not to eat. She returned to her normal activity the day of the surgery. She has been able to eat on her own and has slowly gained weight ever since.

A couple of days ago, I let her out for a playtime to enjoy her new wooden furniture (kinda like a cart). She was playing fine until she jumped away from me and landed on the cart (probably thinking that was a solid top? There is sasal rope around the top area so it kind of looks like a top). She jumped right to the ground after landing on the cart. She landed both times on her feet but I'm not sure if the corners of the cart hurt her somewhere. After that, she jumped up to my knee showing her discomfort in the mouth/jaw. Then she continued to play.

I gave her some rose hips after playtime and she had this gagging/choking motion shown in the video below. Yesterday when I gave her honey suckle she had that motion again and that was when I filmed the video. She doesn't have this gagging motion when she eats her pellets. It's only when she eats very small rose hips and honey suckle, and sometimes hay, she would have that.

Has anyone seen this? What does that mean and is this something I need to be concerned about and take her to the vet ASAP? :cry3: I don't think it's related to her surgery 2 weeks ago but just putting the history out there in case someone thinks it may be the cause. Maybe she landed wrong and hurt her jaw? She is eating and pooping and would let me touch her jaw and body. Occasionally though, she would make a sound when I touch her jaw too much.

Any advice and opinion is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Video: http://youtu.be/L9o0GrRW4Zg

 

[obcsed]

That is a pain response. Something is painful in her mouth. Could be they missed something the last time she was worked on. Did they do X-rays?

 

[Nef]

That is a pain response. Something is painful in her mouth. Could be they missed something the last time she was worked on. Did they do X-rays?

Thanks for the reply. No they didn't do X-rays. They said her teeth is actually very good and all the places that could go wrong look very normal, so they didn't feel the need to do X-rays and that the chances of her teeth growing upward to the sockets are very slim. That's also why they drew blood because her teeth look okay other than the tiny spur.

She didn't have this motion after the surgery at all. She was eating and playing fine like she normally does. It was until after playtime a couple of days ago she has that.

 

[Saffron]

Looks similar to what one of our chins did after she fell, hitting her lower jaw as she landed. We took her to the vet as it was obvious she was in pain when she chewed. We had x-rays done and luckily they showed no breaks or fractures. Vet diagnosed soft tissue injury and gave us metacam for her. She wasn't eating as much as normal so we supplemented with Critical Care for about 10 days.
If this was my chin I would take her to the vet for x-rays.

 

[Nef]

Looks similar to what one of our chins did after she fell, hitting her lower jaw as she landed. We took her to the vet as it was obvious she was in pain when she chewed. We had x-rays done and luckily they showed no breaks or fractures. Vet diagnosed soft tissue injury and gave us metacam for her. She wasn't eating as much as normal so we supplemented with Critical Care for about 10 days.
If this was my chin I would take her to the vet for x-rays.

Thanks for your comment and I'm glad your chin was okay! Did she let you touch her jaw after she fell? Mine still lets me touch her and so far she's eating fine and weight is okay. I'm just thinking if there was a fracture, will she act this way? Not that I don't want to take her to do X-rays, but she went through a surgery a couple of weeks ago for the spur filing so I don't want to knock her out again unless it's really obvious and necessary. I have metacam so maybe I'll give her some if she continues that motion. Didn't see that today when she was chewing down her pellets.

 

[chins4life089]

u should go to the vet any way just to see if anything is wrong

 

[Saffron]

She let us lightly rub her jaw without any indications it hurt, but more pressure and she would jerk and kack. She also wouldn't chew her sticks (which she usually attacked as if she were starving) and hard treats like rosehips or hibiscus she would take, put to her mouth and then drop. While she continued to eat hay & orchard grass she ate very few pellets. She would eat one maybe two, pick another up and then drop it. We weighed her everyday and as soon as she showed a drop in weight I started feeding her the CC.

 

[Nef]

Got it, thanks!

Does anyone know if there is indeed fracture or break on the jaw, it will be much more obvious? Just trying to see if chins can actually hide that level of pain or if I can rule out fracture.

 

[obcsed]

The only way to rule out a fracture is an X-ray period!

 

[Nef]

Okay, thanks.

 

[Nef]

Quick update for anyone that has a similar experience in the future -

I've talked to the vet and they said since she's still eating, let's give her metacam (4 units, twice a day) and see how she does. If she doesn't improve, we'll bring her in for x-rays.