X-ray and picture help please

[stren003]

I have a 5 year old girl who stopped eating hay and started losing weight 2.5 months ago. She lost about 50-60 grams so we went to the vet for an evaluation. My regular vet was going out of town, so I went to an unfamiliar vet who sedated my girl and took a peek. I thought that they would do x-rays and filings then if needed, but that was not the case. They thought they saw a large spur on the bottom molar and said they would set her up for a new appt. Long story short, the estimate was very high and they started talking about doing things to her that didn't seem right, so I trusted my gut and off to a different, well known vet we went. On Monday she had her x-rays and filing. The new vet has done over 100 chin dentals, which I know is not a ton, but he did seem very knowledgeable about the procedure and the correct chin meds for pain and gut. After the procedure, he said he only saw the very tiniest spur and couldn't figure out what the other vet saw. He said her roots look fine and there was no abrasions or sores in her mouth. He is not sure why she stopped eating hay and dropped weight. She nibbled on hay immediately after waking up and we brought her home with metacam .1 every 24 hours and reglan .2 twice a day. I have been hand feeding since before the procedure (CC, Lifeline and EFL) so she is getting a minimum of 72 mls per day and she eats it fine. She also gets 3-4 dropper full of simethicone per day and plenty of playtime. The concerning thing is, she still is hardly eating anything on her own, even though the vet did very little and she does seem more tired than usual in her cage, but runs like a maniac during playtime. Poos are fine as long as we do the handfeeds. Because of all the mis-diagnosed teeth issues I have read about here, I am hoping that the experts here can chime in and see if they see things that the vet did not. I would really appreciate any thoughts or help.
Thanks!!!!

 

[ticklechin]

I can't see the images!

 

[stren003]

Can anyone see the x-rays now? I am not sure why the jpeg attachments do not show up?

 

[ticklechin]

I took a look at the emailed images and this girl has some great looking teeth and roots, I also see nothing in the mouth visually that would cause a issue. Has the chin had a full body x-ray? If not, if this was my chin I would go for that and the blood work next. There are things that can go on in the mouth that one can't see, but since there has been no drool, I would move away from teeth issues at this point.

 

[stren003]

:update:

Still having issues with my girl not eating much. She eats about 2-3 grams of pellets in 24 hours and only a few nibbles of hay. She will eat Fuzzies herbal mix and some sticks, so as Dawn said, I am starting to think it is not a tooth issue but something else. I have tried cutting back to 48 mls of EFL/CC/LL and she lost 10 grams overnight. Still pooing with the reglan and still energetic at playtime, but sleepy/ quiet in her cage. She has started chewing on her left front paw on the top of the wrist for no apparent reason but she still uses the paw and puts weight on it. I have very closely examined it and I see nothing wrong with it, so I applied some blukote for the small abrasion she made from chewing it. We are headed back to the vet on Tuesday, but I am absolutely stumped as to what the issue could be.

On another note, I want to thank Dawn (ticklechin) publicly for being extremely helpful and willing to look at my x-rays and pictures by email while the forum is having trouble with picture viewing. Her knowledge and experience has been priceless and I want her to know just how appreciated she is!!!!! :thanks2:

Shannon

 

[stren003]

Update

:update:

So, my girl continues to not want to eat pellets or hay and it has been a week now since her filing. The vet could hardly find anything wrong with her teeth maybe 1-2 very small spurs. He was suprised that she had not been eating. She can eat because she has consumed 2-3 grams of pellets in 24 hours a few times, and if I hand her pieces of hay, she can eat those too. She also eats fuzzie's herb mix. I tried decreasing the amount of EFL/CC/LL down to 60 mls and she lost 10 grams. Her poos are fine as long as we do the hand feed and reglan .2 twice a day, but when I decreased the hand feed and tried reglan once a day, the poos became smaller and less frequent. They are not squishy or mucousy and have no smell. She is very active during playtime, running and jumping all around, but very quiet and sleepy while in her cage. She eats the hand feed eagerly and consumes 24-30 mls per feeding reaching for the syringe like she is starving. I have tried a brand new bag of pellets, six different types of hay, fuzzies kingdom herb supplements, 30 million probiotics as well as Lifeline, a bit of canned pumpkin in the hand feed and simethicone 1-1.5 ml three to four times a day. We are going back to the vet tomorrow, but I am stumped as to why she has no appetite. Last night she ate zero pellets and little to no hay. She does not seem overly bloated and has no stretching or tummy pressing. I stopped giving her metacam .1 once daily two days ago, because she does not seem to be in pain and I was worried about stomach issues from using it more than a week. Should I start that back up again? We will be getting blood work done tomorrow I think. Can anyone give me any other ideas to talk to the vet about, or any other thing I should try? I know that this can take days, weeks or months to get over, but we still have no idea why she stopped eating hay and lost weight initially.

Also, I want to publicly thank Dawn (ticklechin) for all her help and being willing to look at my pictures and x-rays through email while the forum is having it's picture viewing issue. Her experience and expertise is much appreciated and her willingness to help has been priceless to me! So Dawn,
:thanks2:

Shannon

p.s. I have really neat actual color pictures of my girl's mouth and teeth that the vet gave me. I hope to be able to post them here soon for everyone to see as I think they are very informative for people wondering what the actual molars of a chin looks like!

 

[ticklechin]

Eagerly eating from the syringe tells me she is hungry, usually chins with GI issues have no appetite and have to be made to eat, it does point back to something going on in the mouth, enough to bother her when eating hard food, the blood work should show us if she has some type of infection either in the gut or mouth, or it will rule that out. Ask the vet if a vit b12 injection or oral chewable tablet would be a good for a appetite stimulant. Frankly there are some dental chins that you never get a diagnosis, you hand feed for a few months then they start eating again-this happens sometimes when there is a horizontal fracture in a tooth under the gum, the tooth grows up and the broken part falls out. A fracture under the gum is impossible to see on a x-ray.

You are welcome, us chin parents have to stick together because no one else understands how frustrating some things can be!