From:
Mike Janke
Date: 2001-05-25 07:47:00 UTC
Subject: Re: broken tooth
She may not appear in pain, but I imagine that an exposed nerve has
got to be really painful.
There are dangers in removing a canine, but sometimes it just has to
be done. My Penny had her upper right one pulled over a year ago and
she's doing just fine, even though she does tend to do an Elvis
impression with her lip once in a while.
Her problem was a swelling that repeatedly appeared in front of her
right eye, above the chipped canine (only the tip was broken off).
The first time, it wasn't bad and went down after antibiotics and a
fine needle aspirate that allowed it to drain a bit. A month later,
it came back with a vengence and from the time I first noticed a
slight swelling when I got home in the evening until the next morning
when I could get her to the vet, it had swollen so much that it split
open. Another round of antibiotics and a biopsy (inconclusive). One
thing that was noticed was that the gum around the canine bleed very
easily. It went away again, only to reappear a month or so later.
This time I had antibiotics on hand and started her on it as soon as
I noticed a swelling and nipped it in the bud, but my vet and I felt
it was probably the tooth, even though complete skull and dental x-
rays showed absolutely nothing. Since she's had that canine removed,
she has had no reoccurences of the swelling.
I believe the main concern with pulling an upper canine is that a
fistula can develop. Basically, due to the depth at which the root
of the canine goes into the upper jaw, a hole could develop into the
nasal cavity. Obviously not a good thing. This was a concern with
Penny, but I didn't see any choice. She couldn't go through these
repeated infections.
Mike
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., Steve Austin <kazpat1@j...> wrote:
>
> I feel bad, one of my ferrets had an accident and the upper canine
tooth
> is broken right at the gum line, so I am sure the root is
> exposed. She is in no pain, and just licking the area, when I saw
the
> tooth broken, it was hanging on by a "thread" so I pulled it
> off so that I don't have to worry about her choking on it. There
is no
> bleeding, and the gum looks bruised and a little torn.
>
> I know Dr. Williams has mentioned the complications involved in
removing
> the canine teeth.