susanne
dB
I mentioned this briefly on another post, but I'd like to see if anyone else has experienced this.
My 3-year-old mare, Scarlet Ribbons, has had a nasty knot on top of her face roughly halfway between eye and muzzes. There was obviously an abscess, but the real question was what was causing this.
The first vet totally dismissed my suggestion/question that it might be a tooth/tooth bump problem -- as if I had suggested the tooth fairy was trapped inside Scarlet's mouth. She did no real exam, didn't even open her mouth, and diagnosed a wasp sting or insect bite and prescribed treatment accordingly.
We used hot compresses to draw out the abscess and treated it with betadine when it burst (drainage was clear). The bump then began to diminish, so I assumed she was right after all.
Then the swelling came up again, this time more of a hard, bony mass with a bit of pus. This was obviously not any insect bite or sting, so we called a different vet out to check her out.
The minute the vet saw Scarlet, she said she tended to agree with me, but examined her mouth, felt around, smelled her nostrils (to check if it was affecting her sinuses) and then took x-rays. The x-rays showed a dark area around the roots of that tooth.
Her diagnosis was that, due to a crowded jaw, the tooth came in crooked and caused an infection around the roots. She recommended extracting that tooth and prescribed antiobiotic for now. She said that the infection was trapped in the jawbone, for good and for bad. The position and the antibiotics would prevent the infection from spreading, but at the same time the antibiotics cannot knock out the infection entirely. She said that it was not a rush to do the extraction, but it needs to be done.
However, after several days of the antibiotics, the swelling (including the hard mass that the vet thought would be permanent) is almost flat...which really makes me wonder.
Needless to say, this is a serious procedure, so I want to make certain it truly is necessary before I put her through this.
Has anyone else had something like this? Is there anything else that should be considered? I have a call in to the vet about the mass going down and see what she says, but...
...have any of you experienced anything like this? How was it treated? Any interesting diagnoses?
Apologies for the long-winded post -- just want to give the particulars.
Thanks in advance!
My 3-year-old mare, Scarlet Ribbons, has had a nasty knot on top of her face roughly halfway between eye and muzzes. There was obviously an abscess, but the real question was what was causing this.
The first vet totally dismissed my suggestion/question that it might be a tooth/tooth bump problem -- as if I had suggested the tooth fairy was trapped inside Scarlet's mouth. She did no real exam, didn't even open her mouth, and diagnosed a wasp sting or insect bite and prescribed treatment accordingly.
We used hot compresses to draw out the abscess and treated it with betadine when it burst (drainage was clear). The bump then began to diminish, so I assumed she was right after all.
Then the swelling came up again, this time more of a hard, bony mass with a bit of pus. This was obviously not any insect bite or sting, so we called a different vet out to check her out.
The minute the vet saw Scarlet, she said she tended to agree with me, but examined her mouth, felt around, smelled her nostrils (to check if it was affecting her sinuses) and then took x-rays. The x-rays showed a dark area around the roots of that tooth.
Her diagnosis was that, due to a crowded jaw, the tooth came in crooked and caused an infection around the roots. She recommended extracting that tooth and prescribed antiobiotic for now. She said that the infection was trapped in the jawbone, for good and for bad. The position and the antibiotics would prevent the infection from spreading, but at the same time the antibiotics cannot knock out the infection entirely. She said that it was not a rush to do the extraction, but it needs to be done.
However, after several days of the antibiotics, the swelling (including the hard mass that the vet thought would be permanent) is almost flat...which really makes me wonder.
Needless to say, this is a serious procedure, so I want to make certain it truly is necessary before I put her through this.
Has anyone else had something like this? Is there anything else that should be considered? I have a call in to the vet about the mass going down and see what she says, but...
...have any of you experienced anything like this? How was it treated? Any interesting diagnoses?
Apologies for the long-winded post -- just want to give the particulars.
Thanks in advance!
