Swollen Jaw...

Sara · Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:40 pm Post subject: Swollen Jaw...

So my Riot man came up this morning with a swollen jaw (lower and only one side) This is second hand as I did not see them this morning before work...the BF is telling me this... Riot was fine last night all full of himself and no injuries to speak of etc... But I guess it's pretty big swollen and according to the BF the swelling is down kind of into his neck (I'm thinking jaw are closer to where the dewlap would be...ya know???) ANYWAY I can't get in to the vet and the horse vet of mine wants me to give it a day, look into his mouth and see what I see... told me that an abcess would smell bad so I'm to look for that... I don't know what else...perhaps cold hosing it to cool and get the swelling down and half and asperine??? Any ideas?

Samsintentions · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 4268 Location: Texas

could have been bitten by a snake. I would keep an ice pack on it if you can for a bit and do a little cold aqua therapy on it. Feel it, if its feverish, or hard you need to get hi in asap. Fever is indicating an infection, and a sudden firm or hard swelling can indicate snake bite, or tumor.
I had a mare one time that over night got big time swelling on her side. Right below her withers. IT was hard, so we couldn't figure out what happened. Come to find out she had ruptured a tumor. After surgery she was fine.

Not trying to scare you or anything, but those are soem things to look out for.

honeybears · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 3627

Ouch. could it be a bee sting?? I would think an absessed tooth would smell too, not sure what you could give him without knowing what is is.

honeybear

Sara · Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:13 pm Post subject:

I'll do my best to palpate the dang thing... According to the BF it's pretty tender and Riot's not so great at that kind of thing... He's got a big mouth and I don't want those teeth in my arm trying to help... Any ideas for an over the counter tranq. thing that I might give him to make it a little easier to see what the heck this thing is???

Never thought about snake bite... We live RIGHT in downtown so I can't imagine that could be what it is...and he's usually in his dog run except for daily supervised play etc... So I'm not sure what to think... He climbs on his dog house so I wonder if he didn't fall off (he's not particularly coordinated by any means...the dog can fall going UP the stairs) or if he was wrastling and knocked his head on the dog house etc... WEIRD... I'll keep you updated... I'm sure an ice pack would be heaven to him...all that attention... Perhaps THAT'S what causes him to be so injury prone... He just got over twisting up his knee...no tear it seems becuase it's back to normal...but he was lame for a LONG time....

Thanks for the thoughts...

Samsintentions · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 4268 Location: Texas

if hes showing agression when your trying to see what it is. I suggest muzzling him or allowing the vet to see it. If its hurting him that bad, he might have falled and broken his jaw. or fractured it. In any case I would see what the vet thinks with a quick check up.

Sara · Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:05 pm Post subject:

Well The swelling is in his lower LIP not jaw... It's not that tender at all I was poking and prodding and squeezing and he just sat there upset that I was touching his lip (he hates having his lips touched anyway)...I hosed it down and found no external wound that I could see at all...no blood no nothing really... It bleeds when he eats but he eats just like always so the injury hasn't slowed him down in that respect at all... It's a little warm and he has ONE degree fever so asperine got that down... What worries me is that there is a "swelling" in his dewlap that seems to be from the drainage of the wound in his lip... It's not hard but like a half empty water balloon or something.... It's also not hot or painfull to Riot...at all...

The lip inside you can see bruising where he hit his head on something...but nothing else is soar and he doesn't seem in pain at all..running around and eating and not upset in the least... I'll see if I can get him on Antibiotics for the rest of the week and if the swelling doesn't subside and I find any other injury...I'll take him in for sure... But it doesn't seem nearly as bad as the BF thought it was...

Samsintentions · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 4268 Location: Texas

I know I freek at any little injury so I know how he feels. He could have jumped down and bit his lip. Smokey did that one time and his tooth went all the way through his lip. He didn't need stitches or anything, but we kept it really clean.

Sara · Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:18 pm Post subject:

UPDATE!!

So BF called and let me know that the swelling is almost gone alltogether and Riot is doing great... Still doing half the Asperine for the rest of the week and watching it...but it seems that the boy just had a fat lip from an altercation with either his girlfriend or their dog house...perhaps both...LOL... They're so agile yet sooooo clumsy all at the same time... How can that be??? LOL

Thanks for the thoughts and information!!!

Jamiya · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 5593

Nala was in a 3-way collision at the dog park last weekend. She ended up bloody, all over her chin and mouth. I managed to catch her and rinse it off in the lake, but I never could see any wound. Maybe she bit her tongue or something?

I know what you mean about them being both clumsy and agile. Nala does agility, but at home she crashes around like a 50-pound brick and once at agility she totally crashed through a solid jump that was made up of wooden slats, LOL.

Sara · Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:41 pm Post subject:

I'm sure what Happened to Nala is what happened to Riot...

When Honijad and her sister got into it Honijade was bleeding profusely from her mouth... She bit herself but there was no sign of the wound to speak of... I know she bit herself because it was my fault...I had my finger in there (bettween her cheek and jaw)...so...that's how I knew that part... I'll prolly Rinse Riot's mouth with Saline for a couple days along with meds... Just to be sure...I'm sure it's nothing...like dog play injuries is all... Askari had the same thing happen only on the top and no secondary swelling... Crashing up the stairs the the most comical thing I see with these guys... They leap down them like they have wings...but going up they might as well be blind and crippled or something...LOL...

seaecho · Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:55 pm Post subject:

Allergic reactions will cause swelling in the lips, face, jaw, etc. Sometimes severely so. Its pretty common, since dogs stick their faces into just about everything. Since the swelling went down so quickly, I'd wager that's what the problem was. Absessed teeth can also do this, so have his teeth checked ASAP by a vet. Absesses will often return.

Sara · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:32 pm Post subject:

The swelling was localized to his lip only and a fever would indicate an abcess... he has no fever now, and his "fever" was by a degree at best and was controlled with half and asperine...likely the "fever" was pain or stress related...stress likely as his pain was minimal... Inside his lip you can visibly see bruising and trauma and a possible puncture that closed up (they close FAST). There is no odor as with an abcess... His gums on both sides even the affected side were not affected by whatever it was that caused the swelling (trauma) and he doesn't have tooth pain. His teeth get checked and brushed by me weekly and I'll also be supplimenting this with a meaty bone a couple times a week for all of them...

Per my vet's instructions I will watch and see monitoring his temp., behavior and the physical swelling. I'm flushing with saline twice a day as well... This swelling was caused by trauma, likely inflicted by the dog house or his girlfriend... They tend to wrestle with much dis-regard to their own safety and based on his symtoms or lack thereof...he is likely not allergic...they are confined to a run and my yard and there is nothing novel in either place that could be causing this reaction in an allergic sense...and the bugs are long gone in hybernation for winter...

He now looks like someone just punched him in the face...just an average fat lip that is going down as time goes by...bruising is still evident no swelling in his dewlap area etc... and the swelled up spot isn't even warm anymore...