As some of you may know, my beloved horse Bertie has had an on going problem with his nose. About 6 - 8 weeks ago and there was some bleeding from the off side (his right hand side) of his nose which caused me initially to take him to the vets.
Here he was scoped (
Endoscope info for those interested ) to look inside. While there was nothing obvious or any bleeding at the time and while the ethmoids (
what is an Ethmoid?) on the off side (his right hand side) looked a little irritated but not bleeding , we decided to just keep an eye on things at home.
The following week, 2 lumps appeared on the offside of his nose so an appointment was made to return to the vet. The morning before the vet we had the dentist out ( purely a coincidence it landed on the same day) who confirmed what I had detected the previous day, a fowl smell coming from the off side of the nose. This is a likely indication of the tooth abscess which the vet also said was a possibility as it that is what it smelt like. What was also a concern is that very little air flow was coming out of that nostril, meaning that he was only breathing though one nostril since horses do not breath with there mouths.
At the vets we decided to take x-rays to give us an indication of what might be going on inside.
Suspect teeth are 107-108 which are directly under where the swelling is on his nose.
If you look at the chart you can see Right Upper Left are the Premolars where 107& 108 are.
At this point antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs were commenced.
Anyway, I will try to get the the point as this is getting rather long.
He was scoped again and the mass had become so large that the camera could not enter very far on the offside. It is here we are beginning to think that there is more going on than just a tooth abscess as the bleeding is very unusual for a tooth abscess.
A biopsy was taken of the smaller mass and sent to pathology.
Here we hoped it would give us some answers. 7 days later the results are inconclusive stating that the tissue was necrotic ( dead) and inflamed.
We decide that we need a specialist as this is getting rather involved and complicated.
Bertie being examined by the specialist dentist
13 days later ( which felt like a life time) we finally get to see the specialist ( which was today!)
.During the consultation 109 is found to be loose as well as 108 while 107 is very abnormal and happened to be the tooth directly under the mass.
Bertie getting x-rays done
More x-rays were taken and he had marked differences in these x-rays from the ones previous, being that the mass is larger and softer than before.
The specialist confirms that he suspects that there is something else going on as well as an abscess and removing the tooth may or may not reduce the mass and a biopsy of the larger mass is required.
Bertie getting 107 tooth extracted
So the tooth is extracted ( and I got to take it home too, Mum almost fainted when she saw it, imagine what might have happened if I had not cleaned it up first!)
And while we had him doped up and in the crush, we decided to take a biopsy of the large mass and would be sent off to pathology today.
Berties face after the biopsy was taken from the large mass.
You can see here the size of the mass.
This was followed with discussions about if the mass is a cyst, or a tumour or ??????.
Long story short, the problem with the teeth is the RESULT of the mass not the cause.
The softening of the mass is due to the bone wall being ruptured and the pressure releasing from the outside inward. Some of the teeth are loose as there is less bone for the teeth to hold into due to the tumor / mass eating away at the bone.
So with great sadness I have to say Berties competition days are over since he cannot breath properly with only one nostril and he is clearly uncomfortable having a big tooth ach and the mass pressing on his orbital nerve .
Biopsy results are due Friday.
Wish us luck, please send money...
-Amber
p.s any one want to see a photo of the tooth???
