It was shortly after shearing when I noticed that one of my females had a lump on her jaw. To tell you the truth I thought she was hording her grain in her cheek like a chipmunk. It was my husband who advised that it was a lump.
We watched the lump for the next few days and since it was not reducing in size we decided to take Kaitlyn to the vet. The vet took 3 x-rays and could not see any problems. Since Kaitlyn is pregnant the vet advised that she did not want to remove any teeth since that would mean using anesthesia.
We took Kaitlyn home with the advice to watch out for an abscess under the jaw in what would look like a pimple popping.
Weeks went by and the lump on Kaitlyn grew in size. Her face was abnormally swollen making her look awkward. Kaitlyn looked liked she had a golf ball in her cheek. However, we didn’t get too concerned since her appetite remained the same.
One day I gave Kaitlyn her bowl of grain and when I went to remove it I noticed there was a white cream on it. I could not figure it out until I went to Kaitlyn to give her the rest of the grain. That is when I noticed the abscess.
I called Tom over to help me examine. Tom held Kaitlyn as I cleaned the abscess and began draining the puss. I felt terrible pressing on the abscess as I imagine it must have been painful for her, but the puss needed to come out. After draining I then applied the pink zinc antiseptic to keep infection out and the flies off the wound.
The next day we called the vet who prescribed TMG antibiotics 2x daily for a week. We were to continue draining the puss 2x daily as well. Since the antibiotics came in a pill we smashed it into pieces and added water to dissolve. In order to make it taste a bit better we added a few drops of Karo syrup.
Kaitlyn was very good about the whole process. She allowed me to drain and clean her up with minimal stress.
It probably took about 2 weeks for the puss to finally drain completely. The swelling has gone done considerately, but is still there. Kaitlyn still has a scab where the abscess began, but it definitely is not infected.
After all this we still aren’t even sure if she will heal completely. The x-rays didn’t show what the problem was, so we are hoping that she had eaten something that poked her to create the abcess. Worse case scenario is that if Kaitlyn swells up again the tooth will have to be removed.
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