Diastema and sinus infections ...long sorry

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Louby

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Has anyone successfully treated a sinus infection in a horse with diastema?
My boy had his 3rd cheek molar out as a 4 yr old under GA, knocked out via a bone flap as the tooth fractured fully whilst trying to remove it under sedation. This led to years of ongoing sinus infections, trephines, over £5.5k in vets fees so now excluded.

Fast forward 10 years....
Qualified dentist came and mentioned 2 further fractures, which he thought were fractured on the surface only but 2 weeks later pus came out of the old trephine hole? It was fine for a month then I found the bone flap area swollen and very painful so vet gave him 2 weeks ABS, danilon and examination showed his teeth had moved narrowing the gap, food was removed from the gap, one tooth was on an angle.

ABs were finished 3 days ago but today this same area is looking slightly bigger again. He didnt eat as much last night which could be they were in all day but ate loads whilst on the danilon so Im thinking he must be sore :( Im hoping its just settling but Im fearing the worse and will call the vet tomorrow if its still swollen.

I am not putting him through another GA and Im loathed to go down the trephine route again as he was so miserable last time. Vet warned me of the guarded prognosis which I know too well from last time this happened. I had been flushing his mouth out in an attempt to free any trapped food as looking back he did have 'hamster cheeks' at times during the summer but I never twigged then what it was as they'd be there one day and not the next.

Vet thinks its either infection caused from food being trapped or the dentist has disturbed something and is suggesting xrays, then trephine.

Has anyone had success treating with long term ABS as my poor horse doesnt deserve more trephines etc.

Thanks for reading.
 
I would also recommend chris. My horse had sinusitis this year (had bone flap op), also tooth removal. Chris removed the tooth and root through the cheek under standing sedation, amazingly only needed 1 stitch to close the hole!

He's doing clinics at vet practices all over the country, so well worth getting in touch with him to see when he's next in your area?
 
Sneedy said:
I would also recommend chris. My horse had sinusitis this year (had bone flap op), also tooth removal. Chris removed the tooth and root through the cheek under standing sedation, amazingly only needed 1 stitch to close the hole!

He's doing clinics at vet practices all over the country, so well worth getting in touch with him to see when he's next in your area?
Click to expand...

Which tooth was that Sneedy? Waiting for him to see one of mine, next month hopefully.
 
Thanks for that, I will definately contact them tomorrow and see if they are doing any clinics a bit more local. Im going to ring my vet tomorrow too as need to do something now.
Thats amazing how your horses tooth was removed like that. My horse had hundreds of staples in his bone flap. Thanks again for the info.
 
It was indeed amazing!! I couldn't believe the lack of hole as the tooth was huge (think it was the 109 tooth). Taking teeth out through the sinus seems unnecessary and quite old school now, but there are only a handful of vets that use these new techniques.

We had a fine collection of staples after the bone flap op, and he was sporting a rather unattractive snorkel! The ordeal started in April and we weren't snot free til about sept as he had a nasty, resistant strain of bacteria that wasn't responding to doxycycline, the Baytril eventually did the trick but was quite costly!! Still have the occasional clear out when he's worked, but not the stinky, putrid stuff that he was chucking out in April!

Good luck!
 
Thanks Sneedy, my boy too had recurrent problems afterwards with trephines in both sinuses and a variety of ABs, then a culture of the pus revealed it was something commonly found in cows?? No cows near us lol. I then had the odd set back for a few years after with the awful smelly snot but nothing more until now.
I was so upset about this last night, being excluded on the insurance unfortunately is an issue as we know treatment is lengthy, isnt always successful and is so costly. I was dreading what I would find today but it actually looks better, the swelling is almost gone, hes eaten well, so Im stumped now. Im going to assess over the weekend, keep flushing his mouth and keep everything crossed it doesnt come back.

PS what was the snorkel for, Im intrigued :)
 
We named the trephine 'the snorkel'.......had to have some amusement during the ordeal ;)!!!

I know what you mean about insurance, that's what scares me now! My poor chap had to have 2 procedures as the 'excellent' (insert sarcastic tone!) interpretation of the CT scan I paid £1k for said that his teeth were fine and to just deal with the sinusitis as primary. My vet wasn't convinced due to the stench, so she sent the CT pics to Chris and he said the tooth needed to come out - it was as rotten as hell! Wish I hadn't wasted that money on the CT, although it did make things easier for Chris as he also put a filling in the same tooth on the other side which was starting to decay (amazing to watch!!!). So, all in all, I think it was about £9k in total!!

Feel free to PM if you need to rant / talk things through.......fingers crossed it was just a blip and he's sorted himself out.......darn snotty boys!!!
 
Awwww thanks, and same to you too. I love H&H for help, advice and sharing experiences even though these days I seem to kill threads when I contribute lol :) Thanks for replying.

The snorkel!, what a great name, £50 a go them 10 years ago, I remember that because my horses mate pulled more than one out!
Eeeeek to £1k for a CT scan. I had a similar experience when my vet sent xrays to 2 Equine hospitals, one said leave well alone as the prognosis wasnt good, the other Edinburgh said take it out. My boy had a temporary false 'tooth' put in to try to protect the open wound from infection. We ummed and ahhhed about taking it out as it wasnt for coming out on its own and the stench, gosh I remember that, it seemed to linger in my nose and I could smell it hours later. I had a dedicated coat, stored in a carrier bag used purely for flushing. Happy memories!! not lol
 
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