Hi, my 12 year old alpaca has some fighting teeth that the vet said needed to be pulled due to his jaw bone being infected. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my alpacas bottom lip was a little droopy and his chin looked a little swollen. About 2 weeks prior to that he scratched his cornea, most likely with some prickers that were in his hay. I replaced the hay and treated his eye with neopolybac until I could get the vet to come out and take a look. We continued to treat the eye for a few more days and it cleared up. When I examined the swollen chin I felt a little scab on the same side as the injured eye so I figured he probably poked his chin at the same time and tried to get the scab off to avoid an abscess but he was too squirmy so I called my friend who is the farm manager for a local big alpaca farm. When he came over to help he checked his jaw and said it was most likely a tooth abscess so I called the vet to come back. By then it was looking a little more like an abscess but it hadn’t started draining yet. She prescribed Nuflor injectable every 48 hours and Banamine inj once a day. When the vet’s associate came the following week for a recheck and X-rays she told me the fighting teeth needed to come out because the jawbone was infected and that there wasn’t any other option. She recommended Tufts for the surgery. When I called Tufts for more information on the procedure, I wasn’t comfortable with what they told me (they would need to do a CT scan before they could do anything and then if surgery was an option, they would do surgery right after the CT scan and that it is possible that they would need to do multiple surgeries and he might need to stay for a week due to the nature of the surgery and that generally the animals wont eat for several days after surgery). I am sure they were giving me worst case scenario when I called. I wont even mention the low end quote they gave me for the cost. My question is if there are any members on the forum that have experienced this issue with their alpacas and how have they handled it? Has anyone had the fighting teeth pulled and what was your experience with that? And what are the other options if I decide not to go with the surgery? I have been doing a little research for myself, reading some of the posts and reaching out to some of my friends who own alpacas. I want to make an educated decision as to how best to handle this situation and to do what is best for my alpaca. I appreciate any advice I can get. Thanks.
