Ethel's teeth

[Cibach]

You may remember me posting about Annie's tooth issues earlier in the year. Well her half sister Ethel has developed similar, but not as extensive, problems.
Last week my daughter Anna noticed that Ethel's teeth didn't feel right when she was licking her (Ethel licking Anna I might add!!).
I check their teeth every few weeks and they were due a quick look.
Ethel's bottom front teeth had become very long and had worn the top ones back further than they should have been. We were visiting the Rescue we volunteer at the next day so Ethel came along as well.
Suzy at the rescue trimmed the bottom teeth and said they were just as hard as Annie's had been and that the back teeth hadn't been engaging properly and had become overgrown. Poor Ethel's tongue was about to become trapped under a couple inward growing spurs from her first molars.
Luckily, after much toing and froing we managed to get an appointment with the specialist vet, not our usual vet but his business partner, and she filed Ethel's teeth right back.
Well poor little Ethel was really out of sorts when we collected her as she has never really been to the vet before, she's been a companion to the others but never needed treatment for herself.
She seemed shell shocked and sat frozen in the carrier so Anna popped her inside her cardi for the trip home.
It took most of the evening for her to relax, the others did their best to help her by washing her face and snuggling up to her in the pen.
Eventually she felt better enough to come out for veggies for supper and has taken some softened pellets as well.
This morning she is more herself if a little subdued and very dribbly. Her mouth must feel quite strange to her.

I'm sure this is a genetic thing as the bottom front teeth on both girls are doing the same thing ie growing fast and VERY hard. Ethel is fortunate to have kept her top teeth, unlike Annie who soldiers on without any top front teeth to speak of. Also she has avoided the bony infection that plagued Annie for most of last year.

I feel this is a testament to the dangers of inbreeding. I have done a little more research on the girls parentage.
They were from a breeder who was breeding Red coloured pigs like Annie.
The girls share a father who was red (not agouti as I have previously mistakenly said) and both mothers were red. All 3 parent were litter mates ie full siblings so our girls are half sisters and first cousins on both sides.
No doubt their grandparents had been back bred ( ie father to daughter, mother to son) for many generations to continue getting the desirable feature, but our girls are now left with issues which could be life threatening.
Most breeder sows rarely live as long as our girls so these issues would not have been apparent during their fertile life.

How lucky we are that our vets are skilled with piggies and don't just recommend putting them to sleep, and to have Suzy to manage the teeth for us on an ongoing basis. Not all vets are keen for "amateurs" to have anything to do with treating pets, but Suzy is well known to them and they appreciate the fact that she can do this for us so our girls don't have to have a GA every time.