Dog Had Partial Tongue Amputation

Kitty Mommy

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Our dog had a tumor in her mouth and the vet had to amputate 50% of her tongue 3 days ago. She is doing okay but it is really difficult to feed her. we've been hand feeding her small chunks of pate style dog food like the vet suggested but she is having a hard time. I was wondering if anyone here has had to do this before and if you have any suggestions on what might work better.
 

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I've never done this for a dog, but have used syringe feeding with cats when needed. I'm not sure if it would be suitable, but if so you need to mush the pate style meat with some water and then syringe it up then put in the animals mouth and syringe it out. Your vets should be able to provide you with a plastic suitable syringe if you need one.

Hope it helps, and also that your girl has a quick and full recovery.
 

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I've never heard of a tongue amputation and will be little help, but I wanted to wish you and your doggie good luck! I hope she heals quickly! Give her a hug for me :heartshape:

What if you mix the pate with water? If you make it soupy she'll still be getting her calories but she can just drink it up. Unless having less of a tongue makes it hard to drink...shoot. Could you pour it into her mouth with a spoon? Or use one of those super cheap squeeze containers they use for mustard and ketchup and dribble it into her mouth? If she's little a pipette would work but I imagine that would take a century with a large dog.
 

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I can only imagine how hard it is to start feeding again after losing half a tongue, and most likely still painful too.

Does it make any difference how you offer the food / place it in her mouth? Further back, either at back teeth or back of remaining tongue I should think would be easier to manage. I hope she is OK with you going near her mouth as I know Mouse (my cat) was none too keen after his recent tooth extractions.

I'm not sure what textures of food might be easiest.

One thought is that once she is happy and comfortable with you touching around her mouth area - if you don't have a dental cleaning routine already it might be worth starting. Just a gentle one with an enzyme dental cleaning paste that she can lick from your fingers as a treat or is happy for you to rub her teeth with. With partial tongue she will most likely not be able to self clean around all areas of her mouth as easily as most dogs would and find bits of food lurking, particularly in the areas her tongue now doesn't reach. Good to keep breath fresh and gums healthy as it helps over all health, esp when she might be run down following treatment for this tumour.

Willing her to heal quickly and start managing her food well her self.
 
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Kitty Mommy

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I've never done this for a dog, but have used syringe feeding with cats when needed. I'm not sure if it would be suitable, but if so you need to mush the pate style meat with some water and then syringe it up then put in the animals mouth and syringe it out. Your vets should be able to provide you with a plastic suitable syringe if you need one.

Hope it helps, and also that your girl has a quick and full recovery.
Thank you so much for the suggestion. I will ask our vet for one.
 
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Kitty Mommy

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I've never heard of a tongue amputation and will be little help, but I wanted to wish you and your doggie good luck! I hope she heals quickly! Give her a hug for me :heartshape:

What if you mix the pate with water? If you make it soupy she'll still be getting her calories but she can just drink it up. Unless having less of a tongue makes it hard to drink...shoot. Could you pour it into her mouth with a spoon? Or use one of those super cheap squeeze containers they use for mustard and ketchup and dribble it into her mouth? If she's little a pipette would work but I imagine that would take a century with a large dog.
Thank you. She does have trouble drinking but we set up a trough at standing height that she can get her head into and she kind of scoops up the water with her lower jaw. The squeeze bottle is a great idea. I think I can make like a shake in the blender with her food.
 
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Kitty Mommy

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I can only imagine how hard it is to start feeding again after losing half a tongue, and most likely still painful too.

Does it make any difference how you offer the food / place it in her mouth? Further back, either at back teeth or back of remaining tongue I should think would be easier to manage. I hope she is OK with you going near her mouth as I know Mouse (my cat) was none too keen after his recent tooth extractions.

I'm not sure what textures of food might be easiest.

One thought is that once she is happy and comfortable with you touching around her mouth area - if you don't have a dental cleaning routine already it might be worth starting. Just a gentle one with an enzyme dental cleaning paste that she can lick from your fingers as a treat or is happy for you to rub her teeth with. With partial tongue she will most likely not be able to self clean around all areas of her mouth as easily as most dogs would and find bits of food lurking, particularly in the areas her tongue now doesn't reach. Good to keep breath fresh and gums healthy as it helps over all health, esp when she might be run down following treatment for this tumour.

Willing her to heal quickly and start managing her food well her self.
Thank you for your thoughts and the advice on the dental care. I hadn't thought about that being an issue now. The vet did do a dental cleaning while she was under. We try to get the food farther back in her mouth so she can just swallow because when she tries to chew she can't hang on to the food and it falls out of her mouth. She also drools a lot which the vet said would happen. I put a can of her food in the fridge so it will solidify some so I can use a melon baller and make little meatballs. Maybe if the food isn't so soft she can hang onto it better.
 
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Kitty Mommy

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Thank you everyone for the well wishes for Cheyenne and for the advice. I feel so bad for her right now. The vet was very optimistic about her being able to adapt so we will keep working on it and hopefully avoid a feeding tube. This was all such a shock. We took her in because she started drooling and I thought she had a bad tooth. We were not expecting it to be cancer. She is a 12 year old black lab mix.
Cheyenne 100 (2).jpg
 

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Something like this being so sudden is really tough. Hard enough even when there's been time to prepare and get your head round it a little before the surgery has to be done. Cheyenne is beautiful, and the grey snout and paws make her even more gorgeous. It sounds like you are coming up with a few good ideas to help her so she is very lucky. I hope she is allowing you to snuggle up to pamper her as I'm sure you need that even if Cheyenne doesn't. Let us know how the cooled down food goes.
 
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Kitty Mommy

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Something like this being so sudden is really tough. Hard enough even when there's been time to prepare and get your head round it a little before the surgery has to be done. Cheyenne is beautiful, and the grey snout and paws make her even more gorgeous. It sounds like you are coming up with a few good ideas to help her so she is very lucky. I hope she is allowing you to snuggle up to pamper her as I'm sure you need that even if Cheyenne doesn't. Let us know how the cooled down food goes.
Thank you. She is our special baby. We got her when she was about 2 from the local animal shelter. She's such a nice dog and loves our cats. I think she was abused at some point before we got her because she has a lot of anxiety and gets scared easily. She does still want a lot of attention and wants to be wherever we are in the house.

The vet took her into surgery that same afternoon so we knew it was serious and I'm glad they were able to take care of it right away.
 

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Holy shiznits she looks just like my Beastie! He's a lab mix too- I got a DNA test done on him and my is he an interesting creature. You have quite the beautiful doggy! Does she have the lab appetite and love of food? If she does I imagine that will help tremendously in working out a way for her to eat. I'm glad she can still drink water. Does she chew her food or inhale it? If she inhales it maybe chunky food will work better and she can just swallow chunks. Ah, I just looked back and realize you were already considering dog food meatballs. Little meatballs perhaps? My dog will swallow absolutely any sized piece of food, but things the size of a quarter or smaller disappears in a fraction of a second.
 

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Aww! I'm wishing Cheyenne a speedy complete recovery soon. She's absolutely gorgeous, and so lucky to have a caring owner like you. I have no experience with tongue amputations, but have fed my dog with syringe and bottled shakes once before when he wasn't eating. The syringe is way more messy than a squeeze bottle, but neither is that great. In both cases, my dog kind of "lapped up" the food because there were no solid parts (and we made sure it was super tasty,) so you might have more luck positioning the bottle near the part of the tongue she has left. I am sure that she'll eventually figure out a more tenable solution on her own, but the bottle might help if she's not eating enough to recover properly in the meantime. Dogs are very adaptable! I've seen my dog eat things by basically inhaling them before, too, so a couple of chews of wet food and some unique technique might be the ticket! I'm wishing you all the best. Keep us updated on her recovery!
 
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Kitty Mommy

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Cheyenne is doing better today. The squeeze bottle worked great and she got a whole can of food yesterday using it. We tried the meatballs this morning and she ate them all. We hid her pills in them so that made it much easier to give her the medication. She's a little more active and isn't whining as much.
 
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Holy shiznits she looks just like my Beastie! He's a lab mix too- I got a DNA test done on him and my is he an interesting creature. You have quite the beautiful doggy! Does she have the lab appetite and love of food? If she does I imagine that will help tremendously in working out a way for her to eat. I'm glad she can still drink water. Does she chew her food or inhale it? If she inhales it maybe chunky food will work better and she can just swallow chunks. Ah, I just looked back and realize you were already considering dog food meatballs. Little meatballs perhaps? My dog will swallow absolutely any sized piece of food, but things the size of a quarter or smaller disappears in a fraction of a second.
Thank you for the compliments - she has such a sweet disposition. My husband and I joke that the only thing a burglar has to fear is tripping over her and getting injured! Yes, she does have the big Lab appetite. I hope that will encourage her to start eating on her own soon. She doesn't really inhale her food; she still tries to chew it. She goes back to the vet on Thurs for a checkup. Hopefully by then she will be eating on her own.
 

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:yess: :cheerleader: What a great update. Way to go Cheyenne. You must be so relieved to see her eating better today. I'm sure she will quickly get used to how she now needs to use her tongue and other muscles around her mouth to manage her food and drink and you should see her start to look much happier again.
Well done for supporting and helping her through this.
 
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Kitty Mommy

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:yess: :cheerleader: What a great update. Way to go Cheyenne. You must be so relieved to see her eating better today. I'm sure she will quickly get used to how she now needs to use her tongue and other muscles around her mouth to manage her food and drink and you should see her start to look much happier again.
Well done for supporting and helping her through this.
Yes, both my husband and I are feeling better about how she is doing. We were both a wreck on Wed night when she had the surgery and had to stay overnight. My husband went to the vet's office first thing the next morning to see how she was doing and stayed there until they she was ready to come home. Thank you everyone for the advice and support. I''ll keep you posted on how she is doing.
 

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I just saw your thread and wanted to add my special thoughts and healing vibes for Cheyenne. :vibes::vibes::vibes:
Although our dog did not have the same diagnosis he had an uncommon autoimmune illness so I can relate to your worry and concern. :hugs: I'm glad by the time I caught up with your posts that Cheyenne is starting to eat on her own. Fingers crossed for a good vet check-up on Thursday, please keep us updated. :crossfingers:
 
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Kitty Mommy

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I just saw your thread and wanted to add my special thoughts and healing vibes for Cheyenne. :vibes::vibes::vibes:
Although our dog did not have the same diagnosis he had an uncommon autoimmune illness so I can relate to your worry and concern. :hugs: I'm glad by the time I caught up with your posts that Cheyenne is starting to eat on her own. Fingers crossed for a good vet check-up on Thursday, please keep us updated. :crossfingers:
Thank you for your well wishes! I am quite hopeful that she will continue to improve and do well. She ate more meatballs this afternoon and is drinking well (although she is a bit sloppy about it now). Is your dog doing okay now? It's so hard when pets are ill.
 

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Is your dog doing okay now? It's so hard when pets are ill.
First, let me say how glad I am Cheyenne ate more meatballs this afternoon and is drinking well. All good news. :thumbsup:

To answer your question, our dog passed away at the ripe old age of 16. He was diagnosed when he was 3 yrs. old and fortunately lived 13 more years. None of the specialty vets ever thought he would live that long. He was in a research study out of the Univ. of Penn. and we followed our vet's instructions religiously. Yes, it's exceptionally hard when our pets are ill but our dog was proof that there's hope. I hope Cheyenne continues to thrive under your watchful eye and loving care.:hearthrob:
 
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