Mandibular osteomyelitis ("lumpy jaw") in muntjac?

[willie_gunn]

Following on from my post on bTB in muntjac, I thought the photos here might be of interest.











This is a young muntjac buck shot in early 2018. It showed no signs of discomfort and appeared to be grazing normally, however on inspection it was clear that there was a significant abscess or growth on the front of the lower jaw.

Subsequent skinning and boiling out showed it to be a solid mass made up of semi-calcified tissue.

There was no post-mortem undertaken, but I wonder if this is an example of mandibular osteomyelitis, or "lumpy jaw", which seems to be more typically prevalent in red deer and white-tail.

Can any of the veterinary members here cast some light?

I find an animal like this to be of far more interest than a regular "trophy", but accept that this is likely just me!

 

[willie_gunn]

 

[sh1kar]

Srvet or Buchan will be along soon
S

 

[I. Farticus]

Hi WG.
It's been a while, hope you're well?
That cannot have been comfortable, but I suppose he adapted as best he could, as basic need to survive takes over.
I wonder when it started, so how long he'd had to live with it.
ATB
iain

 

[deerstalker.308]

Interesting! Not seen this before. Over to @Buchan i reckon

 

[Klenchblaize]

Hi Mr. W Gunn

I'm beginning to wonder if there's been some kind of chemical or radiation discharge over your stalking ground!

ATB

K

 

[willie_gunn]

Hi Mr. W Gunn

I'm beginning to wonder if there's been some kind of chemical or radiation discharge over your stalking ground!

ATB

K

There have been a few interesting heads......

 

[VSS]

Very interesting. Looking forward to reading the response from one of our resident vets.

 

[foxdropper]

Whenever large numbers of anything are present the chance for deformity is always there .Thankfully not that often though .

 

[Buchan]

Cool! With it being young, I'm going for a dentigerous or otonogenic cyst NADIS Animal Health Skills - Tooth Problems in Sheep plus an XRay. It's a developmental problem. The bone of that muntjac jaw is smooth, if it had been infection , it would be more ragged. an older one, it coul dhave been bone tumour.
Now hiding until the bone setter chips in....

 

[willie_gunn]

Very interesting, thank you.

I still have the jaw - would it be worth getting an x-ray (or anything else) done?

 

[NorthernTikka]

I am not a vet, so please do not take this opinion as fact whatsoever, just weighing in on the possibilities. My knowledge of mandibular pathology is limited to people, so will pretend it is such, however, again may not be accurate in this case.

As Buchan points out, osetomyelitis is a bone infection, so unlikely to be so smooth. A rare type called Garre's osteomyelitis can present as thickened bone in the area, as bone is laid down from the periosteum, usually due to an odontogenic infection (toothache), but pretty unlikely.

The surface of the bone appears pretty smooth, so wouldn't appear to be anything particularly aggressive. At a guess could be cystic or neoplastic (think tumour) in nature. An odontogenic cyst is much more likely than non-odontogenic (so derived from tooth forming tissue). Most common of these is a simple radicular cyst (think tooth abscess but cystic, formed in a similar way), this would be a very large example however.

Similarly tumours of the jaws can be odontogenic or non-odontogenic, either malignant or benign in either category, but rarer.

If you haven't fallen asleep by now, my absolute guess would be a large radicular cyst, if it was a person. But could be a large number of things!

If you give it a tap does it sound hollow?

 

[willie_gunn]

Not that I recall, but it’s tucked away up in the garage so I can check tomorrow.

Many thanks for the post

 

[Buchan]

A tap will be a lot cheaper than a radiograph. Sadly I don't have a practice anymore to offer to do it as a freeby. When the covid's lost and won, see if there is a vet nurse training practice that might like it to take some training radiographs.

 

[willie_gunn]

I know a friendly maxillofacial surgeon that I might be able to persuade to do it!