We had some bad news today. Sora went into the dentist to have a cracked tooth extracted. During the initial consultation, the dentist mentioned that his upper canine next to the cracked tooth looked gray / discoloured and could have been damaged. There was an area of skin that looked suspicious that caused a lot of pain for him when touched as well. The dentist said he’d take a closer look during the xrays – suspecting that it may have been from the same trauma (i.e. gunshot) that lost him his sight. 

I received a call during the afternoon from the dentist – he explained that during the xray’s he’d found a lot of birdshot inside the mouth, surrounding the teeth and that the canine had been permanently damaged. We agreed the best thing to do would be to remove the tooth. 

Fortunately the extraction was a success and I was able to pick up Sora in the afternoon. He was doing ok – a bit groggy and definitely subdued. I am sure he’s in pain which we have meds for. He’s still himself – lovable, affectionate and incredible strong. I’m constantly amazed given what he’s had to go through.

Here’s a scan of the xray…
 

This is a close up of the canine. It’s almost inconceivable but each white mark is a piece of birdshot. It sickens me to think about what happened to Sora. The dentist was able to remove 5 pieces of birdshot but there’s a lot left and I think we can assume he has a lot more littered around his head / face. I’m going to try to get a piece tested to see what kind of metal it is – hopefully it’s steel and not lead. We’ll figure out what we need to do after – although realistically I don’t think there’s much that can be done. Obviously our hope is that inert / non toxic and that none of this will have any adverse affect beyond what’s already happened. Sora’s had such a tough start, I really hope this is the end of it.

Since we’ve had Sora, we’ve been so focused on getting him better that we’ve tried to spend v little time thinking about the specifics of what caused Sora to lose his sight. Today unfortunately was a cold hard reminder of the cruelty he was made to suffer. It’s unforgivable. I’m just so glad he’s with us now.