Dutch Shepherd Forum

Update...

After doing some reading about veterinary dentistry and broken teeth I realized that waiting until Cino's next visit was too long. Plus with the new pre-paid veterinary services that I VERY wisely signed up for earlier this year I decided to make the call yesterday and get Cino in to see the vet.

This is what I found online (to summarize): If you can see a small dot in the middle of the tooth take them to the vet. Don't wait a week. Don't wait 72 hours. But don't rush to the ER Vet. Call and make a "first available" appointment.

Cino was not showing any discomfort with the broken tooth. The risk is infection in the root canal of the tooth which if left untreated can progress.

The first thing out of my vets mouth was, "You saved a lot of money by coming in right away."

Some Veterinary Dentist don't even want to wait hours to treat this... The Vet at my clinic who does the bulk of the dental work said 72 hours or so was the max for what they did for Cino today.

- put him under
- filed down the sharp edges
- drilled out the center of the tooth (think human cavity)
- filled the drilled out hole.
- in 6 to 12 months they want to do an x-ray to make sure it is holding
- they offered to put a cap on it so it would look right, but I said no. ...my Vet knows me well enough that he even hesitated to offer that...
- a round of antibiotics
- and a partidge in a pear tree...

..

I really do like my Veterinary office. Love the staff. But, living in a bigger city...just wish they were a little cheaper (or maybe that is my Dutchness coming out).

When they brought Cino out to me it was all about joy and happiness and love and affection. Got him calmed down and started walking out. Just as we got to the end of the hallway and the main counter was right in front of us he projectile vomited. We are talking he vomited so hard it hit the side of the counter and ricochet off of it.

Cino had eaten this morning. They were more concerned about infection if we waited another 24 hours than concerns about him having food in his stomach and anesthesia.

vneerland wrote:Poor Eric. If you stress about a hot spot, you shoud be glad that you don't have more than 2 dogs. You'd stay in a mild state of panic. I would say that the blown knee is bad news though.
Wishing you, Abby and Cino a speedy recovery.

This made me giggle out loud.

juc Cino! Where's your manners!

better in there than in the car!

Schlussdibusti wrote:better in there than in the car!

whahahaha

Glad he is better

The fun never stops does it? I am so sorry.

I agree with Judith. I have only had one canine pulled, and it was a total disaster. Dante has had a hole in his gum with exposed jaw bone for almost 5 years now because of that decision. Ironically, when I got him at 2, all of his canine were hooked from fence chewing. Over the last 12 years, they have all broken off at various places. The only one that has caused issues was the one I had extracted.

Vets are quick to push pulling if there is any pulp exposure. They often say that the exposed pulp allows for a direct line of infection to the blood stream. I have heard the talk a million times working at my previous clinic. I have known MANY working dogs with broken canines and never seen a problem. I'm not saying it can't happen, I am just saying make sure they give you all of your options first.

Christie, are you saying it would have been okay for Eric to wait on the tooth? Or have left it?

Dutchringgirl wrote:Christie, are you saying it would have been okay for Eric to wait on the tooth? Or have left it?

I'm sorry. I've been breezing through many of these threads trying to get caught up I completely missed the update.

Personally, if it were my dog, I would have left it alone until there was a reason not to. The "chance" of infection exists every time they get a scrape. I have owned some and known literally hundreds of dogs who have broken their canines and not known of one who had an issue. BUT - even if its one in a million, if its a serious issue you may end up kicking yourself. So that's just me.

Its interesting to know what the options are.

I am with Christie on this. I am not saying that the vets are wrong about what 'could' happen, but I have not seen that. In many years among many many workers in Holland, with many broken teeth, I have not seen the described possible disasters. Over the years my own pack has had many broken canines, unfortunately, due to the *&&^^% chainlink fences where they would first file their teeth (as a passtime with the neighboring dog) only to later break them on a decoy or even in the kennel. The worst part was that I did not always notice until much later! I have had one dogs canine replaced by titanium after I had sold him and he broke a canine while I was finishing him for hir department. He later broke another canine, the opposite one, that was longer than the titanium one, thus distributing the pressure unevenly over his (sabotaged) opposite tooth and snap.. I probably should have had them level out the first broken one, and top off the opposing one, but it is so hard to mess with a perfectly good tooth that I could not bring myself to.
The moral of my story is that that dog did not do any better than the ones that I left alone. No premature deaths just yet due to untreated breaks. Though, of course, I do not know for sure how old they would live to be if I had done what so many vets recommend.

Update -

Cino's hotspot has healed without a problem. Took him to the vet today for the follow up (I am seriously loving this pre-paid vet care!)

As it was healing I took a good look at his leg and he had a 3.5 to 4 inch scab/scar that ran down his leg. During the follow up I had the vet look at it ... well, what was left of it.

She apologized for missing it earlier on and she admitted she was more concerned about the hotspot itself.

...

Hindsight being what it is I thought back to what occurred around the time the hotspot started.

That's when I remembered that I had given him a bath at the local pet store. When we were walking out there was an all breed dog rescue set up outside. I had gone wide around them and the dogs they had out. But unfortunately one of the volunteers was holding an aggressive dog on a long leash and NOT paying attention.

There was a tussle when the other dog jumped on Cino. At the time I didn't think much of it. Later, after looking at the scab/scar on Cino's leg I am now thinking that the other dog did do some damage...

...

In the end he has healed up and the total vet bill for the event was minimal - just the cost of some drugs.

sounds good! Ready for a fresh start in 2012

good to hear!

Grrrrrrrhhhh. I do not do dog fights.

Glad he is better. Dog fights are annoying, specially when people aren't paying attention to their own dog and whats going on around them.

I took my first dog (Doerak) in for a root canal when he broke a canine. He had an infection in his jaw bone also, because before the tooth was broken, it was badly chipped for many years.

I had the option of the root canal, or to have it pulled. The root canal was almost the same price.

I don't know what that poor dog did before I got him, but he was pretty beat up from something. He was such a well behaved dog when I got him, it made me wonder how he got that way. I do know that when he saw my Malinois' no bark collar, he had a terrified look in his eyes.

As terribly sorry as I am for your recent news Eric, I'm glad this thread is here.

Koenig has a broken canine. Has for quite some time now (Jerk did it on a wire kennel, before we got the separation anxiety under control). I elected to go against my vets recommendation of root canal, or extraction. We're just waiting. If it troubles him, I'll get it pulled, and I'm sure he'll loose it eventually in bite work.... but for now, it gets to stay, and we'll just wait and see!