# Dental Extraction -- Need comfort & advice going forward



## emmetropia (Oct 1, 2014)

My Brady (3 yo Chihuahua mix) is going to lose a tooth -- one of his molars, just to make things worse -- and I am freaking out.


*TL;DR *for people who don't wanna read the whole thing: I've never had a dog who lost a tooth in my entire life, and I've had a lot of dogs. I must have just been lucky. I just want to know my Chi will be OK sans-one molar  He goes in on Monday.



For the 'advice' part, read the whole story:

*The rest of the story: *I just adopted him last month from a local family and getting his medical records was like pulling teeth (pun intended, because I need to smile so I freak out less) -- it took me three weeks to get them after 5 different people made upwards of 7 requests by various means (email, fax, phone). His old vet was basically awful.

Anyway, the point: I wasn't bringing him into our vet for his first checkup until I had the records transferred, which made sense to me. He seemed healthy, his teeth looked really good (more on this in a second), so there was no immediate emergency need to get him in for a checkup. 

Fast forward to last night when he finally had his first vet appointment:

Everything's good, the vet asks me if I've noticed any health issues, I mention he bites his nails (he writes that down), I mention his teeth looked ok (he lifts up the gums to check) and then BAM.

"Well he's got a broken tooth..."

WHAT?! Are you _seriously_ kidding me??

You could have picked my jaw physically up off the floor and dusted it off. 

I have no idea when or how this happened. He does have some hard chews like bones and hooves, but I have two other 12-pound dogs who have had those all of their lives with no issues, so I'm flabbergasted. We choose bones and hooves so that we don't have to use rawhide which I've been told my whole life is "the devil", but now the vet was standing here telling me all the horrible things that can happen to my dog (broken teeth, ruptured stomach from sharp pieces, etc) with regard to HARD things, and he's actually recommending I go back to rawhide (wat?)

There is one item on the list I threw out immediately and that is his antler.. if the break happened in our house, I can only thing that was what did it. Maybe.. I don't know! 

Then I start going back in my mind... I checked his teeth when he came to us, but I only checked _one side of his mouth_. I saw that his teeth had zero tartar and said "wow, awesome teeth!" and _like an idiot_ I did not check the other side of his mouth. And the one and only way to see this break would have been to pull the lips back, which I didn't do on that side. 

So now I have no idea, did he have it when he got here? I had to teach him how to eat kibble because he had no idea what to do with it, is that because he had this tooth? Am I just that horrible and I missed it for an ENTIRE MONTH and he's been in pain with this the whole time?!

I'll admit the break looks pretty recent and I'm thinking it happened in our home, not the previous home, but still.. the seed is in my mind, and all I can think is "Either I missed it for a month, and I'm a horrible dog-mom, or he broke it on my watch, and I'm a horrible dog mom!"

Freaking. out. This dog had no symptoms! He eats kibble, he came home from his vet appointment after diagnosing a completely broken tooth and he still ate kibble from a bowl like it ain't no thang. He's playful, fun, happy, energetic.. broken tooth, how would I have ever known?!

And I ask the vet (who was not my regular vet, I dislike this guy) "He'll be OK without that tooth, right?" and he gets wishy-washy on me and with zero confidence basically says "Well it is one of his main chewing teeth..." and I just wanted to DIE. You don't have a single word of comfort for me on his life from here on out with one less molar, just telling me how it's an important tooth? I hate you so damn much.

Anyway... my options:

$500 to remove the tooth

$4500 with a specialist to try to save it, and it's no guarantee because the entire front of the tooth is essentially sheered off and left hanging (picture below, not of his tooth but it is identical)

So guess who is gonna lose a tooth :dontknow: Even the receptionist said "Looks like you're losing a tooth, Brady!"

The girls at the desk were very comforting, telling me about dogs who only have five teeth but who go on to eat kibble without an issue, and how resilient they are. And Brady is young and only losing a single molar.

But I still feel sick. 

Here's a picture, it's not Brady's tooth but it looks *identical* to it.











*Advice:*

My dogs get destructive if they don't have things to chew on. My options are bones, hooves, antlers, rawhide, non-stuffed toys, nylon bones like Nylabone, etc.

Two of my dogs won't touch Nylabone with a 10-foot pole but I haven't tried them on Brady yet so I think I will get some and see if he likes them.

Antlers are out as Brady puts the whole thing in his back teeth and just cracks down, ugh. That's probably how it happened.

Toys are nice for tug-of-war time but they don't really occupy their chewing needs very much.

Bones I'm terrified of at this point...

So I'm thinking hooves are still my best option, aside from:

The dreaded rawhide. The one thing I've been told all my life could kill my dog by choking him, backing him up inside, etc... and this is what the vet recommends. He says the only thing that dissolves in the stomach is skin-based products like rawhide.

Ugh.. so for chewers, what do you guys recommend so that he doesn't break another tooth. Or am I simply freaking out and being paranoid, and this was just a freak accident that does not reflect badly back on the average things to chew on?


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## michele (Jan 12, 2009)

I wouldn't worry,my old sheltie had hardly any teeth left and he did fine eating kibble and even had to chews .


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## Jayda (Jun 15, 2012)

I can't comment much on what to chew on as my three don't chew. It is important to get that tooth out so he doesn't develop an abscess. My Prince developed a molar abscess this summer and poor little had a time with it. We got it out as quickly as possible after it was diagnosed but it swelled and burst through his cheek in about two days. You might want to have them do a full dental cleaning while they have him under. That way they can take a good look at all his teeth. Good luck. I will say Prince was back to himself one day after surgery!


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## emmetropia (Oct 1, 2014)

He's in on Monday morning to have that tooth out right away

I'm going to have them do some dental x-rays but his teeth are actually really, really clean, they even said so, I don't know if the previous owners had them done, or it might be that all his chewing habits have kept his teeth in good shape build-up wise, but they are so clean you'd be shocked he's 3 years old. 

My other two dogs are 3 and 4 and both have age-appropriate levels of build-up, Brady's teeth look pristine, it's nuts.


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## Huly (Mar 5, 2012)

Jayda's Prince and my hound Gibbs both had major dental extractions almost at the exact same time. 

My Gibbs had 10 teeth removed (2 were abscessed) and one was his front canine. He came through like a champ and will still chew a bully stick LOL. The front canine missing does annoy him a little because his gums doesn't lay proper so you can see him move his gums to get it in the right direction but otherwise No Big Deal! 

As for Bones- go for some that will not damage the teeth. We use a lot of chicken feet (raw and dried), beef tendon, occasional Bully, trachea, etc.


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## emmetropia (Oct 1, 2014)

Huly said:


> Jayda's Prince and my hound Gibbs both had major dental extractions almost at the exact same time.
> 
> My Gibbs had 10 teeth removed (2 were abscessed) and one was his front canine. He came through like a champ and will still chew a bully stick LOL. The front canine missing does annoy him a little because his gums doesn't lay proper so you can see him move his gums to get it in the right direction but otherwise No Big Deal!
> 
> As for Bones- go for some that will not damage the teeth. We use a lot of chicken feet (raw and dried), beef tendon, occasional Bully, trachea, etc.



Thanks. I work in dog rescue and we are closely affiliated with a high-quality pet supply store (they have all the high quality foods and toys and treats and are anti-rawhide). I contacted the owner today and he's got a number of recommendations and a bunch of free samples for me to try of various chews, so I'm going to go down tomorrow and see what he's got for us 

I'm just so shocked that he's showing almost no symptoms after splitting a tooth open, it's just so bizarre to me :\ I feel bad we have to wait until Monday but he seems to be doing OK for now and he's supervised until Monday which is good, he doesn't have to be alone and in pain at least. I'm assuming it must be very painful and he just doesn't show it.


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## susan davis (Mar 25, 2011)

If the 'fracture' is above the nerve, then maybe he is NOT in pain?? Our sheltie held her mouth open just a bit when she had a broken tooth. Hard to see. It took us a couple of days to see that yes she really was holding her mouth open a little bit. She was chewing on hooves. Stuffed ones. No more stuff like that. I use bully sticks now.


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## emmetropia (Oct 1, 2014)

Well the pulp is exposed so I can't imagine that's not painful :\ The vet poked it and it was sensitive he said, as Brady reacted, but it wasn't a huge crazy reaction, it was just that he noted there was one which meant the tooth was vital (live) as opposed to dead. 

But he definitely acts like it's no big deal. He took off my socks when I got home (I didn't know he could do that, he just helped himself to my socks right off my feet), so the rest of his teeth are clearly fine at least


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## emmetropia (Oct 1, 2014)

This posting delay is driving me MAD, the new member info says it was only supposed to be the first 3 posts or something like that, what the heck.


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## Sharrielynne (Oct 14, 2014)

My old chi had been crying for a week, and I checked everything out with her was fine, no injuries or broken bones, checked her teeth, her bottom ones looked fine!(like you, idiot that I was) I never checked her whole mouth. So I took her in to the vet, who found my poor girl had three rotten upper teeth, poor darling, don't wonder she was crying! The vet admitted her straight away and took all the bad ones out and within a couple of days she was fine, eating bones and kibble like nothing had happened, so don't worry, your little one will be fine!What caused my sweeties bad teeth, well maybe her liking for strawberry milkshakes and sweet tea had something to do with it!!!!!! Don't give my children those treats any more!!!!!! Learned my lesson the hard way!


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