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  1. #1
    Puppy FinnBeam's Avatar
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    Broken tooth, feeling guilty.

    Hi all, haven't posted here in a while but I'm sure many of you remember Finn and Beamish.

    The boys went in for their checkups today and we found out that Finn has a broken tooth that has abscessed. The vet said likely due to bone chewing. Finn has always been a chewer. Not destructive chewing, but he loves his nylabones. I wasn't aware that nylabones were dangerous and he has a lot of them.

    He has shown zero signs of pain and is still eating and drinking (and chewing, but we will be getting rid of the nylabones) with no complaints. I've admittedly been slacking on brushing his teeth, so we never noticed it and were pretty surprised to find out. It's one of the back upper molars. He's been started on a course of antibiotics and will have the tooth extracted at the end of next month (soonest available appt.) and will also have his teeth cleaned while he is under anesthesia. Additionally, he's having a full senior panel of blood work done now that he's 9 1/2.

    I feel very guilty that I never noticed the broken tooth and that it became infected

    Has anyone else dealt with broken teeth? Any suggestions for alternative/safer chew toys?
    | Finnian - October 30th 2007 | Beamish November 23rd 2012 |
    RIP Murphy December 17th 2001 - October 23rd 2011 <3

  2. #2
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    Yes, Chase had a broken carnassial tooth (those mega-huge pre-molars). We hadn't a clue and while I'm not a big tooth brusher here either, I don't think I'd have seen it anyway. I took him one time because of some swelling below one eye. The vet checked him and she didn't see a broken tooth or abscess either, she said he needed a drain placed in the cheek bump and antibiotics. About 8-12 months later, with no recurrence of that little swollen area on his cheek, his breath got really, horribly bad. He got his teeth actually cleaned then and during the cleaning they found the big premolar on that side was broken and gave him a course of antibiotics. They said if the smell came back, take him to a dental specialist. For humans, a broken tooth would be terribly painful so I wasn't going to wait and see what happened- the tooth wasn't going to repair itself. I took him to a dental vet right away. His tooth was broken and there was an abscess. Based on reading about abscesses, I'm pretty sure that swollen place on his cheek months earlier was related to a tooth abscess, not mucositis, as the vet originally suggested.

    Anyway, he had the tooth removed and that was all pretty uneventful. I had to put his food into a little food processor and whiz it into pretty fine crumbs and mix it with water for a week or 2. The vet said even soft, canned food could have too much texture and could dislodge the clot or cause problems with the stitches. They said they don't really recommend any hard chew items, no raw bones, no Nylabones, nothing hard or rigid. At the post-op follow up visit, the dentist said not to give anything that I can't bend by hand and that even retriever rolls can allow them to clamp down hard enough to break teeth. I do offer him the big retriever rolls but he rarely chews them these day. I let them chew dehydrated sweet potato chips and smaller rawhide flip chips. They could chew things like pigs ears or tracheas although I haven't tried those.

    These dogs are so tough, not showing pain when things must surely hurt, try not to feel too bad about not finding it sooner. Chase must have had that broken tooth for over a year and was still eating, chewing bones and sticks, acting normal from a mouth standpoint. I hope Finn's extraction goes smoothly. Even though the tooth is so large, you'd never know Chase had his pulled. He still chews sticks and tree bark even if he isn't that interested in his big fat retriever rolls any longer.

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    FinnBeam (05-12-2017)

  4. #3
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    Been there several times. Potion was the first who got a slab fracture of a molar with a nylabone. Learned from the vet at that time. Then it was either Melody or Mardi who fractured a molar on an ice cube; freak incident. Archie came to us with horrible teeth and had to have extractions.

    All did very well. The single tooth extractions, molars, went amazingly well. When they came home I fed soft food, canned/ground down kibble and then over a week's time slowly went back to regular kibble. Archie's extractions and mouth surgery was MUCH more extensive so a little longer recovery time but he too did so well. In fact, he must have been in a lot of pain and even having the surgery, he felt so much better, his personality really started to blossom.

    Have the vet do a preop physical and blood work and with that clear, Finn should do very well. Sending mojo and good thoughts.
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    FinnBeam (05-13-2017)

  6. #4
    Senior Dog voodoo's Avatar
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    my wife wont even think about chili teeth...I bought speacial dog teeth pads for her to try...almost had to eat them...she was pissed, my job...so I kinda keep an eye out on chili teeth and eye goop whatever...daily physical of pet smoothing or whatever. so far so good, but I get freeked easy as in the past emergency vet visits for lot of scares...too bad someone lost this site to hackers or whatever...lots of good old info.
    Amateur pet owner
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    Chili born 7/21/2013

 



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