Dental disaster: check your dog’s teeth regularly
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Cottage tales, Min Pin dogs | 33 comments
Photo: Dr Quito recovering from his operation
A week ago we noticed that Dr Quito had lost weight and was off his food. Quito has had a crummy shake of the dice. He was attacked by a lurcher at 10 months old and has been semi-crippled since then. From a pup, he’s always been a picky eater so we tried soaking his food in delicious gravy, bought different dog food, changed the toppings.
“It’s like The Caesar Syndrome,” muttered Danny as he hand fed our best boy.
I was curious. What could The Caesar Syndrome be? Some sort of dog related condition discovered by Pliny?
I’d forgotten that before The Contessa joined our family, Quito would only eat Caesar dog food. Excellent but expensive gourmet food for small dogs. With a hungry new wife at the table his tastes broadened rapidly and to our joy, discovered the delights of cheaper dog food.
Quito was looking very ill indeed on Wednesday. He had to be carried into the garden to pee and had no interest in food. Danny rang the vet immediately.
Quito was put on antibiotics and this morning and underwent x-rays and a blood test. Under anaesthetic, his teeth were descaled and many were removed. Although he will shortly hit seventy in dog years, we don’t think of him as an old dog and had no idea that he had a problem with his teeth. Poor Quito must have been in agony. We suspected cancer so are hugely relieved.
So was the Contessa. Apparently on his return Quito was heralded with lots and licks and attention from his trophy wife. When Dr Q and I climbed into Jalopy this morning and drove away, she crept under the duvet and seemed very depressed all day.
But we have let this little fellow down. We didn’t know that it was important to examine his teeth regularly. I’ve kept dogs for over fifty years and have never had a problem with bad teeth in any but the most ancient dog. So we are now starting a new weekly regime with all our Min Pins. We are going to check and clean their teeth. We’ll try using our toothpaste but if they rebel I’ve seen dog toothpaste at Pets At Home. They’ll hate this ‘manhandling’ but better to prempt a dental problem. We’re also investing in some dental chews. They used to love them when they were younger. They also enjoy crunching fresh carrots, which are great for their teeth and also supposed to be a great alternative treatment for worms.
Their water bowl has filtered water. Perhaps we should use water straight from the mains as it contains fluoride. What do you think?
This evening Dr Q ate some Weetabix soaked in a little milk and goose stock before falling deeply asleep after a long and stressful day.
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Hi Fiona:
You will likely need to start them with chicken bones. A whole chicken cut up into smallish pieces and perhaps with skin off. Chicken bones are safe and digestible. Stay with that until they (and you) are comfortable with it. In general the bones should have lots of meat on them — not bare bones and watch the fat. Watch them when they eat so there is no stealing.
HTH
Also, the rawfeeding list on Yahoo Groups is a moderated list, now 13,500 members strong and full of good advice from kindly and knowledgeable moderators. There are no dumb questions and it’s free, but If you join, make sure that you choose ‘web only’ or you will be completely flooded with e-mails.
Poor you and Dr Q of course, hope he’s 100% better soon. I read your post and all the comments, I too have learned lots. The puppy and the cat love cucumber (taking after Small obviously!) but I will try giving them both raw carrot.
Thank you for being so honest and sharing this.
Amanda x
Aw, poor Dr Q! Our Trevor is only 4 months old but I will definitely start a regime with him. I have considered dental chews but I like the idea of raw carrot as a chew. Thanks for the advice. Hope Dr Q gets better soon.
Thank you for this. Our “boys” have just eaten their first raw carrots. They needed quite a bit of encouragement though.
Hello Philippa
Thanks so much for your advice. We feed the Min Pins on complete dried food with a meat and vegetable topping, made by us.
Perhaps going down the raw food route would be an answer. Everyone seems to be very enthusiastic about it.
Gentle pats to the Dachsies.
Hi Sarah
Sorry to hear that Basil’s teeth are not so good. Those sweet potato snacks sound interesting. I bought some dental chews yesterday and The Contessa and Inca loved them but in the end they had to be confiscated as they preferred to protect them rather than eat them!
Hi Belinda
My next step will be to get some bones from the butchers. We gave up giving them bones as these seemed to cause so many fights. But I reckon that it’s worth giving them another go. The Min Pins are fed a good quality kibble.
Hi Jopan
Thanks for the advice. Don’t know how we’ll get along with the teeth brushing .
Hi Lindsay
Oh your poor Lab! Thanks for dropping by.
Hi Sharon
Thanks for your advice. I’ll check out the forum.
Hello Sharon J
I’ll definitely go back to giving them bones.
Hello Z
I saw those at the pet shop today. I reckon that it’s the best way to start.
Hi Melanie
Yes it’s awful when pets are ill. Lucky Foxy, having a chicken roasted for her.
Hi Jan
Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
Hi Moonroot
He seems to be much better this morning and has got his appetite back!
Hello S.O.L.
Thanks for dropping by.
Hi Pamela
Yes toothache is terrible. No wonder he was so grumpy and withdrawn.
Hello Kethry
Chews seem to be a good idea. Except our two female Min Pins aren’t chewing them, they’re guarding them!
Hi Kate(uk)
I got some of those teeth cleaning biscuits yesterday and Inca loves them. As you say, much cheaper than surgery.
Hi Natasha
Poor old puss. Perhaps the biscuits that Kate(uk) recommends would do the trick.
Hi Jo
Thanks for your good advice and support. We don’t give them tinned food but have never thought about giving them raw food. I expect that they’d love it.
Dr Q is recovering well, sleeping in a warm basket beside the wood burning stove.
Hi Steph
Thanks for that. Raw meat and bones will be part of their diet from now on.
Hi Wendy
The finger stall tooth cleaners looked practical to me. The min pins have quite small mouths but can clench their teeth very hard. I’m taking a softly softly approach and just using my finger at the moment!
Hi Mandi
I laughed out loud at your description of your cat! Thanks so much for cheering us up.
Hi Charlie
Plaque off sounds like the biz. Thank you so much.
Hello Tami
What a shame that your dog had a stroke.
Your eldest (at 17 years old) must be a real old gentleman. Why that’s 119 in dog years.
Hi Pat
I loved hearing that Jingles sings when his teeth are being cleaned.
Hi Jane
Thanks for that. I’m definitely going to try it with the Min Pins.
Hi Fiona, Glad your little guy is okay. It isn’t just dogs that need their teeth checked and cleaned on a regular basis, Cats too need theirs done as well. Jingles is pretty tolerant of me brushing his, although he does make a kind of sing song growling noise.
Hello Fiona,
I have also been using Plaque Off for my three Cavs and it seems to be very successful. A small pot lasts for ages and it can be easily added to food.
Sorry to hear about your pup. I have 5 chis and know the problems of teeth. One had infectin so bad she had a stroke from going under and never receovered properly and had to be put to sleep after evacing from hurricane. Another is 17 yrs old and has only 2 teeth and is very finicky . I know how you feel.
Poor little mite, hope he’s starting to feel the benefits of his dental. We have a greyhound, and they tend to have dental problems, something to do with the long mussle and therefore not using the teeth at the back. We have always given him raw carrots and rawhide chews, but he simply doesn’t use his back teeth so eventually developed sore gums and lots of horrid plaque.
When the vet was planning to do a major dental job on him, I was recommended a product called ‘Plaque Off’ by a friend and at the pet shop. So we tried it, it’s a herbal product that comes with a tiny scoop (size of small fingernail). A couple of scoops are added to his evening meal and after just a week, we could see the difference. After a month, the plaque had almost all come off and his gums are no longer looking sore. I would really recommend this product to anyone with this problem, we have never managed the teeth brushing very well with our boy so this has been a life (and teeth!) saver.
I’ve since seen it in lots of pet shops, I get it from Soham. I’d never go down the route of raw food, simply because of the delicate tummy our boy has.
Give the little Dr Q a big cuddle from us!
AWWWWW poor little baby, and I greatly sympathise with you feeling rotten about not noticing. I recently spotted a lack of fang on one of my old cats and it occurred to me that I had been cursing him for his hell like breath for months!
He is impossible to hold or pin down so i spent the next week or so trying to sneak up on him when he was fast asleep and try and left his lip to have a proper look before he realised what was happening ( this only resulted in him being totally freaked out instead of his normal mild state of paranoia) I still haven’t found out if its fell out altogether or a bad stump or healed up etc and wrestling with the thought of taking him to the vets will totally freak him and it may all be for nothing, ( not to mention what an anaesthetic will do to a vastly over weight 13 year old paranoid aggoraphobic feline)
I haven’t got a lot of experience with dogs , as I have only ever owned a yorkie but she loved those 3 sided star shape chew things that had the strange aroma of rice pudding, the pet shop recommended them for her teeth as they have such tiny ones I was worried about her chewing too hard stuff and breaking them off.
I really hope Dr Quito is feeling loads better soon