Broken Tooth

[muddy bob]

Remember that some of our dogs are just too stoic to tell us of their pain. I had a dog with a similar broken upper canine that the vet decided to leave alone. For years it was ok. One day the side of her face swelled up and I knew it was that tooth. Vet number one was an idiot and offered me a diuretic (WTH?). Vet number two informed me that even though there was an angry red swelling on the gum line that it could not be that tooth because canines abscess under the eye not where this swelling was. He did x rays, saw nothing and offered me antibiotics for each time the damn thing recurred. Vet number three looked at the x rays and saw nothing. I asked her to remove the tooth anyway. She did a teeth cleaning and found a different tooth to extract yet she left the bad canine. I got tired of the local vets and drove to Seattle to a vet a friend highly recommended. She took one look at the tooth and said it must come out. The reason the other vets missed this is that the root had rotted to the point that there was nothing of the root left to abscess under the eye. She gave me what little remained of this tooth (it pulled out easily) and suggested I show it to the three vets who never believed me. I never had the nerve.

I guess the point of my story is that I thought I would know if and when I had to do something for this tooth because the dog would tell me. The fact that this canine had no root left tells me this poor dog was suffering for some time and I had no clue. I still am troubled by this although it has been years.

MB

[Jack & Co.]

Thanks for sharing that, Muddy. That's what has upset me the most since I discovered the tooth---I have no idea when this happened and how long he has been hurting. It bothers me a lot.