Canine Dentistry

We took Uulaq in for her "old dog" checkup this year -- she's nearing 12 and it's time to start checking everything at least once a year to make sure she's doing ok. If she was human, she'd be somewhere well past 90 by now, and she's surprisingly spry.

Upped the dosage of her anti-inflammatories to combat her arthritis, and did all the bloodwoord (which is absolutely normal and fine) and discovered that she has a broken tooth. Cracked a whole third of a molar off and it's just hanging there, wobbling, and has to hurt like hell. We figure she had to have done it chewing on the hard nylabones we have at home. We changed from the original (slightly softer) Nylabones becuase Berit can just bite pieces off of them(!) - she sits and shaves off 1/4" slices and leaves them all over my office. Uulaq just chews on them, but apparently with enough force to actually crack her teeth. Eep!

So, in on Monday for surgery to remove the tooth. That's pretty much the solution for any doggy dentistry, as far as I can tell. Cracked or broken teeth aren't capped or anything, they just pull them out. Maesc had a few small front teeth pulled out when he was older, and Rukh had a dead nerve in one of his fangs, caused by bashing the tooth on something hard. We didn't pull that one, but only because it was still in place and fine.

Hopefully they'll give her some good dog-vicodin - getting teeth pulled hurts. But she should be back to eating regular food in a few days. Poor beastie!