Sam gets his first dental treatment
by Mary Guiden
My dog, Sam, is 7.5 years old. He is a Basset Hound-Springer Spaniel mix and he’s quite the character, very vocal and friendly. He likes to interrupt meetings with my boss, Tommaso.
I rescued Sam when he was six months old, and he lived in shelters in Kansas and Colorado, where I am located. He was found as a stray in Kansas.
Over the years, I’ve tried to use home dental kits, brushing his teeth with either a toothbrush or sometimes rubbing the toothpaste on his teeth with my finger. He never really liked me doing this and would often growl when I even tried to look at his teeth. (He’s never bitten me or anyone.)
Last year, I started using a dental water additive endorsed by the Veterinary Health Oral Council and it seemed to make a difference quite quickly.
This year, in part due to my new role for Veterinary33 and Dentistry33, I decided it was time for him to have a dental treatment at the vet clinic. Dr. Ben Read is his veterinarian at Urban Paw Veterinary Health and Rehabilitation in Denver.
As we covered earlier this month, February is National Pet Dental Health Month.
Urban Paw offered $100 off dental treatments and a free home kit. The discount is a big draw. These treatments can be expensive; the quote that I received estimated $933 for the procedure, including blood work, anesthesia and x-rays. Pet dental insurance — including Healthy Paws, which I have for Sam — typically does not cover preventive care including dental cleanings and extractions (unless the latter is due to injury).
Sam had never been under anesthesia since I rescued him, but I trusted Dr. Read and talked with him about how the process would work. As it turns out, Sam had an infected tooth in the back of his mouth. I provided verbal consent over the phone for the tooth to be extracted. Sam also had x-rays taken to learn more about a limp he’s developed in the last month or so.
I picked him up in the middle of the afternoon and understood he’d still be feeling the effects of anesthesia over the next day. When we arrived home, he was reluctant to jump out of the car, so I picked him up and carried him to the sidewalk. Inside, he sat down on the living room floor and stared into space. He groaned every so often and also made a squeaking sound a few times. Fortunately, he was on pain meds, but it was still hard to sense that he was in pain and confused about what took place.
I knew that he was feeling better later in the evening when he asked for food. He fell asleep in the living room, and I stayed with him for a bit before I turned in, to provide some comfort and so that he knew I wasn’t abandoning him in his moment of need. During the night, he jumped up on my bed to sleep, and I knew that was another sign that he was feeling better.
We will return to the clinic later this month so that Dr. Read can check on the site of the extracted tooth. Due to side effects, I discontinued using a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that reduces pain and inflammation. Sam started vomiting after being on the medicine for a few days even though it seemed to help after the procedure. I tried only giving him half a pill per day instead of a whole pill, and he still vomited. Dr. Read had told me that his dog won’t tolerate the medicine either.
Sam has also been on soft or wet food since the extraction, and that is likely a bonus for him.
I was glad that I watched one of the informative videos produced by the AVMA about what to expect during the visit. I also had a conversation with a staffer from Urban Paw before our visit, and asked questions about the anesthesia process and how that would play out.
In retrospect, I should have read the discharge instructions more carefully. I was taken aback by the side effects from Vetprofen, especially since it worked so well in the first few days following the surgery. It even helped with his limping.
I’ve already had a conversation with Dr. Read about putting Sam on an osteoarthritis medication like Adequan, which is used to treat osteoarthritis and joint issues. I wrote about Adequan after learning about it at VMX 2023.
I will make more of an effort to clean Sam’s teeth once he’s healed up and, hopefully, regular self-care can take the place of a more intense cleaning like the one he experienced. I’m still glad that he had this procedure, especially given the infected tooth, which could eventually have caused health problems for him. Sam may also benefit from me incorporating some soft food into his diet, too.
Comments
Related Articles
Copyright © 2025 - All Rights Reserved
ISSN 2768-198X
List
Add
Please enter a comment