Do Greys Bad Teeth Just Fall Out On Their Own?

[Guest carolxi]

I recently spoke to a grey owner who's grey gets frequent expensive dental work done and it got me wondering about their teeth when they start to go. I have seen greys with teeth missing, but I really didn't think about how that happens. One neighbour said her grey has about 2 teeth left which she just keeps brushing daily, but said it didn't help with the other teeth that he lost. I guess I thought that they just fall out with no problem. Another man I spoke to has his grey's teeth extracted at a considerable price. Is this man getting ripped off or is this something we all have to look forward to with our dogs? Thanks so much for your help with this.

 

 

[GoinGrey]

The question you should ask is: "Would you like to have your teeth rotting to the point of falling out?"

 

My hound has bad teeth and I will continue to have the vet take care of his dental needs. Left unchecked, rotting teeth can lead to worse, life-threatening, health problems. Plus it is painful for the hounds. And their breath stinks.

 

Help your hounds as much as you can with routine brushing and professional dental care as required.

 

GoinGrey

 

 

(Edited for grammar)

Edited January 25, 2008 by GoinGrey

[Guest Winterwish]

Oh I couldn't imagine waiting 'til they fall out. It happens,but I have a feeling,tho'don't know for sure,that there are reasons why a particular tooth may actually fall out,but I don't think that's the norm at all.

 

Brushing prevents,bones are excellant,but nothing replaces making sure the vet is taking care to check and evaluate how the teeth are doing.

[Guest vahoundlover]

I've never heard that teething just falling out is normal. I thought most were done by extraction. Boss at 13 still has all but 2 of his teeth...we'll see what happens next week when he goes for dental Susie on the other hand (11yr old brood mama) had 22 teeth pulled and the vet said that the only thing holding a few in was all the crud.

[Guest fruitypebbles]

Falling out on their own means a bunch of other things are happening. The roots are dying and the jaw bone where the tooth seats in is rotting away. This is advanced periodontal disease and it's not a comfortable situation for a dog to be in.

 

A friend of mine has a rescued dog that had teeth so rotten they were all removed. During the dental, the vet remarked that there was little blood loss and very little healthy bone left at the gum line.

They now do blood work every 6 months to watch for any organ compromise because of the bad teeth.

 

Raw meaty bones, dentals and dental care (brushing) can help prevent tartar and bacterial build up.

[Guest Spencers_Greyt]

No! No! No! If a Grey's teeth are at the point of falling out because they're so bad then there has been considerable damage done already to the gums and possibly the entire health of the hound! Greys need a yearly dental because their teeth are just bad. Most sighthounds have bad teeth (don't know why). If teeth are going bad aka rotting, then there is danger of gum infection spreading throughout their bodies. I can't say enough how important a yearly dental is especially for retired racers!

 

[Guest snowberry]

Long before the teeth actually fall out, infection spreads along the jaw-bone, to the point where the dog may end up needing part of his/her jaw amputating - our local rescue found a dog in this condition, and amputation of half the lower jaw was the only way to save the dog's life. She will have a reduced life expectancy, since infection through the teeth can spread to the heart and weaken the heart muscles.

 

If you see dogs without teeth, usually at some point in their lives a responsible person will have taken them to the vets for an extraction. I have had a couple of little front teeth on a grey break off the the gumline, while chewing on a bone, and we've had to go and have the roots dug out to prevent infection.

 

Greys vary widely in terms of dental health, some are lucky and have strong teeth, others have teeth that need frequent dental treatments. Personally, I'd keep a contingency fund for dental treatment!

[Guest greyhound1]

Brush the teeth every day and have your vet do dental.

[PatricksMom]

It's not inevitable that every grey will need extractions--so far Patrick has all his teeth thanks to (not so vigilent) brushing and yearly dentals and a good vet.

 

That said, if my vet said he needed an extraction, I'd do it. I can't imagine the pain that waiting until a tooth rotted enough to fall out would cause, let alone the health implications.

[BootsyCollins]

My grey has major hillbilly teeth. We had to have 4 pulled right when we got him, and I'm sure more will follow, even though we brush his teeth several times a week and have a dental every year. I can't imagine how his breath would have smelled if we had let those teeth get worse...let alone how much pain he would have been in.

[Guest crazy4greys]

My girl Skylar, who is 6.5 has 8 teeth left. They did not fall out on their own, they were all extracted and I will keep getting her dentals until she has no teeth left.

 

She is my first grey, out of 5, that have had bad teeth.

[MP_the4pack]

Pearl has most of her teeth. And they are in great shape. But..........there was one that abscessed. It caused kidney disease. Which cause uncontrolled hypertension. Her BP was a very dangerous 250. It was so high that just to put her under anesthesia to remove the tooth was extremely dangerous. But the hypertension was going to cause many other problems such as stroke, heart attack, blindness, renal failure...............need I go on?

 

I bit the bullet and gave her a dental(putting her under anesthesia). Her bad tooth is out. I work hard at keeping the rest in good shape. The kidney damage is permanent and she's on 15 pills a day for heart, hypertension and kidney problems. But she is no longer getting worse. She feels great.

I watch her like a hawk for any signs that she has another tooth problem. But now she acts like a 5 yr old (and she made it to her 10th BD) last Oct.

 

Other things will probably go wrong before teeth fall out.

 

Aside from that............I don't think I could stand my greyhound anywhere near me with the kind of breath they would have.

 

 

PS.....baby teeth do fall out on their own. But I believe that is at 6 months old.

 

 

 

 

[silverfish]

I'm going to assume this is a serious question, although .. sheesh!

 

The full answer - yes, you do need to get your dog's teeth attended to by a vet, and if they're showing signs of any problems, including build-up of tartar, the sooner the better.

 

Tartar is a rock-hard build up of waste products from oral bacteria mixed with food particles and minerals from the saliva, and it will push the gums back so that bacteria get in and cause infection. It stinks, and it's uncomfortable for the dog and at this stage, you should schedule a dental cleaning - which may in fact save ALL of the dogs teeth.

 

If you get infection in the mouth the waste products of this can get into the blood stream and cause inflammation and damage to organs like the heart, liver and kidneys - and this will make the dog feel extremely unwell.

 

As others have said, neglecting a dog's teeth can lead to very serious consequences including loss of jaw bone, kidney failure and - not to put too fine a point on it - death, in extreme cases. I used to work as an animal nurse, and I've seen some foul mouths (usually just before lunch-time ) but I have never seen a dog whose teeth all fell out by themselves before it died of complications like septicaemia, or organ failure, although I've seen both of those things in dogs with rotting mouths. It may happen, but I've never seen it.

 

Sorry to sound harsh, but as someone else said - would you want your teeth rotting to the point that they fell out on their own? Think how painful it would be! To be perfectly frank, to let a dog's mouth get to that condition and not do anything about it would amount to criminal neglect in this country and a person could be charged if the RSPCA got to know about it.

 

I have two dogs. One is nine years old with all her pearly whites intact and in good condition except one that she chipped. One is between twelve and thirteen and has all his front teeth, but only about four at the back. I tell people he 'lost' them, but in fact what I mean is that he was taken in to the vet on four separate occasions to have dental work done and each time some needed to be removed.

 

Yes, it is expensive, but sadly it is just one of those things and it has to be done.

 

 

[Guest Winterwish]

Very true silverfish,that is so wild to even think about for sure!

For some reason I thought I'd read that happen to a greyhound here on gt,and have to say,I did wonder what in heaven's name shape the tooth was in!

In any case,here was one dog I'd heard of (not on gt),who actually did have a tooth be almost completely out,but for a teeny fibrous thing. That was totally different because it was an actual abnormality of the tooth in that it no root base at all,and rot wasn't a factor. So,in that case,it was a physical anomaly,and doesn't count really.

[Guest Winterwish]

....and it got me wondering about their teeth when they start to go....

 

There is so much you can do to prevent dental decay,especially now that people have become aware of the need.

So there's no reason to even take the stance of,"when they start to go". It is not inevitable at all that a greyhound lose teeth.

[turbotaina]

Aside from what others have said here, I'll add that some greyhounds genetically have better teeth and so do not need dentals every year (though those that do need yearly dentals probably outweigh those that don't by a good margin). If the owner is vigilant about dental care and/or feeds a diet of raw, meaty bones, the dog is even less likely to need frequent full dentals.

 

My boy is kibble fed and just had his third dental since he's been with me. As of August this year, I will have had him for 5 years. I got him a dental his first year with me (though his teeth looked good) because he had broken in half one of his molars while chewing on rawhide. I got him another dental the following year (because I did think that dogs needed them yearly), but he didn't really need it. His most recent dental was on 1/18 and his teeth look great. I have to admit, I have not been a diligent brusher, but am so now Dentals here aren't cheap and prevention goes a long way.

 

Having said that, I think that owners should be very vigilant regarding their dog's teeth and when a vet recommends a dental, the suggestion should be taken seriously

Edited January 28, 2008 by turbotaina

[Guest TBSFlame]

It's not inevitable that every grey will need extractions--so far Patrick has all his teeth thanks to (not so vigilent) brushing and yearly dentals and a good vet.

 

That said, if my vet said he needed an extraction, I'd do it. I can't imagine the pain that waiting until a tooth rotted enough to fall out would cause, let alone the health implications.

I have 5 greys and they get dentals when they need them. Some have fairly good teeth and some do not. Tessie needs a dental every year but Star doesn't. Tessie is 12 and gets regular dentals but she still has all her teeth.

[Guest PinkDog]

Pull 'em! My Bessie was 12 when she needed some teeth pulled. She was so frail, and had a condition where she grew tumors. I kept saying, "No. She needs the extractions but she only has three or four months left to live and I'm not going to gamble with those by putting her under anesthesia for a dental."

 

Well...THREE YEARS later I came home to find super-elderly Bess with a bleeding mouth. It looked like a horror movie had been filmed in the den, with spatters and drips everywhere. She was frothing blood at the mouth. Turns out one of her teeth had abscessed into her nasal cavity and upset one of her nasal tumors. She had to have the dental and I was terrified the whole time.

 

She came through her dental with a few less teefees, but she thoroughly enjoyed the next few months, eating all kinds of things that she'd been refusing for a while. And then I lost her a few months later, at 15 1/2 years old--the oldest hound I'd ever had.

 

We were so scared to lose her, and kept postponing that dental... She tricked us all by living so long! Had I known how sturdy she was, I'd have had the dental right away, at age 12.

[Guest carolxi]

Well I'm chalking this one up as yet another leaning session in what will probably be quite a list as my bunny Anubis and I continue our lives together!

 

Now the dog I had before this was 50 years ago and my mother looked after him. You can only imagine how much has changed in terms of dog care since then. Before I got Anubis, I read the Dummies book on greys. It took me a month to teach myself to put the lid down on the toilet everytime I used it so that when he arrived, he wouldn't be tempted to have a drink. Prior to that, it wouldn't have entered my mind that anything was wrong with that, although it woud be gross to see. What sold me was the statement "would you let you children drink out of the toilet bowl?". Owning a dog after so long is a learning experience. It is rarely that a person doesn't care, but that they really are clueless about certain things, and the dental was just one more thing until I spoke to that owner.

 

Anubis is a very well-cared for bunny and when I post questions its because I want to know about that subject because I love him. When we go walkies, I am amazed at how many bad dog owners are out there. We all post about our bad experiecnes with bad dog owners. Well, I'm convinced that they are just as clueless about how to look after their dogs as we are, but don't have the good fortune to have access to an information site like we do.

 

Thanks for the information everybody. Its scary to me that the more I know, the more I realize how much I don't know!!

 

[Guest PinkDog]

Hey, six houndies later and I'm STILL learning things I didn't know!

[silverfish]

It's understandable! We all have to start somewhere.

 

If I sounded intolerant or harsh, it's because just occasionally we get trolls in trying to wind people up with silly statements or questions, and having been involved with animal care for the best part of forty years, it is still sometimes hard to realise just how much new people don't know.

 

If you can ask, you will learn.

[Guest carolxi]

It's understandable! We all have to start somewhere.

 

If I sounded intolerant or harsh, it's because just occasionally we get trolls in trying to wind people up with silly statements or questions, and having been involved with animal care for the best part of forty years, it is still sometimes hard to realise just how much new people don't know.

 

If you can ask, you will learn.

 

I amaze my self at how much I still don't know about caring for Anubis!!

[Guest Winterwish]

Oh so true silverfish,carolxi,we are all always learning!