Dental Question

[Guest greytful4]

I took Ky to the vet yesterday for her annual check and shots. The vet looked at her teeth and noticed she had some gum recession on one of her teeth with the beginning of an infection. She gave me an estimate for a cleaning and a dental, but I am so scared about how they will knock her out for it.I know they will do a blood panel prior to. I hear horror stories about greys who have had the procedure and didn't recover.I'm scared, advice please ?

[CaliforniaGreys]

If you have a Greyhound savy vet, your little girl will be fine. Now I say that with confidence and I have a Grey savy vet and I'm still a wreck every time they have to go under.

[RobinM]

I completely understand BUT it will be OK. You have grey savvy vets? you trust them? It's like flying- accidents do happen but considering how often a plane takes off and lands, it's so very rare. Beau has been "under" 6 times in the last 2 years.

 

Polli has been under 4x in the last year.

 

Ask them to go a little light on the gas as the gas is the one that they are hung over from.

 

Your baby will be fine and IF she really needs the dental, she really should have it.

 

We are all here to hold your hand during it.

[GreyKarma]

Kyle should do fine. You can always ask their protocols for anesthesia, are they on a monitor, is a licsenced tech or Dr doing this etc. Sometimes for just cleanings a reversible anes. is used and they are up in no time.

[silverfish]

I think you need to trust your vet, and if you do, you have to take their advice. If you neglect your grey's teeth, not only is that painful and uncomfortable for them, but it may affect the whole system and cause kidney or liver damage. Worse, you may find yourself in the position of having to have a dental when your dog is toxic with the poisons produced by the bacteria in her mouth and that's not going to help the anaesthetic risk.

 

I've had dentals done on two dogs. The first needed three during his lifetime, and he was twelve years old for the last one. Sure, he took a little longer to get over the wobbly stage but he was fine and lived another eighteen months - and kept most of his teeth (he lost a canine due to an abscess, and one of his back teeth).

 

The second dog (Jack) ... he has good teeth, but is prone to gum recession and he has very sticky saliva. It's the reason he now only has his front teeth plus about three at the back - the trouble with gum recession is that it exposes the roots and allows infection in. His first owner clearly neglected his mouth and it was in a very bad state, so at his first dental (before we got him) he lost about thirteen teeth. I had to have another done about a year later, when he was eleven years old, and he was fine.

 

Seriously, if your vet is recommending a dental, my opinion is that you should do it. I know it's scary - I hate sending them in for dentals! But I believe it's the right thing to do for the good of the dog. If she has her dental now, it may save her teeth!

 

All anaesthetic carries a risk. It's the way it is. But a vet will weigh up the risk and advise you as to the best course of action. If you don't trust your vet, find another that you do trust!

 

[Guest turbospeed]

Ask your vet about using different anesthesia that is used especially on greyhounds. It will be much better for her. However, it won't pay off to put off the dental in the long run, because not only does your hound get stinky breath, but they can also get a very severe infection. We also use the Dental Rinse from Foster & Smith and apply it with the sponge brushes on all our hounds teeth. Our vet told us that this was great preventative. My oldest, Murphy, really had some problems before we took him for his dental--but the combination of the cleaning and using the rinse has cleared everything up. He is 8 1/2 and they did a Sr. Panel on him a week prior to the dental procedure. He came home and did greyt at the vet's office.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Turbospeed

[Beautybabe]

All three of our family's dogs had dentals in the last year, each one within a a few weeks of arriving at their new homes. Emmet and Martin needed nothing but a good cleaning. Yogi had a couple of teeth extracted and it made a lot of difference in his stinky breath.

 

My best advice...make sure they pee and poo thoroughly beforehand--poor Martin was completely "out" when we picked him up and he peed in the car. Yogi left the vet late in the day, after dark in a heavy rainstorm. As I was driving back to my daughter's house, there was the most g..awful smell. He had pooped in my car!

[macoduck]

Check out Dr Stack's site. here She has a section on anesthesia.

[duncan41]

There are several greyt adoption groups that have their anesthetic protocol published on their websites. If you can find one, print it out and take it with you. Dr. Stack's article relies heavily on the Greyhound-savy vet. If you have one, great! Doing dentals is vital to continued good health.