Post-Dental Care?

[Guest lynne893]

Greta is having her first anesthesia dental tomorrow and I'm a little nervous about what to expect. (I've never had a dog go under for the procedure.)

 

Her teeth are in bad shape, so I'm anticipating extractions.

 

From your experience, what would you say is the "normal" recovery and time period like?

 

What should we be prepared to feed her for the next couple days? I'm assuming add water to her food and really soften it up, maybe mix in yogurt and/or canned pumpkin?

 

Also, should I prepare her beds to be extra cushy, perhaps with towels in case of blood?

 

Thank you!

Lynne

[tbhounds]

With extractions they should eat canned food for the next 7-10 days. You can soak the kibble making it mushy if that's easier for you. She will come home with antibiotics and pain meds (NSAID and Tramadol).

With extensive extractions you may see some blood tinged saliva but, excessive bleeding is not normal. You should start Amicar to prevent post operative bleeding (500mg 3 times daily x's 5 days).

Your vet should have you return in 14ish days for a oral recheck. The sutures are absorbable for suture removal will not be needed.

Keep us posted--glad your going ahead with the procedure-oral health is so important to their overall health.

[Guest lulafortune]

Enzo had a dental with an upper canine fang extraction last month. He was somewhat out of it the evening I picked him up and the next day. I had to place towels under his mouth while he laid down since he was bleeding a bit. A few drops of blood came out of his mouth as he walked around that night and the next day too. Nothing more than spots the size of a quarter. By Day 3 the bleeding was completely done.

 

As far as after-care I softened his food for 2 weeks and kept all toys and hard chews/treats away from him. To really soften the kibble I put a good amount of water in and then microwaved for 30 seconds and let it sit for a few minutes and it really turned to total mush. We were also told to keep him from hard exercise or running for a week or so. My vet did not require a follow up visit or Amicar. Just had him on antibiotics as a precaution and pain meds. It took about a month until the extraction site look completely healed.

[Wonder]

How old?

 

Passion will be 11 in Oct. She had her dental on June 5th. I was a complete mess and actually sat in my car in the parking lot the entire time.

She lost 11 teeth (lost 13 about 3 years ago as well).

 

I've switched her to raw since she can't chew kibble anymore.

 

The vet said it takes 3-4 weeks for the gums to heal so no kibble or hard treats.

 

You will have to wet her food until it's mush for a while until her gums are healed (if she has any pulled).

 

Passion was totally awake when I picked her up. She wasn't out of it or loopy like some hounds are after being under.

 

Good luck!!

[MP_the4pack]

When Diamond had 23 teeth extracted, she lived on eggs. LOVED them. I also gave her wet canned food too, but she loved her scrambled eggs.

[Guest Jennalynn]

Quincy has been with us for just over two years - we've had three dentals all with major extractions. Each was a little different - we adopted him when he was six (turning 7, he was a double return) and immediately knew he needed some major dental - not sure if his teeth had ever been cleaned or if we just got one of the "lucky "ones with horrible teeth! He's our first grey.

 

 

First one (7 extractions, all major molars on the left side) - had NO idea what we were coming to when we picked him up - could hear him crying in the back and when they walked him out there was a lot of bloody drool, and he was a wobbly mess after anesthetic - tons of pacing and panting when we got home too (we were also going outside for a bio break every hour for about 4 hours - lots of fluids) However, he ate his kibble (soaked and mashed) a few hours later! We had to cover everything with sheets for the first few days as he's a bed hopper and he had bloody tinged drool for at least 3-5 days after. He shakes a lot so our walls got some nice splatter too. He ended up having to do an extra week of antibiotics because he didn't heal very well.

 

 

Second one (three months after first, another 7 extractions, all major and one canine) - expected the worst when we went to pick him up but I don't think he was under quite as long as the first - much less "out of it" when we picked him up, wayyy less blood than time one and went right to sleep after we brought him home. Wanted dinner as soon as he woke up though!

 

 

Third one (just last month, 25 extractions) - didn't come out great from anesthetic, lots of crying and seemed so confused - much better once he saw us and came home and slept off the anesthetic – didn’t have an appetite at all which concerned us given his enthusiasm for eating and our previous dental experiences, but then showed some interest right before bed in mushy kibble. Quite a bit of bloody drool again this time (he was wearing a cone so it was very visible – had some eye work done while under- another story!). We had to extend his antibiotics twice due to him developing a hole in his gum, but he seems totally healed up now.

 

 

Sorry for the novel - For those of you doing the math he has three teeth remaining, all canines which certainly makes him look silly, but they keep his tongue in for the most part (but not always!)

 

Good luck - they can be scary but all of mine turned out well in the end (not for my wallet though...)

 

 

[Guest FreeholdHound]

I'm glad I came across this post as I'm bringing Harry in for "my" first dental July 5th - I'm already a bit nervous when I think about it. I'll be off from work so I can watch him like a hawk. Will be picking up some canned food now. Is using Amicar typical?

[Guest lynne893]

Hi all! I'm happy to report that Greta is home and acting pretty darn normal, considering!

 

She's not too loopy from the anesthesia, no bloody drool (yet) and only had to have 4 extractions (to molars and two tiny teeth in the front).

 

Still painful to the wallet, though!

 

I'll report back if there's anything of note to share. THANK YOU so much for sharing your experience-- it totally set me at ease.

 

The vet classified her periodontal disease as "severe" and recommends dental re-exam in 3-6 months, after which he thinks we'll need to do dental scaling every 6 mo.

 

Swiftie, our other little bugger, goes in soon for non-anesthesia cleaning, as her teeth weren't in as bad shape.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Using Amicar is becoming a good preventative measure, especially if you don't know whether your dog has had previous problems. (The problem with greyhounds isn't that they don't form blood clots. They do--and pass clotting tests before surgery. The problem is that their clots break down easily.)

 

What day of the week is Harry's dental? I'd avoid a Friday surgery so I could be sure of reaching my vet's office any time the day after surgery. And do you know where an emergency vet is? (I'm not trying to scare you about things. I learned where the e-vet was two weeks after I brought my first dog home--just so I'd know if I ever needed it. When I did need it--two years later, when my dogs squabbled--it was nice to know that already.)

 

And--for the OP: your vet might advise no food and limited water the first night. My girl's first surgery after I got her was a spay--and a dental (two extractions). She got nothing but ice cubes to lick the first night. In the morning, I let her have some water and she threw up. And drank more. And threw up. And threw up. Yellow bile everywhere. I wound up taking her back to the vet for a shot of Cerenia.

 

Silver, with the gap where she lost the two bottom teeth.

[Guest FreeholdHound]

Glad to hear Greta's doing fine (and you also). Please keep us (me lol ) posted. Harry is going in on a Friday which I wasn't thrilled about but the dates worked out since I'll be off from work. My vet will be in the office on Saturday also. I actually drove to the E Vet on the way home the day I picked Harry up for the 1st time (we were passing right by).

[philospher77]

Katie just recently had her dental. She had 4 molars pulled, including a lower carnassial (that's the big one on the side that they use a LOT for ripping off chunks and chewing on bones). She came out from under the anesthetic much faster than they expected, which caused an issue when she tried to bolt off the table. And, she managed to get a hold of a bully stick very briefly before I took it away, which might be why she had no stitches left at the carnassial when we did the recheck. The center is healing, however, so we are going back in a week to see if the rest is granulating in. If it's not, she will need to go back under and get a new flap made and stitched in. So.... be very careful of what they eat!

 

And I tried doing the mushy kibble, and have learned that it takes longer than 30 minutes with boiling water for Taste of the Wild to get mushy. Leaving it to soak overnight works. There may be a time frame between that that works, but I haven't done that experiment yet. For now she is getting wet, but I will switch over once I run out.

[KF_in_Georgia]

Try grinding some kibble in the food processor. Then soak that. Even if it doesn't get completely mushy, it can be lapped up rather than chewed. My old boy refused to eat his kibble whole for a month or so. I'd grind up 3 cups a day and at mealtime I'd just mix a scoop of it with yogurt or Ensure. Also, mixed it with rice. And sometimes I fed him oatmeal (cooked the night before so it could cool thoroughly) mixed with yogurt. I bought the flavored yogurt--blueberry or strawberry or other fun flavors--made with regular sugar rather than an artificial sweetener.

 

I'll never understand why salmon and sweet potato kibble mixed with Key Lime Pie yogurt was popular with both my dogs...

[Guest lynne893]

Agree about the kibble taking longer to mush up than I would expect! It's shocking!

 

So we got a big tupperware and started soaking the breakfast serving overnight in the fridge and the dinner serving started soaking right after breakfast. That's been working well.

[Houndtime]

Paul had his dental a month or so back and had the two bottom canines removed. All he has left is his dignity and the two top canines. He was a drooly mess for a quite a few weeks.

 

I am still soaking his kibble as I think he prefers it that way. Not a big deal. I have two bowls going; each meal I soak one and place it in the frige. The one I wet at the previous feeding is ready to go. I put some Fresh Pet dog food on top and he has no difficulty in eating and he is a happy pup. I saw the other day, though, that he was playing with a toy with a squeaker and he must have started bleeding a little again, so I removed that toy from the dog toy pile.

[tbhounds]

Agree about the kibble taking longer to mush up than I would expect! It's shocking!

 

So we got a big tupperware and started soaking the breakfast serving overnight in the fridge and the dinner serving started soaking right after breakfast. That's been working well.

I found using the tea kettle to make hot water works great! The kibble absorbs the water within minutes vs using the tap.

[Guest Bean_Scotch]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but my dogs had 3-4 extractions and they were eating hard kibble that night and required no special care from me, other than their meds. They were happy and acting just fine. Chewing on rawhide 3-4 days later as well...

[philospher77]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but my dogs had 3-4 extractions and they were eating hard kibble that night and required no special care from me, other than their meds. They were happy and acting just fine. Chewing on rawhide 3-4 days later as well...

 

I think it depends a lot on what was extracted and how. If it's just a matter of pulling the tooth, then you can probably get away with things as normal. If, as in Katie's case, you've actually had to create tissue flaps to suture across open wounds in the gums, a little more care with foods and toys is needed during the recovery period. Right now she seems to be healing up reasonably well, considering the pulled stitches, so we go back in a week to hopefully see that the front root has healed up. Fingers crossed!

[KF_in_Georgia]

Yes, one or two extractions, where there's not a huge gap of raw gum, don't usually require special feeding. But when there's no tooth left to cushion the gum, you have to worry that letting the dog chew on something hard is going to damage the healing tissue.

[tbhounds]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but my dogs had 3-4 extractions and they were eating hard kibble that night and required no special care from me, other than their meds. They were happy and acting just fine. Chewing on rawhide 3-4 days later as well...

Yikes-this statement makes me cringe. Unless your hound just had some incisors extracted you should restrain from hard food/treats for at least 7-10 days. Often flaps are performed to extract teeth with nothing more than sutures holding them together until the gum heals.