The toothbrushing thing isn't really happening. Once every two weeks or so we take another shot at it but he friggin' hates it, and it's not like it removes anything from his teeth anyway.
We've had excellent results improving gum redness and bad breath with noroclav (amoxicillin) antibiotics and he's on his 4th or 5th cycle of them. The issue is basically that tartar (hard stuff) buildup over the years has reached a stage where it interferes with the gum's ability to make good contact with the tooth, which makes little zones where bacteria thrive.
Vets have been 50/50 on wanting to knock him out and do a teeth clean. I can see where those who want to do it are coming from. It will remove the cause of the problem. But. They seem to downplay the risk of anesthetic as if it shouldn't enter into consideration, a risk which I got a whole scary speech about the last time he got put under. Quoted cost is about $1500 (Australia
), and I gotta say I get a real used car salesman vibe from those vets.
Other vets agree with my take that there's not a sufficiently compelling reason to risk putting him under (they believe there is a risk of not waking up) given that Fin's teeth are in good condition (no rot, just surface tartar causing gingivitis), that amoxicillin is an effective treatment, and that antibiotics are a lot safer, even over the long term, than anesthetic. And that he's old enough that it's not like we're going to run out of antibiotics to knock out resistant strains before the dog runs out of years. Also, I know I'm probably going to have to anesthetize him at some point when one of his many lumps (Old Mr Lumpy) turns out to be the real McCoy, so cleaning teeth then if possible, like they did last time, makes way more sense to me than putting him under twice. Maybe I just favor these vets because they don't want my $1500, which admittedly is a plus, but they seem more thorough in terms of actually examining his teeth and assessing the degree of risk that his dental/ gum issues present, whereas those who want to do the cleaning strike me as coming from a one-size-fits-all school.
Sadly, no one believes that cleaning his teeth under low-risk sedation (instead of full anesthetic) will be worthwhile. They can't effectively get to the back. I guess getting to the back is more invasive than even a sedated dog is willing to put up with, and my brilliant idea of clamping his head to the table and keeping mouth corners retracted with dog lip friendly hooks went unappreciated. Seriously, he wouldn't like it at the time, even stoned, but I think it's a pretty good idea. Any dog that lives long enough to have these problems is going to have them and their owners are going to do the same risk/ benefit crap I'm doing. How is there no way to clean an old dog's teeth without fully anesthetizing him? Or do anything where sedation and immobilization gets the job done with far less risk? Hard to believe.
Anyway, I guess we've got a safe stop-gap solution for now and he's still a happy boy, loving walks, plays, hugs, and his food, and he's always under the desk here snoozing during Getbig.
