I went to pick up Kody and he seems to be doing pretty good. We had some good news in that his tooth was not as badly damaged as we feared so Kody will be a little better off as far as long term care. We were afraid that the tooth was more damaged under the gum line, but it’s actually in pretty good shape.
Kody could best be described as traumatized followed by drowsy. He can walk and jumped into the back of the car but I think both the post stress and the medicine are making him very tired.
Physically, he has a little patch on his leg shaved for the IV. He coughed every once in a while after I first picked him up. Both of his cheeks are still a little swollen but the doctor says that will fix itself pretty quickly. Kody doesn’t need any medicine after the surgery, and should be mostly pain free without it.
I asked the dentist, “What’s the hardest thing Kody can chew on going forward?” He said rubber toys like a kong would be the hardest thing I would want to give him.
We also had a discussion about rawhide. They sell CET Enzymatic Oral Hygiene Chews for Dogs at my vet and the dentist had them too. The medium ones I would use are about 2″ x 3″ rawhide. I asked the dentist if it would be OK if Kody swallowed these.
His feeling was that it was fine. He has seen dogs come into his office after swallowing the knotted end of a rawhide bone and seen it under x-ray expanded a bit and the dog still passed it without surgery. It’s not a good idea to let that happen, of course, but the point was that a 2″ x 3″ single sheet rawhide chew doesn’t present a very likely worst case scenario. He gives his own dogs chews like this and allows them to swallow them.
This is a big relief to me because even though these won’t last as long for Kody as bully sticks, they will definitely be better at cleaning his teeth.
Speaking of which, when Kody gets his crown placed I will also have his teeth cleaned. It was only a hundred bucks more which feels like a drop in the bucket at this point. Then I will start brushing his teeth daily.
I asked the dentist what a good process was for training your dog to let you brush his teeth. He said, first to put a little wet food on the toothbrush and just let the dog eat it and chew on the brush for a little while. Then stop the session and give the dog a special treat he will only get after getting his teeth brushed. Continue to do that for a few days or until they seem comfortable and then add in kind of touching the tooth brush to a single tooth the way you would want to hold it for brushing. And then stop the session and give the special treat. Over time you’ll be able to truly brush your dog’s teeth.
You never stop giving the special treat after brushing but eventually the dog will basically come and sit with you to have their teeth brushed and then be happy to get the treat. Classic positive training.
I’m just glad Kody is okay. He’s laying beside me in a deep sleep and it feels good to know he’s taken care of. My energy has also come back having put this behind us, or at least the hardest most painful part. I feel like I’m breathing easy for the first time in two weeks. At this point, if feels very worth it to have spent the money on this.