Popper's Tooth Extraction

Popper had his canine tooth extraction on Monday.

He was pretty angry that I didn't feed him breakfast, so he was being snarky and rebellious (although he is always a bit of each!). I reminded the vet that a muzzle might be in order.

I came back to pick him up, only to discover that TWO molars had been removed. The vet wasn't available to chat with, so I took the poor dog outside. They'd given him IV fluids, and he really, really had to go. I have to commend him on his superb bladder control! I had assumed he was doing his beagle squeak inside the vet because he has separation anxiety - it seems more likely they just hadn't let him out to potty. :(

Popper was pretty out of it, he didn't protest at all when I put him in his crate, but curled up and went to sleep right away.

The next day the vet called, and I found out that the extra tooth she removed was actually right next to his cracked one. See, Popper is rather "special," and has the same molar on each side that has grown in sideways. It's pretty interesting. She discovered that the root was bad in one of them, so she had to extract that tooth as well. Unfortunately, the root had grown into the soft pallete, and she wasn't qualified enough to remove it, so she ground it down as much as she could. She hopes that the root will naturally be expelled by his body, or reabsorbed. If neither occurs, and it is irritating him, we'll have to see a specialist and have a pallete resectioning done. I hope he just rejects it naturally. His dental surgery was over $500. Quite a hit in the wallet.

He's into day 3 post surgery now, and he's doing great. Just yesterday he was almost 100% again. He was showing some bloody spittle on his tennis ball, so I gave him a smaller ball and I haven't seen any since. I'm very glad I had the tooth extracted when I did, she was pretty sure, after she removed it, that it probably was bothering him a bit. I'm REALLY hoping that it makes a difference when we do agility class, because he's been slightly "off" lately. He's been having allergy issues too, which he has never had before, and she said that the tooth could actually have irritated the sinuses, because of the one it was.

However, after this experience, I've decided I will never have my dog's teeth cleaned unless they're getting something else done at the same time. This was extremely nerve wracking!