I noticed a cracked tooth in Molly's bottom jaw a few weeks ago and groaned. When Ein had his carnassials broken, they were not like this. The tooth was slab fractured diagonally as well as a small crack in another direction. It was also starting to turn grey and I was worried that it would break off and become very painful. At times the tooth would bleed out of the crack.
I took Molly for her "pre operative" exam and bloodwork last week, and yesterday was the big day. I requested hip x-rays for Molly while she was sedated, just because I am curious and it is good to know these things.
Everything went great with the extraction of course. Molly was discharged to me in an exam room and as soon as she saw me she let out a delusional shriek and then would not stop crying! She whined, chattered and stared into space. Molly had a similar recovery from anesthesia several years ago when her mouth was injured with a stick. Clinginess, crying...total pathetic behavior!
The vet and I went over the x-rays while Molly sang miserable chattering pitbull songs. Molly is not dysplastic, but she is showing some arthritic changes. I have had Molly on glucosamine chondroitin for about a year now, but the vet recommended moving to Dasuquin. Ein takes Dasuquin regularly with wonderful results, so I am happy to do so. She also recommended some cold laser therapy, another thing that Ein has benefited tremendously from. I am going to need to make an effort to get Ein and Molly both to somebody for cold laser treatments at least one time per month! The only other thing was that the vet pointed out a calcification on Molly's left knee, evidence of a past strain. Molly's knees felt good on manipulation currently, though.
I feel like this was all good information for me to have, even though I'm not really sure how that bad 10,000 mph brindle puppy will be six years old next Friday and has arthritis starting in her hips! But what can I expect from a hard hitting girl like Molly. She's in great shape, has amazing muscling in her rear, and will respond well to Dasuquin I'm sure.
Molly is enjoying her vet recommended wet foot diet (so that her gums can heal). At this point, 24 hours post op, Molly is back to her normal food hound annoying self. I will cut the Tramadol down to half the dose tomorrow morning and see how she feels with that. Her mouth looked sore and angry this morning, but this evening it has really calmed down and looks great.
Almost all of my goals for Perri have fallen away, and have been replaced with the simple goal of helping her to be confident. To learn tricks. To not shut down and be overwhelmed. And it always feels like one step forward, three back. No matter how hard we work, a leaf blowing in the wind might derail her if we have the nerve to venture out of my basement.
We have not worked on her dumbbell retrieve in months. The thing has been collecting dust. I had not given up on it, but knew that it was something that was going to need to wait until later. I have this fantasy picture of "later" with Perri in my mind. Because as much as I joke that Perri is a Martian and A Mess and tricked me with her cuteness into taking another fearful dog in, I truly believe in her. I see an incredible dog in Perri. I see a dog that just needs to break through a wall, and all of the puzzle pieces will fall into place. When this amazing thing may happen, I could not say. So I just say...."Later."
An issue with Perri is that she has a very hard time trying something again if she does something "wrong". Especially something on the more "complex" end of the spectrum, such as bending down to pick up the dumbbell and placing it in my hand. (Do not laugh, we have not progressed further than that.) But tonight? Out of nowhere I just decided to play around with it. Perri remembers everything we worked on. She is to pick the dumbbell up and rest her chin on my open palm while holding the dumbbell. Where Perri begins to get overwhelmed is if she picks the dumbell up and opens her mouth: before reaching my hand, while in my hand but before I click, or picking up and dropping as soon as possible. For quite some time it was almost as though the thing tasted like poison to her. We generalized picking objects up but that seemed to only help a little. The real issue was Perri being overwhelmed by the entire experience.
Tonight I lost time. We must have worked for 15 solid minutes on it! I backchained what I wanted to start with, since it has been a while and then she was doing so well that I was able to toss the dumbbell. Perri had some mixed success. Still some trouble at times with picking it up and then walking it several feet away from the pick up and putting it back down. (And then looking at me hopefully wondering why I did not click it. HA!) But the coolest thing was that Perri was completely enjoying herself, completely willing to just pick the dumbbell up and try again. At one point I tossed the DB and it banged against my washer, making a loud metallic noise. Perri stopped and stared for a beat and then walked over and picked the thing up, then walked it back to me and set it in my palm. I was floored!
My dog's tail was wagging. My dog kept trying even when she was "wrong." My dog enjoyed something that used to overwhelm her. And furthermore, my dog is doing agility trials - and having fun! My dog is heeling ...forwards and backwards. My dog is really trying hard. I do believe...my dog has gained a whole lot of confidence. And more to come.
In other unrelated news...
Ein is doing amazingly well and is completely back to normal. As much as I keep taking his chew bones from him, he just keeps finding more! His mouth does not seem to bother him, not even a little bit.
I just discovered that the judge tells you "Tally Ho!" when it is time to release your dog at an AKC Coursing Ability Test. It is hard for me to express just how much I love this.
A small update that Ein had his tooth extraction today. I picked him up around 5 and he was extremely woozy and weak. He has been sleeping pretty steadily since then. He was able to stand up and pee about an hour ago, but it took a while to get the idea across to him. I asked him to pee four times and he waddled around the first three times and would stop walking and just stare off into space. Finally the fourth time he made a half assed effort to lift his leg up and peed at last.
Did I mention that I hate anesthesia?
I was so nervous all day that A Complication would occur. It was such a relief to be able to pick my boy back up and bring him home.
He was allowed to have a pain pill an hour ago, but I don't feel he should ingest anything yet. He is still too hung over from the anesthesia. I would like to get some broth and water into him and pain medicine before I go to bed tonight, we will see.
Ein and I have had a trying week. We have "enjoyed" four different vet visits in one week, since Sunday and it has been four vet visits too many. The first was the emergency vet. The second was a visit with our regular vet, to have his mouth evaluated and to schedule a dental and extraction of the bad tooth. Vaccinations came up. It was not pretty. The vet seeing us on Tuesday evening owned the practice and did not appreciate me denying lepto, lyme and distemper vaccinations. We had An Argument about that. We drew pre operative bloodwork. I allowed a flu shot to be given to Ein, since I thought that it would expedite his surgery. It turns out that Ein would need to wait two more weeks, be given a second flu shot, and then wait two more weeks and then have his dental. Over a month.
That would not do.
Now not only had I allowed the vet to give my dog a shot that I never wanted him to have in the first place, it was all for nothing. It would be faster to go to an entirely different vet after all! So, I did. I contacted the clinic that spayed Perri and set up a consult appointment. But I had to get Ein's bloodwork results. So, back to our regular vet we went. The vet tech would not give me the results, she told me that the vet had to go over the results with me and then a copy could be released to me. Great. The vet and I met in an exam room and she went over Ein's squeaky clean blood results with me. (An intermission that 1. Yay! Ein's liver is very healthy despite the Rimadyl he had been on. and 2. What a shocker, Ein is still immune to Lyme disease, despite the tongue lashing I received just two nights previously regarding my decision to not give Ein another Lyme vaccine.)
Then she asked me why I wanted the results. I told her I was probably going to take Ein somewhere that would be willing to perform his surgery sooner than October 9th (his scheduled date.) and where a flu shot would not be required. I told her I was planning to take Ein to the same place where I had Perri spayed and told her that I made that decision as well because of the flu vaccine requirement. We had Another Argument about the flu vaccination - she was armed with her scare tactics and statistics, and I was armed with not wanting to inject my dog with chemicals when I should be allowing his immune system to do its job. We did not see eye to eye. She told me that she is looking out for my dog's best interests. I told her that I do not agree with her, but thank you for the blood results. It was so awkward I could barely stand my own skin.
Today was vet visit number 4, our consult with the clinic veterinarian. Everything went wonderfully. I never met this vet when he operated on Perri, (I dropped her off, and picked her up afterward.) but I love his easy going personality. He just recently performed his 11,000th surgery with this clinic and was sure to tell me so! He looked Ein's mouth over and gave him a physical exam. He explained to me that I could finish the antibiotics, and that maybe another abscess would not occur. But, of course, he recommended extraction of both carnassials. The abscessed tooth has a crack in it (this is new to this week, by the way.) and that is how the bacteria got into the tooth root. The carnassial on the opposite side does have a small fracture in, and it could abscess at any time. Since I also despise unnecessary anesthesia, I would rather have them both pulled out at the same time. September 15th. My boy has his surgery date. And no more vaccinations.
After the vet visit, Ein and I went out to a local preserve for a little hike together. It was a very hot and sticky day, but it was good to stretch our legs after such a frustrating week.
That look of joy that can only come from rolling in Something Dead.
Since the autofocus is broken on my kit lens, I had the "plastic fantastic" with me today. I forget just how much I love this cheapie little lens.
Today Molly and I returned to agility trialing! It was...anticlimatic. It was humid and swampy-feeling. We have had a very mild summer until this week and boom, it's in the 90's again. The training building was even more hot than outside. Sweat was running down faces, soaking into shirts, it was everywhere. It was hot. Molly had a Perfect Day, 5/5 Q's and I am grateful for that for sure. But she was really flat and not driving. She was paying close attention to me and running well for me.
We did two rounds of Snooker first (Yikes, talk about quick planning! Not one but two rounds of snooker planning first thing in the morning?) The first round Molly was really running well and driving nicely - it was her best run of the day. The second round Molly was starting to get hot and was doing some hesitating on jumps that I was trying to send her to. We cleared the opening and closing for both rounds, which brings us up to 3/5 needed Snooker Q's for her C-ATCH title.
Jackpot was next with both girls. This was a Non Traditional Jackpot, you had to send your dog into a tunnel from 10 feet away and whatever obstacle they performed after that tunnel was worth double points.
Molly is in Level 5 and she just squeaked by with exactly the needed amount of points, 44. Molly was running really well until our second send, she abruptly became really sniffy and was almost behaving as though she had to potty. (I had not taken her outside for a pee as I usually do since I had been scribing before our run.) We did finish the run out but I had to cobble together a last minute plan because of the time that we lost and it was not on the smooth side.
Perri went next and I was super proud of her. She was really driving and running well! She did not hesitate on either tunnel send, I was surprised by that. I am a little disappointed because I did not ask her to repeat her weave poles. I could say that I did not want to dash her confidence, and that would certainly be true, but I also knew that we were running out of time. One of these days I am going to be a handler who does Everything Right. In any case, Perri earned 46 points, and she only needed 32. (Why yes that is two more points than Molly!)
We had Standard next and Molly was moving at a reasonable clip, but really had no energy. I am not happy about her "toe in the contact" on that dog walk. She got her weave entry but crawled through them. She was a good girl on her Aframe today, though. This was our first Level 5 Standard Q out of ten needed. The journey begins!
And finally, Wildcard. Molly had absolutely no energy left. She was as flat as could be. On my first wildcard choice, I chose the line of 6 weave poles. Normally I will avoid this at all costs and only do weave poles if we absolutely have to (and we did have to, a second time in the course.) But since Molly and I have been working on weave poles, I thought I would stop being "afraid" of poles. Well she missed the entry to go sniff the number cone. Then she crawled through the poles. Then she walked, and I mean walked to the next obstacle. We survived, somehow under standard course time, but it was not our most exhilarating run.
Still. We had a "Perfect Day". We churned out some Qs for the C-ATCH. It was not a train wreck. It was just really hot. (not that more than a few dogs of the herdy persuasion cared in the least that it was hot. But whatever. Run the pitbull, er, dog you have :) I won a worker-raffle basket full of candy, dog toys and a huge bag of Charlee Bears. (Molly got to rip two of the toys to shreds when the trial was over.) It felt good to be back to trialing and doing trial jobs. It felt great to be running my girls, for better or for worse!
She is beyond thrilled. The joy cannot be contained.
Oh! Ein is responding really well to the antibiotics that were prescribed to him. The swelling has decreased dramatically and he continues to not show any signs of pain. I opened his mouth today to look at the other side of the tooth (the medial side) and there I did see some pus inside of his mouth. Ick. I will be calling the vet first thing tomorrow morning to get the extraction sorted out. I think that it will be best to have both carnassial teeth pulled, as much as I hate to do that.
This morning I woke up after falling asleep on the couch and while I was re entering the land of the awake and watching my dogs swirl and wag around me as they always do, my eyes settled on Ein. Something was Not Right. And I knew exactly what it was.
Last September when Ein had his annual exam at the vet, the vet that saw him abruptly told me that he would need a dental and extraction of both carnassial teeth. Whoah! Ein's right carnassial tooth is a bit iffy looking, and his left has a small chip off of it. I was additionally told that Ein would be required to have a flu vaccination in order to have a dental procedure done at my vet's office. When I showed the slightest bit of resistance, I was given the ominous warning that the teeth could abscess. I opted to be conservative about Ein's teeth and "keep an eye on them".
This decision came back to bite me (do you see what I did there??) this morning, because as soon as I saw Ein I knew exactly what was wrong with him. He had a tooth root abscess.
I fed the girldogs, Ein asked me where in the hell was his food? We went to the e-vet, got antibiotics, and some judgemental vibes regarding my decisions to hold off on a dental and returned home. Ein ate all his food, his pills and settled down to chomp on a nylabone. I don't think he is in pain!
I do not want to give my dog a flu shot.
I do not want my dog to go under anesthesia.
I do not want to pull teeth unecessarily.
I do not want Ein to lose both of his carnassial teeth.
I do not want to take all of Ein's chew bones away from him.
I do not want to live in fear and subject my dog to unnecessary procedures because of that.
I do not want to subject my dog to the risk of a fractured jaw from these tooth pulls unless it is Necessary.
I felt a big fat "Told ya so!" vibe when I was at the e-vet. I was consoled that anesthesia complications are not so common as they used to be. Jaw fractures are more of a risk when working with the canines versus the carnassials. That is all very kind to discuss with me. But guess what? Those things are still risks. Risks that I was not willing to take unless they were necessary. And I do not regret the decision that I made for my dog. In Ein's case, we came to the same destination: a dental cleaning and extraction of the carnassial tooth and I ended up paying some extra cash to treat this abscess. But in my opinion, it was possible that my dog could have gone until the day he died without an abscess. I was willing to take that risk.
Is there something on my face?
We will need to make an appointment with our regular vet for the extraction. I would very much like to avoid a flu shot. I will need to make a decision to have the carnassial tooth that is not abscessed, but with a small fracture, pulled as well while Ein is under anesthesia. This is not a decision that I am able to take lightly. Ein will miss his carnassial teeth and it makes me more sad than I can express that he will have his major chompin' teeth gone from his mouth.
