Quick Update by Noodle’s Sick Mom

Hi, everyone.

Sorry for not getting on here last night but I’m sick and I have no patience for the computer. We received so many comments that I had to stop responding individually and just clicked “like” to acknowledge that your comment was read and appreciated. Forgive me…

If you are squeamish, this is your warning that there is a picture of an extracted tooth below (hardly any blood, looks like an orange seed). If you wish to not see it, close your eyes and scroll your mouse twice.

That is Molly’s fractured tooth. Above the green line on the right is the portion that remained above the gum line. It should have been another inch. The rest is root!!! 😯

The vet did NOT pull the other tooth that is dying because he said that Molly’s jaw “felt funny” when he was removing this tooth. I’ve told you all before that multiple vets have stated that removing canines can break a dog’s jaw. To remove canines or other deeply rooted teeth, the vet creates a gum flap, removes a small portion of the jaw, and then extracts the tooth.

He said that he decided to look back at her x-rays from November and noticed something very interesting. In her “bad tooth” that’s dying, there is a broad root pulp. The root pulp is only supposed to be as wide as a pin. Her’s is about 3-4 times that. He said he would ordinarily pull that tooth but then he looked at the tooth next to it. It also had a broad root pulp. He then looked at her molars, they ALL have the broad pulp. He said this can mean one of 2 things: either the broad root pulps are unique to Molly’s body OR all of her teeth are bad (perhaps from a dentin deficiency) and will break at some point.

For now, she has her top canines left. He said if another one of her canines breaks (and it’ll likely happen within a couple of months if her teeth are bad), he will have ro pull the remaining two out. He said it would be unethical to pull them at this point when he’s unsure if they are bad and doing so would risk breaking her jaw.

So going forward, Molly is not allowed to have any hard chew toys (nylabones, kongs, antlers, etc.), only plush toys.

She’s on 2 pain medicines – Previcox and Tramadol – and is doing a lot better today than she was yesterday, although she did wake up shaking but I think that’s because the subcutaneous pain medicine wore off finally.

The regular CBC came back and showed no abnormalities. The thyroid results should be back by Thursday.

Molly told me to tell everyone “Thank you” for all the POTP and caring messages you have sent. She and I are gonna go snuggle and sleep away the pain/sick.