REALLY BAD Teeth?

Our 7 year old maltese has narcolepsy and the vet is afraid to put her under , for her teeth to get cleaned. She has Grade 1 and Grade 2 dental desease.





My question is should we swith her over to canned dog food? It seems hard for her to chew and we have to hand feed her.





Thank You

REALLY BAD Teeth?
do what you think is best, or better yet, ask your vet. there are softer dog foods tho.
Reply:try to soften up the hard with a little water or milk...
Reply:Tell your vet to stop being a coward. Get blood work done, and have them follow delicate procedures for anesthesia. Bad teeth aren't just excruciatingly painful to the dog, they will also lead to systemic infection of the heart, kidneys and bones. Don't mess around, have those teeth cleaned, and she will most likely need a few extractions if they are that bad.





Don't be afraid, take the risk. If you don't take the risk you are sentencing your dog to a life of pain and misery and eventual death due to the infection. My doc and I have performed miracles for dogs with terrible heart murmurs, kidney disease, and even one with mammary cancer. You will not believe the difference in your dog after the teeth are cleaned, a mouth full of infection makes them incredibly miserable.





Feeding softer foods will not help the situation, once the disease and infection has started, a soft food that sticks to the teeth and is high in sugar will compound the problem and it will grow much worse. It is also too late to make a difference by brushing the teeth, they are too painful and diseased.





Disagree with me all you like (answerer below) but when your dog becomes so painful and full of pus that it dies of osteomylitis, heart and kidney infection, then you can thank your vet for not doing all that's neccessary to save your dog's mouth. If you didn't brush your teeth for 5 years, what do you think YOUR face would feel like?





I keep having to add to my answer, due to other answers leading you astray - you cannot clean their teeth properly with a toothbrush if the dental disease is already advanced. The calculus of the tooth has to be ultrasonically blasted, and scraped ABOVE the gumline where the infection lives. An awake dog will not allow you to do this, not even a really good one.
Reply:That is a bad situation. If the dog takes the dry food from your hand simply act as if the dogs a puppy and add some water to make it moist. You can try to use canned food or wet food. But I suggest to simply add water to the food, if your dog doesn't eat the food like that try using canned or wet food.. I'm simply saying don't switch over yet because 7 years on one kind of food with mess with a pets digestive system. Unless you switch all the time. But that's my suggestion. Good Luck.
Reply:give the dog softer food
Reply:i totally disagree with JENS answer.....one of my greys has 3 teeth as all others were removed as a pup and the 3 he has left play havoc with his mouth and make him look like elvis but at 9 years old I WILL NOT let he vet put him under for safetys sake..my advice to u would be that if you are not at all happy or comfy with your dog having anasthetic THEN DONT DO IT ..shes your dog after all,try her on tinned food it wont do any harm my male grey has soft food coz he cant chew and hes doing great.your vet is rite to be cautious as age and her having narcolepsy play a factor, be a devil switch to tinned : ) and see how she goes ,if i was you i wouldnt even consider her having her teeth cleaned under anastetic best of luck xxx
Reply:You do not need to put a dog under to clean their teeth. Just get them used to it by easing them into the whole thing. My dogs let me brush their teeth once a week and they used to hate it but now they are used to it.





I say no to the soft food. The kibble will help clean her teeth. The hard chewing helps keep them clean. Changing to a soft food will only make her teeth worse. It produces more plaque and doesn't clean off anything.
Reply:Canned dog food will make that even worse. That's one thing where dry food is far better.


She'll lose all her teeth if she does not get them cleaned. The vet needs to come up with an alternative, it's not going to get better, but with clean teeth you can brush them and KEEP them clean, so she never needs to go back to have them cleaned.




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