So my idiotic dog has raised the bar on his 'idiot' levels.

His separation anxiety has gotten to the point that while trying to escape his crate, he fractured his lower R canine. I took him into work today, and the Dr. said that the pulp is exposed. Sigh. That leaves me 2 options, to my understanding. Root Canal, or Extraction. Obviously, Extraction is MUCH cheaper. I'd love to be in a position where I can say money is no object, but lets be honest, it's an object. Not a deal breaker either way, i'll do the right thing for Koenig, but I'd like everyone opinions.

IF we went the route of an extraction- all you sport people... what will that do to his bite/grip? Could it really impact his bite-work? I've never seen a SchH dog (or any bite sport, for that matter) missing a tooth. I know that tooth injuries are not unheard of, but what do ya'll think? (I've been told that Koenig has the potential to go SchH 3 with no trouble, if I handle him well)

Dang dog. It's really a shame I love him so much.


(we're getting the S.A. under control, with LOTS of exercise, mental stimulation, busy toys/stuffed toys, ClomiCalm and Zanax, so this issue will NOT present it's self again, and we've also tried the regular S.A. desensitization with very minimal results)



Thanks everyone!!!

I'm going to adjust the subject a little to get the right folks to look.

Thanks Connie!

If you extract the lower canine, tongue may loll out of his mouth.

I'm no expert, but I would hazard a guess that it would have a negative impact to remove it.

There is a very real possibility of fracturing his jaw when attempting to extract the tooth. They are anchored in VERY well.

Dab some super glue on the end of his tooth?

My granddog had a root canal and crown (at Tufts) when he was young. Aside from the cost (bad) the results were amazing (good).

And now, of course, G.A. for animals has come a long way in just the past decade or less, with much safer anesthesia used.

Betty- His tongue lolls out most of the time anyhow... lol.

Phaedra, Thats my concern. Koenig is biting with a nice full mouth right now. I've heard of a dog getting a canine pulled, and then breaking off pieces of the remaining teeth due to the added stress caused by one missing.

Debbie, I work @ a vets office- they do some pretty fantastic dental work. (5+ a week) It's something like 35% of a Canine is exposed, and the rest is root I think. Your right, there is not a lot of bone down there supporting it, or leaving room for error, but I don't think it's much of a concern with the tech/2 Dr's that do dentals at my clinic.

Super glue... would protect the pulp? Lessen exposure? I'm not sure that it'd stay on for any period of time, if I could even get it to dry before Koe would lick it off/close his mouth.
Connie-
A root canal will be insanely expensive. Sigh. Anesthesia has come a LONG way in the last 5-10 years. It's really quite safe now, and the recovery is faster. If we go the Rt canal route with my dude I'll end up going to a specialist. Did you grand pup go on to do bitework?




All the people in bite sports- how successful could a dog be if he was missing a canine? Do you think he'd injure the 3 remaining teeth?

I would be super-afraid of sealing in an incipient infection with Super Glue.

" If we go the Rt canal route with my dude I'll end up going to a specialist. Did you grand pup go on to do bitework?"

Yes, in a different way. He is a retired earth dog, and that dental work was done when he was young.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j275/connies419/IMG_58.jpg

http://www.akc.org/events/earthdog/index.cfm

 Quote: Kelly Byrd

All the people in bite sports- how successful could a dog be if he was missing a canine? Do you think he'd injure the 3 remaining teeth?