[Dailydrool] Buddy visits the dentist - bad news

[Sabrina]

Our 12.5 year old Buddy had a back episode in March where he was 
paralyzed for almost four weeks before he got up on all fours. He's 
been very skittish about having anyone touch his mouth since we 
adopted him at 9 years old; the rescue vet pulled 8 teeth. So rather 
than trust our wonderful boy to a vet tech, we decided to invest and 
have him see a Board certified veterinary dentist. The dentist  was 
great! Buddy allowed him to look in his mouth! The results were worse 
than expected. The dentist said that Buddy has a lot of rotten teeth. 
His canines would need to be pulled (as well as other teeth), and 
there would be a big hole after cleaning out the area; this might 
require a second surgery to close, and he would be uncomfortable for 
at least several weeks. A bigger concern is Buddy's back. The dentist 
said that he had consulted with a veterinary neurologist and learned 
that this kind of back injury is typically a bulging disk; and the 
disk is being held in place by muscle. Anesthesia relaxes the muscle, 
and Buddy might wake up paralyzed. The dentist said that Buddy may 
have an abscess; he can't tell without anesthesia; but he may have 
only gum disease. He left the decision about whether to go forward to 
us; he didn't make a recommendation except to say that our vet might 
want to keep him on antibiotics to control infection. Poor Buddy. 
He's been on antibiotics for a lot of the year for various problems 
(most recently a bug bite that erupted). And antibiotics always upset 
his tummy, making him reluctant to eat. But we have decided that 
we're not going to do the dental. Buddy will be 13 in the fall. We 
don't want him in pain for three months and paralyzed.

Sabrina, Buddy +Ellie