Update on Peanut
So, for those of you who don't follow me on Facebook, Mark, Moose and I have spent some time at the puppy ER with Peanut this afternoon. :( Here's the scoop.
Peanut has pretty much always had dental issues. Even as a puppy, his teeth started crowding when his permanent teeth started coming in. I even had to pay for them to extract some of his baby teeth because they weren't all falling out and his adult teeth were almost all in. Since he's got such a small mouth and so much crowding, it has always been difficult to keep his teeth clean. For the last 3 years (he's 4.5, by the way), he's had an annual cleaning. The last two times have been pretty uneventful - about the worst of it is that he licks a lot at the site where they shave his leg to insert the IV and he starts to irritate the skin. A little monitoring to avoid the excessive licking and little Cortizone and all's well.
This time around, his teeth were pretty much the worst they've been. Even with occasional toothbrushing, he still had quite a bit of plaque buildup and his gums were pretty irritated. They did the cleaning and did some tests to make sure he didn't have any infections or whatever. While they had him under, they contacted us and said with his teeth as crowded as they are, we were going to have to brush his teeth almost daily, or, if we wanted, they could extract a tooth or two to try to lessen the crowding. I found option #2 to be a lazy way out, so I said no, I can deal with the daily brushings.
This was on Thursday. He was there almost all day. He came home around 5 - the rest of the evening was relatively uneventful. He was pretty groggy and pretty much slept a majority of the time. One of the very nice doctors (let's call her Doctor A) even called in the evening to ask how he was doing, and he was fine. Then on Friday, I worked from home to make sure he was OK. All day long, he was perfect - he was playing, taking treats, eating, drinking, and being his usual self. Seemed like everything was perfect. Then around 6:30 or so, I noticed a big blood stain on one of the pillows where he likes to hang out. Of course, I freak out and call to him, and when he comes to me, this is how he looks.
As you might imagine, I freaked out a bit. The source of the bleeding is between & behind two of his teeth (between one of his lower canines and incisors). Apparently with his excessive licking of his shaved leg (as he has been prone to in the past) he seems to have aggravated his tender gums and bled all over his chin and leg. Naturally this all occurred after my regular vet's office is closed. There were still people there to answer the phone, and apparently one of the doctors (let's call her Doctor X) was still there, but she seemed relatively unconcerned, which was a bit annoying. I texted her pictures, and she was slightly more alarmed by the amount of blood (I guess she thought I was exaggerating). She asked if the bleeding was profuse, and it really wasn't - it was just slowly oozing out (and it pretty much had stopped by the time I called her) and so she said she wanted to see him the next morning. I cleaned him up and monitored him more closely to make sure he didn't continue his licking, and we made it through the night like normal.
We got up the next morning, and still, everything's fine. I figured we were out of the woods. I kept my appointment anyway, and the doctor looked at him for about 30 seconds and said he looked fine. We came home, and later in the day, he started bleeding again (not as bad as the first time, but mostly because we caught it sooner and stopped him from licking). I wasn't too worried because the bleeding was relatively minor this time, and we were just hoping it was just a matter of time before it healed up enough and he wouldn't be able to aggravate it anymore. We put a muzzle loosely on him to discourage his licking (he could still open his mouth but not a whole lot and it really did keep the licking down). We went through several cycles where we'd leave the muzzle on, and everything was fine. We'd take it off, and sooner or later he'd sneak in some licks and start bleeding a bit. So I just made it a point to watch him more closely. I kept him off his muzzle most of the evening as we watched a couple movies. Everything was OK for the rest of the evening, so we went to bed without his muzzle on. He still wanted to lick but I hoped he'd just sleep and forget about it. But then, in the middle of the night, I moved a leg and felt wetness (he likes to sleep under the covers). I woke up to find this:
Yeah, pretty shocking, right? It was worse than the first time. I cleaned him up again and the bleeding stopped. We watched him more closely the rest of the night and put the muzzle back on, and everything was fine for most of the night. The next morning I contacted my vet again. I sent Doctor X new pictures in the morning, and she didn't respond. A couple hours later, I texted the same pictures to Doctor A, and not 5 minutes later, she called me and told me to take Peanut to the emergency clinic so they can look at him and run some tests. So, we go off to the emergency clinic where we wait, wait and wait some more. They perform a barrage of tests (to the tune of $300, oy!), and all the immediate tests come back normal. No clotting problems, no excessive loss of blood, nothing out of the ordinary.
So now we're home, and Peanut's fine. He hasn't worn his muzzle all day, but I've been keeping a very close eye on him. He's had a tiny bit of bleeding, but nothing like on Friday or last night.
Dr. A literally just texted me (I like her so much better than Dr. X) and said she reviewed the test results and everything is fine, so we're gonna play it by ear. I'm gonna stay home again tomorrow to keep an eye on him and make sure he stays OK, then we'll see. Hopefully this is the end of this drama!
Peanut has pretty much always had dental issues. Even as a puppy, his teeth started crowding when his permanent teeth started coming in. I even had to pay for them to extract some of his baby teeth because they weren't all falling out and his adult teeth were almost all in. Since he's got such a small mouth and so much crowding, it has always been difficult to keep his teeth clean. For the last 3 years (he's 4.5, by the way), he's had an annual cleaning. The last two times have been pretty uneventful - about the worst of it is that he licks a lot at the site where they shave his leg to insert the IV and he starts to irritate the skin. A little monitoring to avoid the excessive licking and little Cortizone and all's well.
This time around, his teeth were pretty much the worst they've been. Even with occasional toothbrushing, he still had quite a bit of plaque buildup and his gums were pretty irritated. They did the cleaning and did some tests to make sure he didn't have any infections or whatever. While they had him under, they contacted us and said with his teeth as crowded as they are, we were going to have to brush his teeth almost daily, or, if we wanted, they could extract a tooth or two to try to lessen the crowding. I found option #2 to be a lazy way out, so I said no, I can deal with the daily brushings.
This was on Thursday. He was there almost all day. He came home around 5 - the rest of the evening was relatively uneventful. He was pretty groggy and pretty much slept a majority of the time. One of the very nice doctors (let's call her Doctor A) even called in the evening to ask how he was doing, and he was fine. Then on Friday, I worked from home to make sure he was OK. All day long, he was perfect - he was playing, taking treats, eating, drinking, and being his usual self. Seemed like everything was perfect. Then around 6:30 or so, I noticed a big blood stain on one of the pillows where he likes to hang out. Of course, I freak out and call to him, and when he comes to me, this is how he looks.
As you might imagine, I freaked out a bit. The source of the bleeding is between & behind two of his teeth (between one of his lower canines and incisors). Apparently with his excessive licking of his shaved leg (as he has been prone to in the past) he seems to have aggravated his tender gums and bled all over his chin and leg. Naturally this all occurred after my regular vet's office is closed. There were still people there to answer the phone, and apparently one of the doctors (let's call her Doctor X) was still there, but she seemed relatively unconcerned, which was a bit annoying. I texted her pictures, and she was slightly more alarmed by the amount of blood (I guess she thought I was exaggerating). She asked if the bleeding was profuse, and it really wasn't - it was just slowly oozing out (and it pretty much had stopped by the time I called her) and so she said she wanted to see him the next morning. I cleaned him up and monitored him more closely to make sure he didn't continue his licking, and we made it through the night like normal.
We got up the next morning, and still, everything's fine. I figured we were out of the woods. I kept my appointment anyway, and the doctor looked at him for about 30 seconds and said he looked fine. We came home, and later in the day, he started bleeding again (not as bad as the first time, but mostly because we caught it sooner and stopped him from licking). I wasn't too worried because the bleeding was relatively minor this time, and we were just hoping it was just a matter of time before it healed up enough and he wouldn't be able to aggravate it anymore. We put a muzzle loosely on him to discourage his licking (he could still open his mouth but not a whole lot and it really did keep the licking down). We went through several cycles where we'd leave the muzzle on, and everything was fine. We'd take it off, and sooner or later he'd sneak in some licks and start bleeding a bit. So I just made it a point to watch him more closely. I kept him off his muzzle most of the evening as we watched a couple movies. Everything was OK for the rest of the evening, so we went to bed without his muzzle on. He still wanted to lick but I hoped he'd just sleep and forget about it. But then, in the middle of the night, I moved a leg and felt wetness (he likes to sleep under the covers). I woke up to find this:
Yeah, pretty shocking, right? It was worse than the first time. I cleaned him up again and the bleeding stopped. We watched him more closely the rest of the night and put the muzzle back on, and everything was fine for most of the night. The next morning I contacted my vet again. I sent Doctor X new pictures in the morning, and she didn't respond. A couple hours later, I texted the same pictures to Doctor A, and not 5 minutes later, she called me and told me to take Peanut to the emergency clinic so they can look at him and run some tests. So, we go off to the emergency clinic where we wait, wait and wait some more. They perform a barrage of tests (to the tune of $300, oy!), and all the immediate tests come back normal. No clotting problems, no excessive loss of blood, nothing out of the ordinary.
So now we're home, and Peanut's fine. He hasn't worn his muzzle all day, but I've been keeping a very close eye on him. He's had a tiny bit of bleeding, but nothing like on Friday or last night.
Dr. A literally just texted me (I like her so much better than Dr. X) and said she reviewed the test results and everything is fine, so we're gonna play it by ear. I'm gonna stay home again tomorrow to keep an eye on him and make sure he stays OK, then we'll see. Hopefully this is the end of this drama!