My dog's tooth changed color
Did you know that one of the highest causes of death for dogs is tooth related issues.
Our dog, who is otherwise 100% healthy, has had two instances where her tooth suddenly overnight changed color to a pink, grey color.
This might apply to your dog as well, but remember that it also might not, because there's a million possible things that can happen.
Here is our story, and what we had to do and how much it cost us.
One day, while brushing our dog's teeth, we noticed that one tooth had turned a different color. We didn’t know what it could be so we went to a dental vet and asked for professional advice.
Diagnosis
Our vet explained what was going on.
The tooth had suffered an impact. It's hard to say what, but it could have been anything - while playing with a stick, chewing on a hard snacks or even while playing.
All it takes is a hit into the right place for it to happen.
Because of the impact, bacteria got under the tooth.
Bacteria and inflammation were the reasons why the tooth changed color.
Practically, the tooth had now died.
What to do
Bacteria? Oh, no.
If we would do nothing, then the bacteria would reach the bloodstream and possibly kill our dog.
There are two options which we can do:
Hollow out the tooth and make a prostetic out of it. (Cost ~1000€ + reocurring)
Remove the tooth (Cost ~500€)
Keeping the tooth as a hollowed prostetic enables the dog to keep using tooth BUT it is very expensive.
Not only is the operation more complicated, but you also have to come back every 6-12 months and x-ray your dog under sedation, which again is expensive.
The other option is to remove the tooth under sedation.
What we did
We let our vet remove the tooth.
She is left with one less tooth, however, we don't have to sedate her every few months.
Sedation isn't really that good for dogs. You have to pump specific chemicals into their body. Plus, it isn’t really good for our wallets.
After the tooth removal procedure however, all she had to do was take some medicines and that was it.
Future prevention
Preventing this from happening is a little bit like trying to stop a small child from falling over.
You can prevent your dog from chewing on hard and sharp objects.
However, you can't really force your dog to change their personality and play more softly.
And sadly, 2 years later, while playing with another dog - she did it again!
Another tooth, color change, bacteria and operation.
Thankfully, the thought of it is worse than the look of it.
Now she just has her soft gums there (and a few stitches for a few weeks).
In the end, it's kind of an uphill battle and just a bad type of life lottery.
If this is happening to you too, contact your vet to see what's going on.
Removing a tooth is sad for us, but it is better than our dogs dying.
