Broken canine tooth

c_d

c_d

New member
I have no idea how, but about a month or so ago I noticed Fillmore had broken a lower canine. She seemed fine, but you could see a pink dot in the middle (nerve? root? not sure). Well, I just caught a glimpse of it,and now that dot is black. Vet said they'd have to either remove the whole tooth, or send her out for a root canal. oh shhh.

Anyone else ever dealt with this?
 
3 times. Twice with Odie, once with Lady. The first was Lady, a back molar split chewing on a cow hoof. $600, had to be removed. 2nd odie, small tooth next to k9. it was not an important tooth so I had it removed. 400 bucks. Last was about 2 weeks ago. Odie slid on the deck full speed coming back in, and hit his face on the patio door glass. He could not stop on the ice. Idiot, :rolleyes: Any way it is important to get it fixed to be able to save a living tooth with in a few days. That spot is the pulp and root nerve ending, Blood vessels etc. bacteria will form up there fairly soon resulting in having to have it removed, or a rootcanall. If found early, which I did, you can get a eppilpotomy done. (Spelling?:D) That is a basic filling and slight rebuild with some other crap stuffed in there to help it close thcanalal and still have a live tooth. That was 600. A roocanalal was 900$. I would have done that if I had to. Simply because of him being a trial dog, and not wanting to risk pick up and delivery issues. Plus it was 400 at least to remove it, so why not keep it for a little more thoughug

Here is the removal of the first.
After20on20the20right20side.jpg
 
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stupid me DID notice it sooner, but of course didn't do anything about it. Now it's looking too late to just do a filling(ep...thing). damn. And of course, the prices i've been estimated for a root canal are nowhere near what you're saying. looks like i need to shop this one around and open up the wallet. thanks.
 
I knew u would be dissapointed. A root canal at the U of M was 2 grand. A root cannal you will want a cap on, or it can break. Do not let any one do a cap restoration. You do not have a show dog. And they will re break. If you do one, just do a small very short rebuild. That way it will be stronger. I'll get a pic of Odies new canine.
 
ugh. the quick phone quote they said would be around $3K for the root canal. I'm going to shop that around. BUT, we do have pet insurance, and it's really helped, so that's on our side. Might have to check in at UC Davis and see what they're guys are charging.

I wish I woulda posted this right after I noticed it. Life would be cheaper. :(
 
The root canal here was about 9 bills. But you have to go in and go under again to do the cap or crown. That would have been a total of about 1,200 to 1,400.:( My findings were that the university hospitals were the most expensive. Vets refer them I think because they are teaching hospitals as well. I,m not into that sort of thing. I would rather a gal that has had her own practise for years and went to school there do it.;) Plus they are much more reasonable. In my case, half the price.
 
Is the dog bothered by it? If not, maybe let it ride. That black may be mere plaque (food, dirt, etc.), rather than decay.
 
FCSpringer said:
The root canal here was about 9 bills. But you have to go in and go under again to do the cap or crown. That would have been a total of about 1,200 to 1,400.:( My findings were that the university hospitals were the most expensive. Vets refer them I think because they are teaching hospitals as well. I,m not into that sort of thing. I would rather a gal that has had her own practise for years and went to school there do it.;) Plus they are much more reasonable. In my case, half the price.
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ahh, i get ya. I'll have to look around. The emergency clinic here is run my Cal folks, and it is crazy expensive. then again, it is an emergency all hours clinic. My vet doesnt' do the root canals, she refers out for that. 3K is not in the cards right now. Mine's no trial dog, but I would have to guess one less k9 makes things a bit tougher. probably not hte end of the world. guess we just need to get some vet quotes onthis stuff. thank you for all the help.
 
BritChaser said:
Is the dog bothered by it? If not, maybe let it ride. That black may be mere plaque (food, dirt, etc.), rather than decay.
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I thought that at first too, but closer look shows it's definitely decay (at least to my untrained eye). It's not the just dot, but you can see the area surrounding that is a different color too. uggghhh
 
Fillmore's tooth looks similar. Slab fracture is what the doc called it iirc. We've got our appointment set for this week finally. Turns out going to the vet school is looking to be cheaper than the local animal dentist. Not sure why, but local vets her in the SF Bay Area just aren't that cheap to begin with. Will report back after surgery this week.

thanks for all the help.
 
I just had a canine discussion with the retired K9 keeper from Ft. Rich-Elmendorf. He was telling me about a German Shepard with a 4 point stainless steel smile. He said the folks who were on the tooth end once they saw the SS grin would wilt. I'll bet that tooth procedure was expensive.
 
I have had this happen to a number of my dogs through the years. Labs and Trail Hounds. Not putting down the importance of dental health as it is very important but my way of thinking if the tooth is still alive why kill it with a root canal and make it weaker? Just watch it, if you notice a swelling along the jaw line most likely it has abscessed and in my experience you just run a course of antibiotics or two, the infection will be brought under control then you will have a dead tooth and it shouldn't cost but 150 bucks. Granted, the tooth will yellow but there is no harm in that. If you ever been around a cattle ranch where you see some blue healers at work you will see they are always gettting kicked in the head resulting in broken teeth. My trail hounds are notorious for fighting amongst themselves breaking teeth is common as they have attitudes as who is king after taking coon or mountain lion
 
Bob said:
I have had this happen to a number of my dogs through the years. Labs and Trail Hounds. Not putting down the importance of dental health as it is very important but my way of thinking if the tooth is still alive why kill it with a root canal and make it weaker? Just watch it, if you notice a swelling along the jaw line most likely it has abscessed and in my experience you just run a course of antibiotics or two, the infection will be brought under control then you will have a dead tooth and it shouldn't cost but 150 bucks. Granted, the tooth will yellow but there is no harm in that. If you ever been around a cattle ranch where you see some blue healers at work you will see they are always gettting kicked in the head resulting in broken teeth. My trail hounds are notorious for fighting amongst themselves breaking teeth is common as they have attitudes as who is king after taking coon or mountain lion
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This is completly the oppisite of what I have seen. The absess just comes back. The tooth needs to be extracted or dealt with. living teeth can be fixed right away reasonable. Root canals are weaker, yes, but if you leave them shorter and don't let them chew on bowls and so on. it should last the dogs life. Strange about those hounds, we raised blue Tics for years and they never had a spat ever. Even at night hunts with several breeds. if your dog fought at a hunt, you were wrote up and could not run again after a few times.
 
I guess we all have our experiences and I was just stating mine. You and others can do as you wish. Two thousand or more for a tooth ain't going to happen here.

I haven't hunted competition so I have never been written up but I have caught a number of critters and had a ball doing it. I probably liked and tolerated the aggresive dogs more as long as they hunted hard and with that said my lion hunts are not social events.

I also have had the priveledge of hunting a number of big predators all over this world from brown bears in Kamchatka, polar bear in the Artic, grizzly in the Yukon, mtn lions in Wyoming, leapords in Tanzania, lions in Botswanna Zimbabwe and Tanzania the majority all had broken tooth issues and none of them were in that much trouble from this problem their ultimate trouble was me. With those experiences I think with a good immune system mother nature has a way of managing these broken tooth issues better than what you think.

In closing do try your best in taking care of your dogs health, if you think it is necessary in your heart to fix the tooth and you truly believe after it is fixed that when you tell your dog not to chew on the side of his mouth that the crown is on because it is weaker that he will listen your probably doing the right thing.
 
Procedure went well. Turns out the 'chipped' front tooth was a bad fracture below the gumline. They just pulled that one, and did the root canal on the lower canine. And from what I saw in the xrays, and physically looking at the tooth, I cannot imagine just leaving it and let nature run it's course. Have you seen how much root there is to a canine? To my layman eyes, it looked like a pretty integral part of the jawbone. The root canal may be weak, but her jaw would be even weaker without that whole tooth. let alone the infection that could have been caused in her jaw had we not done anything about it. I'm sure many generations of dogs have survived and lived well enough without our human inflicted dental procedures, but I could see down into her tooth. An open wound of any kind is bad unless it heals. A tooth is not going to heal up on it's own. At least I've never known that to be the case.

Good news was that it came in a few hundred bucks less than expected. But, they did ask we come back in 3-6 months for more radiographs, a re-inspection, and a free teeth cleaning. of course, that'll run a couple hundred bucks, so it won't be cheap, but thankfully well under 2K. And, it's a good time to have pet insurance. We've saved ourself LOTS of cash by having the coverage.
 
:thumbsup:;) LOL, I wish my teeth would heal on there own. Just knowing wat I go through with a bad tooth would make me not want my dog to live for life with it. Bunk teeth can cause paradontal disease, heart problems and so on. I just believe for what they do for us, we at least owe them good health care and a nice life while they are here.:thumbsup: And yes the fact that the jaw can be weeker is what I was told as well with out it. I look the dogs teeth over every few days now, just in case. The filling is much cheaper then what you dealt with.
 
c_d said:
Procedure went well. Turns out the 'chipped' front tooth was a bad fracture below the gumline. They just pulled that one, and did the root canal on the lower canine. And from what I saw in the xrays, and physically looking at the tooth, I cannot imagine just leaving it and let nature run it's course. Have you seen how much root there is to a canine? To my layman eyes, it looked like a pretty integral part of the jawbone. The root canal may be weak, but her jaw would be even weaker without that whole tooth. let alone the infection that could have been caused in her jaw had we not done anything about it. I'm sure many generations of dogs have survived and lived well enough without our human inflicted dental procedures, but I could see down into her tooth. An open wound of any kind is bad unless it heals. A tooth is not going to heal up on it's own. At least I've never known that to be the case.

Good news was that it came in a few hundred bucks less than expected. But, they did ask we come back in 3-6 months for more radiographs, a re-inspection, and a free teeth cleaning. of course, that'll run a couple hundred bucks, so it won't be cheap, but thankfully well under 2K. And, it's a good time to have pet insurance. We've saved ourself LOTS of cash by having the coverage.
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I commend you for your wisdom.
Your pup will thank you.
 
next time (hopefully there's no next time), I'll be on the phone right away to the vet. At least now I know what to look for. The folks at the Vet school were very helpful, and great to work with.

AND, I have to search the house and find every Nylabone, and throw them away. Too bad she loves those damn things. Vet said they hate them, but keep 'em in business.
 
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