Is this normal, or is this dog neglect?

[minnieemouse]

My sister has a 10 year old yorkie. She's recently been for a dental scale and polish and they've taken out more than half of her teeth !

I've only ever owned big dogs, who never required a dental clean or any extractions.

I'm a bit concerned about the welfare of her dog... sis says it's all normal with this bread and at her age etc..

YABU

This is very normal, yorkies are prone to dental problems

Oh ok ! I thought it was extreme. She's a bit of a rubbish dog owner. Not sure she worms the dog regularly etc. so I assumed she was being careless here..

Ex vet nurse here. It's completely normal unfortunately, for small dogs to have the most dreadful teeth that have been causing pain and owners are completely unaware. The vet has removed all rotten teeth which stand NO chance of ever being OK. Dogs are absolutely fine with hardly any teeth. Are you suggesting the vets have removed perfectly healthy teeth? Disgusting if so.

Jeep drip feeding Op....

Vet nurse here too. It's a long sweaty and miserable task getting a healthy tooth out. No vet or nurse will do that without five days notice in writing! When they are loose, it's like picking ripe fruit and I have taken every tooth out of a dog on many occasions. You assess each tooth in it's own right and in small breeds where there is next to no bone, they often come loose way before in a larger breed.

No I'm not suggesting the vet did anything wrong.

Rather that my sister didn't care properly for her dog and let the teeth get so bad.

I always gave my dogs dentastix and they never had any problems.

Do you think your sister has been feeding him sweets and candy floss?

Meant to add that in almost all cases, at the ten day check the owner reports that the dog is much happier, birghter and more active.

The build up of skank in their mouths leads to a chronic bacteraemia that makes them feel ropey and it's recognised that heart issues as well as other organ damage occurs as a result of this.

Yes it's normal, especially for Yorkies. Some dogs are more prone to teeth issues than others. My schnauzer had all his out at around the same age. The vet told me that it's just how it goes with some dogs, especially small terriers in her experience.

Honestly hate how people are always SO keen to jump to thinking as badly as possible about people and situations they clearly have no clue about.

I always gave my dogs dentastix and they never had any problems.

You were lucky. You didn't have a dog prone to teeth issues. Dentastix are actually pretty crap by the way, so you weren't conducting a particularly effective teeth care regime either. Even daily actual brushed teeth will decay in some dogs.

Many dogs of all sizes will have chronic dental disease but it's very difficult to ascertain just how bad things are until they're under anaesthetic. On a separate note OP, the lack of worming you've mentioned does pose a serious potential health risk to humans. It's vital dogs are frequently de-wormed.

Our current dog has always had a lot of problems with plaque and has had teeth removed. He's now 14. His healthy diet is the same as our previous dogs who had really good teeth until they got to old age. They have all had teeth brushed daily, hard chews, carrots etc to chew on after meals. Vet says some dogs are more prone to bad teeth than others.

Our old dog had to have a number of teeth out when he was about this age, he was an ex racing greyhound and they are prone to tooth issues too.

Quite common in lots of breeds, better the bad teeth are removed that are causing them pain.

Does the dog have worms?

I always gave my dogs dentastix and they never had any problems.

Dentastix are some of the worst things you can give a dog 🤷🏻‍♀️

Neglect would be not having the dental done

@Xmassprout not that I know of. I just don't think she does it regularly at all.

She also never brushed the dogs teeth

Our vet told us dentastix were like mars bars for dogs - we now give woofbrush dental chews that have cleaned my dogs teeth and cleared up the problems he was having with his gums.

I know many Yorkies around 10 years old that have had a lot of dental problems and teeth removed.

Their teeth still belong to wolves, who hunt, crunch large raw bones, never have treats and die relatively young!

It is very common for terriers like your sister's to lose teeth.

Brushing the dogs teeth was unlikely to have prevented this.

Also dentastix are shit. They are not good for clearing the teeth or for their health. Giving one everyday isn’t proof of good dog ownership. But, I have a feeling you know this.

I think you would be better keeping your nose out of your sister business since you don’t actually have any knowledge in this area.

You've no way of knowing for definite if she does or doesn't have them. Dogs should be regularly de-wormed as a matter of course.

OP people are consistently saying it’s to be expected for this particular dog breed but you’re still saying “oh but she never brushed the dogs teeth” . Clearly there’s a backstory here or you’ve really got it out for your sister.