Dental Cleaning under Anaesthetic

[kaluelu]

Just posting while I fret about my dog's teeth cleaning in a couple of days, has anyone else had their dog under for a clean? I know some people do it every year, but I hate having my dogs put under for procedures and I've been fretting all week about it. Did your dog seem much happier or spritely after? She's a 7 year old lurcher, so I'm also worried about her age/breed with the anaesthetic, had all her bloods done and she's been sleeping in the bed and getting extra walks as a treat, just a nervous wreck thinking about leaving her and looking for some positive outcomes to make me feel a bit better about it.

I've got no experience but it's a really important thing to get done. Dental disease is really serious and can lead to all sorts of problems.

At 11 out lurcher needed teeth cleaning and 1 out..
Ended up 10 out and cost me £800...
Still sobbing years later!

@cinnamonfrenchtoast I know that in my heart, but getting a dog put under for their teeth seems like such an unnecessary risk compared to something like an illness or having something in their actual body removed. I'll be taking my other dogs in if hers goes well even though their teeth aren't as bad as hers just to get ontop of it all before they get older
@Cloudsandrainnotsunandsand Oh no haha, mine needs a few out too and I've been quoted 1100, the things we do for (long snouts with bad teeth) dogs 😒

It's really not an unnecessary risk. Bad teeth can lead to heart disease if they're left untreated.

It's no different to your dog being put under for any other kind of essential surgery.

I had my 14yo dog's teeth cleaned. She was absolutely fine and it really helped her. My 10yo dog had hers done a year or so ago and again no issues. Dental issues can be really serious and expensive if you don't get on top of them early, plus they can be painful for the dog.

OP My pug had her teeth cleaned recently by a lovely girl at her doggy grooming parlour. She used an epipen (I think) I will check the name .. and it cost me £20. The procedure was done while I waited outside and her teeth were lovely and clean afterwards. Such a better option than the anaesthetic one.

Correction it is called Emmipet.

One of mine had it done a few years ago. The vet was advertising £99 dentals so I booked him in. Collected him & a bill for £380 because they’d extracted two teeth as well as cleaning them.

I took my old dog (not the corgi) to the vet to have his teeth done he had bad breath and a lot of tarter he is a total drama llama I have never know a dog with such a low pain threshold. I dropped him off in the morning and picked him up on the evening much to my amazement he skipped out of the vets and didn’t seem bothered in the slightest; he’d had 6 teeth removed. I was advised to feed him wet for for 48 hours, he normally has dry, but he refused to eat it and was happily crunching his biscuits when I went to bed. Total bill £116.75! He’s 11 he’s never had it done before and the vet is hoping it will last him till he dies average age for the breed is 14-15.

Dropped the pup off, time to clean the whole house to take my mind off it!

My two went in at 10 years to have a clean and only needed one tooth out each. Their teeth were sparkling afterwards and it was good for peace of mind. You don’t have to do it every year. My parents dog went in and had 15 out, they had really neglected him and he died of heart failure 6 months later. I think they left it too long and the damage to the heart was already underway due to the neglect of the teeth. You are doing the right thing op.

Hope all went well today OP. My dog had this done aged 12. We adore her and were so worried about the anaesthetic but her teeth were pretty dreadful. All went smoothly and she her old happy self only with fresher breath the following day. Two years later I still brush her teeth every day and they are white and healthy and she's still bonny.

I understand the lurcher specific concern with anaesthesia, mine isn’t at the age for needing teeth cleaning procedures yet (she’s 2 and a half), but she has had two dental surgeries for a fractured tooth (root canal in December and crown fitted to the tooth in February) and is booked in for a dental x-ray under anaesthesia, to see how the crown and tooth are settled, next week. It can be anxiety inducing, especially with lurchers being as sensitive to anaesthetic as they are, I have no real solution for you, beyond remembering that the vets are aware of sighthounds and their increased risk under anaesthesia, and teeth cleaning and extraction is a very common procedure, with how few people actually clean their dog’s teeth.
Cleaning my dog’s teeth from puppyhood really paid off in both making her not mouth-shy allowing the vet to check her fractured tooth despite being in pain, and allowing me to continue cleaning her teeth now that it’s an actual imperative, with the crown potentially trapping food beneath it and needing to be brushed daily.
Not to shame anyone who doesn’t clean their dog’s teeth with toothbrush and paste, I’m aware that there are other methods that work well, just glad I went the route I did, given it would have been a hell of a struggle to clean around her crown if I’d started when she was an adult not a puppy.

If your dog isn't the type to take a snap at you, then once she's had a week or so for any tender post-dental areas to settle down, start brushing her teeth daily. It's the biggest favour you could do for her and will hugely reduce the need for dental work under anaesthetic.