Dental News from Fivel

Hello, my name is Fivel.  I am a 14 year old bundle of love and the apple of my parent's eye.  Dr. Gray has asked me to represent the Animal Care Center's in it's celebration of February's upcoming National Dental Health Awareness month.  I am the perfect guy to talk about dental health care, and it's importance;  just recently I was sick due to dental disease.  So listen up fellow pet children and share what you learn with your parents!

My mom brought me to see Dr. Gray, because I was coughing and wasn't breathing very well.  Dr. Gray found that my body temperature was low, I had some fleas, a heart murmur and really bad teeth.  The nurse took my blood discovered that I was anemic and my white cells (cells that fight infection) were high.  My anemia could have been because of the fleas and my anemia could cause a heart murmur.  My elevated white cells could be because of the infection in my mouth, and the infection could have spread to my other body organs.  So the doctor started me on antibiotics, some medicine to help my heart work better and some Comfortis to kill my fleas.

I began to feel better.  For two months, the doctor rechecked my blood every two weeks and I was still anemic.  I had no blood loss any where in my body and when the doctor looked at my blood, she could tell that I was making red cells ok.  Dr. Gray finally diagnosed my anemia as 'anemia due to chronic disease', and that disease was my bad teeth.  An appointment was made to have my teeth cleaned.

After my dental cleaning and extractions of 8 teeth that were bad, I really felt a lot better and when the nurse checked my red cells again, I was no longer anemic!  I was more active and was eating my food better.  I felt like a pup!

This is what Dr. Gray says:
   The infection that is associated with dental disease can spread to kidneys, liver and heart.  Heart valve disease (causing murmurs) can be caused by bad teeth, long term chronic liver and kidney failure can also be attributed to bad teeth.  Bad teeth hurt.  Mouth pain can lead to weight loss.

Small breed dogs (like me) are prone to developing periodontal disease because our tooth roots are shorter when compared to large breed dogs.  This allows bacteria to destroy a greater percentage of tooth support.    Smaller breeds also tend to live longer than larger breeds.  The longer the dog's life, the more time periodontal disease has to cause damage.  Smaller dogs also have more teeth crowding and malocclusions.  Crowding of teeth decrease the normal self-cleaning process, predisposing to periodontal disease.

PETS UNITE!  TALK TO YOUR PARENTS!  Have them make an appointment with your veterinarian today!