Poor Mimi!

Mimi had ten teeth removed yesterday. Her face, tongue, and lips are so swollen I can't inspect the suture sites yet. She's groggy from the anesthesia. She looks pretty rough, like she is resurfacing after a week-long bender of booze and speed.

Most of the teeth on her upper left arcade are now gone and only a molar or two remain on the upper right side. She lost her last incisor. Fortunately, I took her to the dental specialist who taught us our dental unit in Small Animal Medicine, and she was able to save Mimi's lower canines by putting bone graft material around the roots. She still has her upper canines--they were apparently fine. Her canines are about all she has left!

Like most fox terriers, Mimi is a tough little dog. She is eating her canned food with gusto (never noticing the meds I drop in there--a long course of antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory). Once she started swallowing last night, she stopped drooling bloody saliva all over herself and her blankets so she looks a bit more presentable. She is not feeling much like playing but she is following me around the house like she usually does.

She lost all of her incisors but that one last year. And she lost a couple of premolars the year before. So what's up with her extremely ferocious dental disease this year? I brush Mimi's teeth regularly (I do this for all three dogs) but sometimes genetics and bad luck overcome our best intentions. I have recently changed to a different toothpaste although honestly that probably won't make much of a difference.

And in case you were wondering, dogs do just fine with few to no teeth. My dogs don't chew their kibble anyway, so that's not a problem. And once the incisions heal and the sutures resorb, dogs can still catch balls and retrieve toys. No more chewing on antlers, but Mimi never did much of that anyway. And we will still be able to play tug, gently, with fleece tugs.