Embrace Pet Insurance Blog: Dr Riggs

Dr Riggs

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Ask Laura: worries about bloat in a German Shepherd Dog

I recently had a question about bloat from a concerned breeder of German Shepherd Dogs.

Question:

My mom's best friend, a 4 1/2 yr old reg. German Shepherd, just died of Gastric Torsion this past Monday. He woke her up at 3:30 am Monday and was gone by 5:30 am. Mom tried to reach a vet, but since we live way out in the country, none were answering their phones. She did not know what to do until it was all over.

What my question is, there seems to be so many different theories, what exactly is the best research showing as to what exactly causes this? I have heard that a certain type of dog food. I have heard that the dog was malnouished in the mother's womb. I have heard that too much exercise after eating. I have heard of table scraps (which she did feed him a steak bone Sunday night, but she has fed him steak bones many times before). The shock of the whole thing is just how quickly he went. She just wants some kind of answer to his death, and since I also have reg. shepherds, I would like to know what not to do.

Answer by Dr Rex Riggs of Best Friends Veterinary Hospital in Powell, Ohio:

Bloat is thought to be from air actually swallowed and you don't want your dog to run around after eating for 2 hours. Dogs with deep chests are more prone. Bloat is a combo of genetic and enviromental factors. We now will tack the stomach to the body wall of prone breeds when we spay them to prevent bloat in the future.

I do think feeding a better quality food makes a difference. I would choose food with fewer fillers because they can potentially cause gas formation but that is not a proven theory.

BTW we never recommend bones for dogs, not because of bloat, but because of obstructions.

Dr. Riggs

After reading Dr. Riggs' answer, I asked my friend Roxanne Hawn, who writes a lot about dog foods, for suggestions on food with fewer fillers for those of us on a budget (because aren't we all on a budget these days?) She got right back to me and I'll post her answer tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

Claim example: gastric torsion, or bloat, in a standard poodle

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Corns on a greyhound's toe: Dr Riggs discusses

Here's an interesting question that came in to my post on toe amputation surgery:

Sheldon's question:

My retired racing Greyhound, now 11+ years old has had terrible corns for the past six years. There is one corn on the left front, one on the left rear and one on the front right. All are on the third toe. Several years ago he had surgery on the front toe to cut out the corn. The corn came back. He has had the corns hulled several times but they always come back. I've used duct tape, hydrating, paw wax and filing the corn. All it seems to do is remove the hard callous. The corn always comes back. The left rear corn is the smallest (on the surface) but causes him the most trouble. He can barely walk and when he does it is with a limp and for a limited distance. I would really like to give him some comfort in his old age and am thinking of either having the left rear corn surgically removed, again or, having the third toe amputated. If he has the toe amputated, should the amputation go back as far as possible and, will it put undue pressure on his other toes on the left foot or even the right foot?

Answer from Dr. Riggs:

Corns or keratomas are common in Greyhounds. There are two schools of thoughts about how they get them. One theory is from trauma from sand or other foreign material from the track. The other is thought to occur from a papilloma virus, similar to one that can cause warts in dogs. They have isolated some papilloma viruses from these but not all, so we don't know if there is a cause and effect.

Regardless of the cause, the treatment is to to core these out surgically. There are various methods, from using a biopsy punch to using a dental elevator or scalpel. The problem with these is up to 40% can reoccur. The key is deep surgical removal to get the entire corn.

As far as amputation of the toe, that is used as last resort, but dogs compensate very well normally when a single toe is removed. Usually the toe is removed at the level of the next joint.

Ask your vet about what is appropriate. He/she will be able to help you determine the best treatment for your dog. Every case is different.

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Posted by Laura on Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 08:05 AM in Ask Laura, Dr Riggs, pet health | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Rates of Cancer by Dog Breed

What are the rates of cancer by breed? That was a request that was sent in in response to Dr Riggs' guest post on cancer in dogs and cats and one worthy of a post of its own.

In fact, there aren't many facts about relative rates of cancer by breed so I went to the source for the data. Dr. Steven Steinberg of VCA Veterinary Referral Associates, LLC has been collecting data on rates of cancer by breed over at the Vet Cancer Registry and built the following table based on a database of confirmed cancer cases compared to the numbers of AKC registered dogs in that breed.

You can see that breeds such as Golden Retrievers, German Shepherd Dogs, Poodles and Rottweilers seem to have greater incidences of cancer than many other breeds.

Breed	Number Registered	Rank by Number Registered	Percent of Total Registered	Number with Cancer	Rank by Number with Cancer	Percent of Total with Cancer
Mixed Breed				1150	1	20.11%
Labrador Retrievers	154,616	1	17.46%	74	13	1.29%
Golden Retrievers	56,124	2	6.34%	561	2	9.81%
German Shepherd Dogs	46,963	3	5.30%	197	3	3.45%
Beagles	44,610	4	5.04%	105	10	1.84%
Dachshunds	42,571	5	4.81%	71	14	1.24%
Yorkshire Terriers	37,277	6	4.21%	43	21	0.75%
Boxers	34,340	7	3.88%	155	5	2.71%
Poodles	33,917	8	3.83%	178	4	3.11%
Chihuahuas	28,466	9	3.21%	18	38	0.31%
Shih Tzu	28,294	10	3.20%	86	12	1.50%
Miniature Schnauzers	23,926	11	2.70%	105	11	1.84%
Pomeranians	23,061	12	2.60%	10	45	0.17%
Rottweilers	22,196	13	2.51%	143	6	2.50%
Pugs	21,774	14	2.46%	32	24	0.56%
Cocker Spaniels	20,655	15	2.33%	125	8	2.19%
Shetland Sheepdogs	17,453	16	1.97%	140	7	2.45%
Boston Terriers	15,983	17	1.81%	52	20	0.91%
Bulldogs	15,810	18	1.79%	34	23	0.59%
Miniature Pinschers	15,230	19	1.72%	1	51	0.02%
Maltese	13,049	20	1.47%	25	32	0.44%
Siberian Huskies	12,350	21	1.39%	58	18	1.01%
German Shorthaired Pointers	12,174	22	1.37%	25	33	0.44%
Doberman Pinschers	11,829	23	1.34%	124	9	2.17%
Basset Hounds	10,789	24	1.22%	60	17	1.05%
Welsh Corgis (Pembroke)	9,921	25	1.12%	26	31	0.45%
Bichon Frises	9,706	26	1.10%	20	37	0.35%
English Springer Spaniel	9,128	27	1.03%	24	36	0.42%
Great Danes	8,975	28	1.01%	29	28	0.51%
Weimaraners	8,774	29	0.99%	25	34	0.44%
Brittanys	7,846	30	0.89%	41	22	0.72%
West Highland Terriers	7,814	31	0.88%	55	19	0.96%
Collies	6,252	32	0.71%	32	25	0.56%
Pekingese	5,822	33	0.66%	8	47	0.14%
Mastiffs	5,797	34	0.65%	12	41	0.21%
Australian Shepherds	5,789	35	0.65%	31	26	0.54%
Lhasa Apsos	5,259	36	0.59%	30	27	0.52%
Saint Bernards	5,188	37	0.59%	5	49	0.09%
Papillons	4,547	38	0.51%	4	50	0.07%
Chinese Shar-Pei	4,437	39	0.50%	61	16	1.07%
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel	4,028	40	0.45%	6	48	0.10%
Akitas	3,987	41	0.45%	10	46	0.17%
Chesapeake Bay Retriever	3,829	42	0.43%	15	39	0.26%
Cairn terriers	3,812	43	0.43%	29	29	0.51%
Scottish terriers	3,516	44	0.40%	71	15	1.24%
Newfoundlands	3,121	45	0.35%	11	42	0.19%
Vizslas	3,106	46	0.35%	25	35	0.44%
Bullmastiffs	2,900	47	0.33%	15	40	0.26%
Airdale Terriers	2,841	48	0.32%	29	30	0.51%
Bloodhounds	2,804	49	0.32%	11	43	0.19%
Great Pyrenees	2,773	50	0.31%	11	44	0.19%

Totals	885,429			4208		73.59%

As Dr Steinberg would say, this table is only the first step in understanding cancer in different dog breeds but it's a good start.

If you want to read more, the information below was presented with the table above at the session "Using a Practical Veterinary Cancer Registry" at Tufts' Canine and Feline Breeding and Genetics Conference in 2003 and more details and graphs can be found on VIN.

For the past thirty years the veterinary literature has been hampered by small numbers of cases even in the best-designed scientific studies. Every month we read of questions raised about human medical research where thousands of individuals have been included and yet we have been at the mercy of the results of veterinary studies in which rarely more than 30 individuals have been the basis of the study.

Individual institutions usually don't generate enough consistent cases in large enough quantities to solve this problem and only by applying collated data collected cooperatively is veterinary medicine going to address this issue.
The Vet Cancer Registry is a web based (www.vetcancerregistry.com) data collection point for confirmed veterinary cancer cases. Cases have been registered from all over the world and only those cases with confirmed diagnoses are accepted into the database. This service is totally free and has been developed to be user friendly. There are currently more than 7600 cases on the website and cases are being added at a rate of about 12-18 per week. The website is recording about 2000 to 4000 hits per day. There are 5,718 dogs and 1,959 cats registered at this time in the registry.
Although the data are of a general nature, by looking at thousands of cases at one time one can notice trends that would not be evident in evaluating only a handful of cases. The search format is extremely interactive and allows for creative pursuits that are left to the imagination of the investigator. There is also a mechanism to query case submitters and to encourage collaboration among researchers.
We can associate the popularity of various dog breeds with the collected data from the Vet Cancer Registry by breed. In the following figure the top 50 dog breeds are listed with the number of individuals registered by breed according to published data from 2002 for the AKC. This table denotes trends where various dog breeds are over or under represented based on number of cancer cases reported in the registry in relation to popularity based on AKC registration. These kinds of trends are rarely used when a popular breed is noted to be susceptible for a specific disease in an institution's population. For example, Labrador Retrievers are by far the most popular breed, yet they are only number 13, among the top 50 breeds, in dogs most affected by cancer in cases registered in the Vet Cancer Registry. Similarly Chinese Shar-Peis are 39th in popularity according to the AKC but 16th , among the top 50 breeds, in dogs reported to have cancer in the Vet Cancer Registry.

Even this most simple study starts to reveal trends that as with all scientific endeavors raise more questions than they answer. Only by attaining significant numbers, will we obtain the knowledge to truly recognize incidence and treatment response trends.

Reprinted with permission of H. Steven Steinberg, VMD, DACVIM

Posted by Laura on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 07:28 AM in Ask Laura, Dr Riggs, pet health | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Ask Laura: what are the chances of success for Perineal Urethrostomy surgery?

Another excellent question on the topic of perineal urethrostomy (aka PU) that came up in the comments:

Question from Jo:

I cannot believe how cheap surgery is in America in comparison with Britain!

Our boy was run over in February and had a hole in his urethra. He had a number of weeks treatment before this was discovered and was in a very bad way but a catheter was put in for 10 days and the hole healed.

Unfortunately it seems that the scar tissue has now caused a stricture and he will probably need to have a PU. He has also recently started to leak urine - about 10 days after coming home. The treatment so far has cost us over £3000 and we have been told that the surgery is likely to be a lot more expensive than that. Our £2500 insurance is pathetic with this in mind! we are looking into ways of finding cheaper surgery but have had no luck so far.

He is only 10 months old and so gorgeous that we will find the money somehow, but it wil l be a struggle. So, think yourselves lucky America!

Does anyone know what the chances of success are? We have been told about 50% full recovery, 25% long term problems but survivable and 25% chance of needing to be put to sleep at the end of it all.

Answer from Dr. Riggs, Best Friends Veterinary Hospital Powell, Ohio BFVH.org

If the stricture is down far enough the surgery should be more then 50% successful because you are removing the obstructive area. The only problem that I would see is if the stricture in in the pelvic part of the urethra, where it would not be able to be gotten to surgically.

I would ask your Vet to see where the stricture is and see if they think they can fix it. I would ask how many of these surgeries they have done and if they are confident with the surgery. You vet should be able to tell you what kind of prognosis he will have.

Have you gone through this surgery with your cat or dog? What was your experience?

Posted by Laura on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 08:27 AM in Ask Laura, Dr Riggs, pet health | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, March 26, 2010

Guest Post: why are there hereditary problems in purebred dogs?

Today, we have a guest post from Dr. Rex Riggs, owner of Best Friends Veterinary Hospital in Powell, Ohio. He is a veterinarian, and an Advisory Board member of Embrace Pet Insurance. Dr. Riggs writes about hereditary issues from a small animal practioner's perspective.
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Hereditary problems, and their consequences, are something we deal with everyday in our practice. We see a number of purebred animals, each with its own great traits.

Labrador Retrievers are happy go lucky souls. Golden Retrievers are the owner’s loyal best friends. Then, there are the adorable King Charles Spaniels with their doll like faces. Who could resist the wrinkled faces of the Shar Pei? When you talk about majestic animals, who could deny the beautiful German shepherd?

Each breed has been bred to accentuate specific desirable traits. This is done by carefully breeding a male to a female with the same characteristics, so hopefully we get a litter of puppies that are similar to the parents. When done by conscientious breeders, this can be a very successful and everyone is happy. All too common though, we see the unwanted consequences of these breedings. Along with the good genes, often times the bad, often recessive genes, are expressed. This becomes more and more common the closer related the animals.

When a particular breed becomes popular, the more likely the two dogs are related, due to the intensive breeding. The five breeds were mentioned above, not only because they are fantastic dog breeds, but also because they are the breeds we see with the most genetic problems.

The retrievers often have hip dysplasia, eye problems, allergies and seizures.
The King Charles Spaniels have a high incidence of heart valve problems and neurologic defects, and
the Shar Pei and German Shepards have enough hereditary problems to fill this page.

The reason; they are just too popular for their own good.

When a breed becomes popular, greed becomes involved and people often see a way a profit can be made. The pet stores and nontraditional breeders start mating dogs.

Then there are the puppy mills.

We have a real problem in this country with puppy mills. They use the dogs as money making machines by breeding them over and over until they can’t breed anymore. Often times this results in dogs that have lost any resemblance to the original breed.

Unfortunately, the state where I live, Ohio, is one of the worst in the nation, in the number of these businesses. All too often I see an excited family bringing in their new puppy, only to have me tell them that the dogs has a life threatening problem. The owners are devastated. It is a sad part of my job.

We can and need to do a better job. The animals and the families who adopt them deserve it. Contact you legislator and get involved.

And please read the article in this blog about the 8 tips to bring home a healthy dog free of genetic conditions to help you in choosing a new puppy.
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Dr. Rex Riggs grew up in Wadsworth, Ohio, near Akron. Dr Riggs is co-owner of Best Friends Veterinary Hospital in Powell, Ohio. He is also on the board of the North Central Region of Canine Companions of Independence, a board member of The Ohio State College of Veterinary Medicine Alumni Society and Small Animal Practitioner Advancement Board at The Ohio State College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Riggs lives in Lewis Center with his wife Nancy, their two dogs Boo and Maggie, and two cats Franklin and Speeder. Outside of work, Dr. Riggs is an avid golfer and enjoys travel and photography.

Posted by Laura on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 05:22 AM in Dr Riggs, pet health, veterinarians | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Ask Laura: infected ingrown toe nail on cat

It seems to be the month of the toe! Here is another toe issue regarding infection in a cat's extra toe.

Question:

My cat has an extra toe and had an ingrown toenail that wrapped around and split the skin between her big toe and the first toe and may have got infected. The vet gave her an antibiotic shot, cut nails, and wrapped it almost two weeks ago. Last Saturday it was still not healed all the way so he wrapped it again and sent antibiotics home with me to give twice daily. He said if it don't work by this Saturday he recommended amputating her toe. I really do not want to do this. Is there something else I can do to prevent this?

Answer from Dr Riggs, Best Friends Vet Hospital:

It sounds like the cat is polydactyl, which just means he has extra toes. All of Ernest Hemingway’s' cats in Key West had extra toes and if you visit his house down there they still have a number of his cat's descendents, all with the extra toes. Often times they do not cause problems, but when the grow in between the toes they can become ingrown and infected. Cats are hard to keep the nails clipped often enough, so removing that extra digit often solves the problem. The cat is more comfortable and actually will walk better. Ask your vet and the vet can tell you if that would solve the problem.

While following your vet’s instructions on keeping the toe as clean as possible and administering any medication is the best you can do to prevent amputation, removing the toe is not as bad as it sounds and would prevent future issues as well.

Posted by Laura on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 08:16 AM in Ask Laura, Dr Riggs, pet health, veterinarians | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ask Laura: to amputate or not to amputate the cat's toe, that is the question

Stephannie asked about her cat's toe in the comments to my post Toe Amputations in Cats and Dogs so I thought it worth separating out into its own post:

Question from Stephannie:
I just took my 10 year old cat to the vet for a swollen toe. I had taken her two weeks before to my groomer so we could look to see if she had a bite or a cut which had caused the swelling. We saw nothing and I took Katie Maru to the vet. The doctor said it was a tumor. He did not specifically say that it was cancerous but said that we should amputate the toe anyway since the 3rd toe was now involved in the swollen area. I asked if this could be cancerous and they said it's possible. I asked if the removal of the tumor would hasten her demise, and they hedged on that one. They said once they had removed the tumor, a biopsy would tell us if she had cancer or not. My question is: Why not do a biopsy first to determine if this is cancerous? Why subject her to general anesthesia and put her life in jeopardy anyway, if the prognosis can be done prior via a biopsy. I can understand from a financial point that an operation is financially a benefit for them, but what about for Katie?

Answer from Dr. Riggs, Best Friends Veterinary Hospital Powell, Ohio BFVH.org:
Toe tumors can be aggressive so, as early as you can deal with them the better. You should talk to your vet about what he/she think about doing a biopsy vs. the surgery. I am sure there were things that the doctor saw that made him/her advise the amputation. I am sure that the financial benefit of doing the amputation over the biopsy, was not a factor at all. To do a biopsy, he/she would still need to use general anesthesia. Once the toe is removed or the biopsy taken, he/she can send it off to see what it is and then the doctor will tell you what the prognosis is.

Have you been through this situation yourself? What has your experience been?

Follow up question from Stephannie:

Question from Stephannie:
Thanks for the reply. I did a little more research on the topic of cancer in cats and it is possible that the toe tumor is simply a manifestation of a possible cancerous condition somewhere internally in the cat. I am most concerned that if she has this operation and there is cancer elsewhere in her, that this will speed up the dying process. I believe every life is sacred. She has been my best bud and door person for many, many years, but I do not want her to move that quickly towards her end. I also, however, do not want her to suffer. I want quality of life for Katie, not a prolonged and horrid death. Isn't there something less that can be done without the use of general anesthesia? Could an x-ray or ultrasound tell if the bone and toe are involved? You know, the "dark shadow"?

Dr. Riggs' answer:
I don't agree that there is obvious cancer elsewhere. I would take X-rays of the foot and also of the lungs before surgery. It is unlikely to have a tumor somewhere else in the body to spread to the foot. You can have spread of the tumor from the toe elsewhere. There is a good chance that the growth is able to be taken care of by the surgery. Again I would talk to the veterinarian and ask him/her these same questions. He/she would not do anything that would not be in Katie Maru's best interest. I always tell my clients that "there is no editor on the internet", so be careful what you read on the internet. There is just as much misinformation as good information. Good luck.

Posted by Laura on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 11:10 AM in Ask Laura, Dr Riggs, passion for pets, pet health | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Ask Laura: the impact of toe amputation surgery

I received the following question from Regina as a comment to another post on toe amputations and I asked Dr Riggs, one of our advising veterinarians:

Regina's question:
I have a 8 year old Boxer mix that has a bad foot infection from being poisoned. She will be loosing the two middle toes on her left hind and some dead tissue with it. Will she be able to run and play normally again?

Dr Riggs' answer:
I just did the same type of surgery on an 18 year old cat with a lymphocytic tumor of the the left rear paw. I had to remove the two middle toes and subsequently gave her a "Spock" like look to that paw. She is walking great. Dogs and cats are amazing. They can compensate so well. Your dog will not miss a beat. I was just at a lecture given by a surgery professor from Colorado State, about reconstructive surgeries of the feet. Her quote was "dogs and cats are born with more toes than they need" and she showed some pretty interesting cases to prove that. Your dog will do fine.

Pretty interesting don't you think? I had a friend who lost his big toe in a construction accident (a human friend, not a cat or dog!) and he said it did hinder him more than he thought it would so I had no idea cats and dogs could be so flexible.

Have any of you had to have some of your cat or dog's toes removed? How did it go?

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 07:57 AM in Ask Laura, Dr Riggs, pet health | Permalink | Comments (1)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Perineal Urethrostomy, incontinence and bladder atony

Wendy posted the following question as a comment on my blog post about perineal urethrostomy, which I thought was worthy of a blog post all of its own.

Has anyone else had issues with incontinence after the surgery? My cat Henry had the procedure done almost one year ago. Everything was going great until this last month...No matter where he sits or lies, he leaks urine. I love my cat and I am heartbroken that this is happening to him. I have heard that in rare cases there can be permanent nerve damage during the procedure, but why would it have just started??? Any advice????

I passed Wendy's question on to Dr. Riggs, one of our consulting veterinarians and this is what he had to say in response.

You can see incontinence in this situation occasionally but it probably is not nerve damage from the surgery; more likely a result of bladder atony. The sphincter of the urethra is at the base of the bladder, not at the end of the urethra. When cats get "blocked" he is not able to urinate and the bladder gets distended. The muscles in the bladder wall that are responsible for constricting the bladder are stretched and are not able to work as well. This is called bladder atony. When the bladder becomes full enough, the pressure within the bladder overcomes the urethra and he dribbles.

Have Wendy ask her vet about two drugs that can help in some cases, phenoxybenzamine and bethanechol. The phenoxybenzamine will help decrease the urethral tone and the bethanechol helps the bladder muscle contract. I would also look to see if there are no strictures in the urethra.

Lastly, bladder infections are common after PU surgeries since the urethra is wider and bacteria can get in the bladder easier. This is the same reason bladder infection is more common is female cats as compared to males. So I would check a urinalysis and do a culture of the urine.

I hope all goes well with Henry.

Have you had this issue before and were you able to resolve it?

UPDATE 3/8/10:
Sadly, I received this message from Wendy today:

Unfortunately I had to put Henry down yesterday. X-rays revealed he had developed eight more stones in his bladder and although he had the surgery to help him with this issue, he was unable to pass them on his own.

Henry had several more infections after the original surgery, he was facing another surgery, and there were no guarantees that this would be his last. It was a very hard decision, but in the end I did what was best for Henry. He filled my life with unconditional love and companionship and I did not want him to continue suffering.

I want to thank you for your kindness and your concern.

Sincerely,

Wendy

RIP Henry

Posted by Laura on Monday, February 15, 2010 at 09:56 AM in Ask Laura, Dr Riggs, pet health, veterinarians | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

More discussion about anesthesia-free teeth cleaning

Dr Riggs started off a conversation last week about why a veterinarian should clean your dog's teeth (Guest Post: Why Have Your Dog's Teeth Cleaned By A Vet Anyway?) and there were some interesting comments about other alternatives. Dr. Riggs asked me to post his response to these comments:

Wow...who would have thought we could stir up this much controversy with a little dental blog!

In response to the comment about Vet Economics:
Veterinary medicine is a business. We do need to make a living through the services we perform. I can assure you the vast majority of vets do not recommend services(or "pad the bill"), such as dentals ,when they are not needed. We need to offer the best medicine and let the owners decide. One of the mottos we follow is, "Always offer what is indicated, nothing that is not".

In response to the comments about anasthesia-free teeth cleaning:
What people don't realize is that you cannot do a thorough sub gingival curetting without anesthesia. The dogs will not let you. Anesthesia in animals, using the right equipment and agents, is safe. Our veterinary technicians are extensively trained and we use pulse oximeters, blood pressure machines and warming devises (bair huggers) to ensure the patients safely.

Can you do a little scraping under the gums without anesthesia? Sure, but not a true cleaning. The difference with human dentistry and veterinary dentistry is that animals will not open their mouth for you to clean under and around the teeth and gums on all four sides. You must clean all sides of the teeth to clean properly. When you scrap the enamel, you must then polish the teeth to help eliminate the microscopic grooves left in the enamel. This is done with a low speed polishing drill. If not, these grooves act as a scaffolding for tarter to grab hold. This is another step not done by the groomers.

The dentals we do also include dental radiographs. You can not tell tooth root abscesses without radiographs. It is the same reason dentist use dental radiographs on us. These require anesthesia in animals. (some pictures below)

Finally, one misinterpretation from the article I think, was that you need to do a prophylactic dental each year. You normally do not. If the people brush the dogs teeth regularly often you can wait 3 to 4 years between dental. Owners have a lot of power in determining their pets dental health. We evaluate each animal yearly on their normal vaccine exams.

Rex C. Riggs D.V.M. Best Friends Veterinary Hospital Powell, Ohio. BFVH.org

First picture: The black on the xray is where bone has eroded away. So you can see the roots on the middle tooth is just barely on the bone. If more then 50% of the root is exposed then that tooth need to come out. We removed this tooth.

Second picture: The bottom tooth has total destruction of the roots and now has an infection of the jaw bone. On this xray you cannot rule out even a tumor. we tooth this tooth out and biopsied the jaw. This came back osteomyelitis.

Third picture: This is a good example of a root abscess on two teeth . The big 2nd tooth has the black halo area under the bifurcation. Then the third tooth has the classic halo around the first root. Both of these teeth needed removed.