Rotten teeth, too old for anethesia

[Huntress's mom]

My 11 year old Corgi/Chihuahua cross has very bad teeth and horrible, horrible breath. I have had her since she was only one year old and brushed her teeth with a plain (no toothpaste) toothbrush now and then, occasionally with some dog-toothpaste, and used it more often as she aged. however, it hasn't seemed to help. She eats a high-premium diet and her food doesn't have "artificial" colors and etc. compared to generic brands. She's never had dental work done at a vet, though, because when she was spayed just days after I adopted her, she had an EXTREME reaction to the anethesia and nearly died. I have been afriad to put her through unnecessary anethesia again. She was recently found to have a heartmurmur, but is in other wise good health, except for her teeth which are increasingly worse. All of them have severe tartar buildup, her gums are slightly red. She went to the vet for her vaccinations last Decemember, so will be going in this Christmas for updates -when the vet last examined her, She said that there was "some plaque buildup"...I was surprised that she didn't seem that concerned, but of course relieved. Now all of her front teeth are very loose and a bit sore. She has a little trouble eating hard food, but not too much, just prefers the moist. I imagine lots of older dogs have teeth problems, but is this more severe than the vet made it out to be? I worry putting her under anethesia required for dental work due to her age and heart murmur and probably would not do it. I imagine she has ginivitis or something to that extent. Are their any home remedies that could keep the condition form getting any worse? I'm not sure what to do!

[k9Karen]

You really need to discuss a care plan with your vet. Depending on the dog's personality, it may be possible to do some of the cleaning without using general anesthesia and there may be cleaner or medications you can use. There are also different options with anesthesia that can be discussed if needed. I am concerned about the recent diagnosis of the heart murmur in combination with having gingivitis. It is very possible that these two conditions are related. There is a condition called subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE),which is an infection of the heart, that is most commonly caused by bacteria that have come from the mouth in dogs (and people too) with severe gum disease. Frequently, the only symptom will be the discovery of a heart murmur on exam. If the conditions are not related, the presence of a heart murmur increases the chances for the development of this condition, which puts your dog at-risk for this infection. Cleaning the teeth will release bacteria into the blood stream. This is normal even when gum disease isn't present- it happens when you get your teeth cleaned too and normally the immune system removes them. However, the presence of a murmur (which is, basically, a heart valve that is not opening and closing properly, so the vet hears a 'swoosh' when she listens to the heart), increases the risk that the bacteria that get into the blood stream could lodge in the heart, causing SBE. Because of the increased risk of SBE, it will be important that your dog be on antibiotics at the time of any cleaning procedure, so, in my opinion at least, this is not something you should attempt yourself.

[davet]

in addition to what K9 said, a lot of these loose, cruddy teeth can be ease out without anesthesia or stress to the pup...just gentle working on them like you do with a kid loosing its teeth...if the teeth are that bad then they actually are of no real use to the dog and you would be amazed at how well dogs adapt with a few, to all missing teeth...try every day to gently wiggle them, ie on ly the ones that alread seem loose...

[cleverpooch]

We do dentals with extractions on senior dogs that have multiple problems (oldest was almost 16 years old). It does get expensive because pre-anesthetic bloodwork and sometimes ultrasound or radiographs are required first. Then during the anesthesia the monitoring is more extensive than it would be for a healthy adult dog (ECG, doppler, etc, are on continously, plus there's an additional technician in the room solely for monitoring purposes while the dental tech and vet work in the mouth). All of our dental patients get antibiotics and fluid support during anesthesia.
As for anesthesia, your dog may (and most likely will) require a totally different protocol than when she was spayed (problems with anesthetic at time of spay, age, condition of heart, etc will factor into that).
Most of our patients do well, and are much healthier after.
For that reason alone, I hope you will investigate your options a bit more thoroughly and speak with your veterinarian and/or a specialist about your concerns.