Those of you who are pet owners, pay attention.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR PETS’ TEETH!

I am less than 24 hours out from having an impacted and quite possibly infected wisdom tooth extracted and I have to say that my mouth hurts less now than it has in the last three weeks. That doesn’t have anything to do with the amount or type of pain medication I’ve been taking. The oral surgeon gave me Vicodin (hydrocodone and tylenol) for after surgery and I’d been taking Percocet (oxydocone and tylenol) before surgery. Both relatively high dose narcotic pain medications of approximately equal strength mixed with an almost completely useless compound that isn’t really an anti-inflammatory. I’d also been snorking down ibuprofen in as large a dose as I could take at a time.

What, you ask, does all this babble about pain medications have to do with your pets’ teeth? Well, I’ll tell you.

Dental disease of varying degrees is the most common health issue I see in my patients. This can range from teeth that are only a little grungy to teeth that make me gag (literally, I’ve had patients whose mouths make me gag and for me that’s a neat trick). The good pet owners listen to me about how important dental health care is for their pets. The most common excuse I get from the irritating (that’s the nicest thing I can say about them) pet owners is “Well (s)he’s still eating so I don’t think the teeth are bothering her/him. We’ll wait to do anything about it until (s)he stops eating.” or “It’s just a dog/cat, don’t their teeth fall out when they get old anyway?”
Wrong.
Wrong, wrong, wrong wrongity wrong.

I am at a point in my career where I have enough personal experience with my own pets and literally thousands of patients that I can point to specific examples as leverage to convince people that they really need to provide the care that I’m suggesting for their pets instead of the care that (pick one) Dr. Google, their breeder, their groomer, their nephew’s cousin who used to work for a vet (as a shit shoveler), their farrier’s friend who knows a lot about animals, etc. etc. etc. (and yes, for the record, I have had clients who offered each of these examples of people who are “experienced with dogs and cats”) suggests.

Now I have personal experience myself with whether or not bad teeth are bothersome. They are, they hurt, and having them taken care of makes a big difference in your quality of life.
So take care of your pets’ teeth. If your critter will allow you to brush them, DO IT. If your critter won’t let you brush their teeth, pay attention to your veterinarian when you’re told that something needs to be done. A reasonable appetite doesn’t necessarily mean that your pet’s mouth doesn’t hurt.

Now y’all will pardon me while I go take more Vicodin and snork down something soft and squashy before I go to watch Bugs Bunny cartoons with my cat.