Delilah is a voracious chewer. Give her a beef bone and this dog will gnaw for hours. Give her an antler and she’ll chew until her teeth bleed and you take it away. (FTR, I only did that once!)
What do you do with a dog that likes to chew, but can’t chew traditional bones or antlers?
For the longest time I used those big white bones that come filled with peanut butter or cheese. I’d scrape the filling out and refill the bones with pumpkin, yogurt, Kefir or fruit and refill it and freeze it.
Until at Delilah’s annual check up in June when our vet told us that Delilah had a broken tooth. At that point I switched her over to a frozen Kong. Am I certain the bones were responsible for the broken tooth? No. No I’m not. But I’d rather not take a chance.
My poor girl, the tooth was definitely bothering her as the vet could see that plaque was beginning to build up around that tooth, which meant she was being careful not to chew on that side. We scheduled her dental cleaning for August. (Dentals book up fast in our practice.)
Then the routine blood work showed her liver levels were elevated so we did an ultrasound on her liver, which showed the liver was normal size, shape and texture. We encountered a problem however with our credit card. Wells Fargo sent us a new credit card in March, it had a substantial limit with nothing on it. I activated the card and put it away for emergencies. When the ultrasound and broken tooth came up, we figured, “good thing we have this card.”
Except it turns out we didn’t.
When we went to pay for Delilah’s ultrasound, the card was declined. When Hubby called the bank he was told the account was closed for inactivity. After the card was mailed to us and activated by me. So there we were standing at the vet’s office with a $500 bill for an ultrasound and no way to pay it. The vet’s office agreed to take a deposit from me and future payments, but couldn’t spot us the dental as well as the ultrasound, so poor Delilah’s dental had to be postponed. Believe me when I tell you I felt horrible about this.
It took us a month or so, but we finally got the bill paid and rescheduled the dental for this past Tuesday.
Thankfully she only needed the one tooth pulled, but that tooth was so bad, it had a hole in it and when the Dr. probed it, pus came out. My poor girl! When I first heard about her elevated liver levels I suspected the tooth. However the office manager at our vet said typically one tooth is not going to cause elevated liver levels. (Well time will tell on this one.)
Delilah did very well with the anesthesia and I picked her up around 5:00 pm. I was warned she would probably be whiny and restless, but I fluffed it off. It’s Delilah after-all, nothing phases her.
Until it does.
When I first saw her, I’m not really sure she even realized who I was. After a few minutes of petting her and talking to her, she was ready to go. She booked for the car and launched herself in. Typically she stands in the car for the first couple of minutes but usually settles down quickly. She rode the entire trip home going from window to window. I went slowly, taking the back roads home and let her just be in the moment, at one with life.
Once we got home she went straight to the house, but then wasn’t sure what to do. It was so hard to see her unsure of where to go and what to do with herself.
Shortly after we got home, sorry for the dark photo. I was holding her head with my right hand and trying to snap the picture with my left.
That’s a bit better, but you can see she’s out of it.
She spent a couple of hours standing in the middle of room. Just standing there. Sometimes she would whine too. It about broke me, because she’s so not a whiny dog. But as the night wore on she became more and more like herself.
Yesterday morning on her walk, she was a bit more reserved than she usually is, but she responded to commands, looked for treats when appropriate and danced for her breakfast.
Yesterday afternoon I receive a package from the Holistic Vet (more on that in another post.) Last night she ate some of the packing peanuts from the box.
I’d say she’s feeling more like herself.
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Well, you have to love a girl who keeps you on your toes and provides blog material on a regular basis! Ours have always been a bit out of it after dentals, too. I’m glad she’s feeling better!
Poor Delilah!! That sounds awful! I hope she feels better soon! That’s crazy about your credit card! Banks can be so weird.
Glad she got her teeth all fixed up. ‘I’d say she’s feeling more like herself’ LOL. I felt so terrible when we had our dog spayed – I was pretty sure the vet let us pick her up too early because she was acting so odd when we got home. On top of that even with pain meds it’s a pretty big surgery for females (I’m sure the males love to hear how simple neutering is…) so I’m sure she was in pain as well. She flopped down in the middle of the floor and just stared into space.. I felt horrible – she was being so awkward. Luckily the next day she was acting normally, but yeah, it’s really odd seeing our dogs under the effects of anesthesia.
Poor Delilah! But glad she was feeling more herself at the end… Haha!
It sounds like you’re on the road to recovery, D. Your mom will take good care of you. Try not to eat anything too bizarre in the meantime. Yeah. It might be a little late for that warning. xo
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Poor D and we so hope she feeling more like her old self today. Onwards and upwards D. What a farce with the credit card. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
Poor baby, I hope she is feeling better now!
Poor Delilah and poor you! It’ll be interesting to see what her blood work reveals once she’s all healed from the tooth problems. Big fan of Kongs at our house as opposed to bones.
It can be scary when we come home from a procedure. I didn’t do well after my spay, I was four. Mom took me back to the vet after three days because I wouldn’t even walk. Turns out I was just being a total baby and milking it for all I could, but it took over a week to get back to my old self and it had Mom worried sick. I’m so happy to hear Delilah is eating packing peanuts…hopefully her habits won’t results in another vet trip with surgery! I bet that tooth is also responsible for some of her liver issues.
Sweet Delilah Its always so nerve wracking when they have anesthesia. Im glad Delilah is back to herself even if she is trying to be a bit bad
retro rover
Hi Y’all!
I’d say, never a dull moment at your house! BOL!
When I’ve had to go to sleep it takes a long time for me to come out of it. Last time when the Humans got me home I sat for hours by the chest in the living room and swayed side to side. I think my Human was afraid I’d topple over. I didn’t, but I wouldn’t lay down either.
Paws crossed for you Delilah! Hope you’re all well now.
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Awwww! Poor sweet pup! I am glad she is feeling better now!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Sometimes it takes a LONG time fur us to Wake up from a Dogtor’s NAP… and that causes us to act SILLY.
We are glad that your got rid of the HOLEY Toof. You will feel MUCH better now.
It’s good that you got Delilah’s infected tooth out. I’m glad she is feeling better now.
Poor Delilah!! I hope you figure out what’s up with her liver.
Aww, poor Delilah! So glad she’s feeling better now! Hugs to y’all! xo
Glad she’s feeling better and that tooth was gotten rid of.
Sometimes it just takes a bit longer for the effects of the anesthesia to wear off.
Poor girl! I’m glad she’s starting to feel a bit better 🙂
Glad to hear Delilah’s feeling better! Soth was pretty loopy when he woke up from his dental procedure, too. Barley has really sensitive gums so she can only have chews for a short period of time most of the time or else she’s bleeding all over. I recently discovered Whimzees dental chews and those seem to last her longer than some others but are more gentle on her gums.
Anesthesia has a much bigger effect on the human body than we think. It must have been hard to see Delilah not being her usual confident self. But hopefully with the dental work behind her she’ll be feeling much better.
I bet you were never so glad to see your little princess eat packing peanuts. 🙂
Oh I’m so glad you got the tooth removed before the abcess ruptured through her cheek. Glad she is feeling better and back to her old self of eating weird stuff.
Ok erase what I said in my last comment about her not helping herself recently….lol. Storm had the exact same reaction as Delilah to anesthetic when we had the growth removed from her gum. It was odd and she was still out of it for a good part of the next day (did not turn down food though…lol). When she was spayed at the repro vet, I liked his anesthesia better. She was wide away when we picked her up. I understand that he uses a newer method. I am glad poor Delilah has had that tooth removed. I bet she feels a lot better with it gone. Hope the stitches are bothering her too much.