I was trying to get a picture of Sasha's teeth. Stupid camera will do what it wants goshdangit.

RMB Day

I haven't done one of these in a while, and since I had some pork shoulder and butt bones just sitting around in the freezer taking up space, I decided to do something about them.

The dogs all got: Pork bone of some sort, an egg, some turkey liver. (Conker did not eat his liver.) The biggest bone was for Juneau, the mid-sized one for Sasha, and the smallest for Conker.

Juneau got right to work on her bone. Juneau is the best behaved dog while waiting for their food, so she always gets to eat first.

Sasha likes to carry her bones into the bushes. I did not get very many pictures of her.

Conker just eats right on the pavement.

Juneau is very delicate when she eats, she takes her time and deconstructs her food bit by bit.

Conker, much to my amazement, actually wanted his food! He was not vocal about it, but was excited while I was preparing and carrying the bowls out to the back. He ate most of his bone and all his egg. He never finishes bones like these, so Sasha usually gets the rest.

It took Juneau twice as long as Sasha to eat her bone.

All the dogs were in need of a good tooth cleaning, and while the bones did not get all the gunk off their teeth, it really did a good job on Conker's. His teeth were starting to look pretty nasty (for a dog who normally has no tartar whatsoever, even a tiny bit looks bad) but the bone brushed them up good. Juneau's teeth are still relatively nice looking since her extraction/cleaning earlier this year, but Sasha's were in need of a good scrub. They still are, so I will probably either just give her another bone soon, or plan another RMB Day for next week.

Photo of Juneau's busted tooth.

I posted this a while back but I had someone request I show it, just in case she doesn't see my comment reply.

The tooth was the upper left carnassial and had a large enough chunk broken off that only about two sections of 1/3rd inch of tooth was left. The pulp was visible in three places and was a darkish brown color.  The break was sharp and jagged and caused Juneau some pain. She rubbed her face on the ground or with a paw frequently, which is a sign of discomfort or pain.

Due to the extent of the break we had to have the tooth extracted. That's not a cheap procedure but it's well worth the cost compared to what could happen if one were to ignore the tooth and let it abscess and rot. During the extraction the rest of Juneau's teeth were cleaned.  They didn't need it that badly but passing it up would have been kinda dumb since the cost of anesthesia and monitoring is what drives the price up so high.

My suspect for breaking the tooth is a rock. I say this because I had not given the dogs any hard bones or chews for a while. I could have missed an old one in the yard, but I haven't found any since the break occurred so I doubt that is the case.
Anywho, I think it was a rock since our yard has lots of rocks in it and the Girls like to chew on sticks, and sometimes they get rocks in their mouths when they chew out in the yard.

Two Weeks Update

Took Juneau into the vet today. Her mouth is looking good, healing up nicely. There's a couple sutures still left but they will dissolve soon, in a week or so.

I was given some dog toothpaste that came with a fingerbrush, and a chew thing. Not sure what the chew is, but it supposedly helps create a coat over the teeth to protect against tartar buildup? It looks like a mix between a pig ear and a dried yam. They are made by Virbrac Animal Health, C.E.T. Home Dental Care somethingorother. A small information sheet with pictures of nasty dog teeth was also in the bag. I should give that one to Mom.
Oh, and I was given some propaganda about Royal Canin's "special" dental diet. Thanks, but I'm gonna pass on that one.

I'm probably going to use the toothpaste on Juneau a couple times but mainly use it with Sasha. She's the one who needs more attention given to her teeth.

Here comes Juneau!

Taken before her tooth extraction

Juneau is doing better. She still rubs her mouth a bit every once in a while and since she is also still on painkillers I guess she doesn't much notice if it hurts or not.  She's due to come off them in a couple days and we'll see how she reacts to that.

I'm hesitant to take her hiking because of that. I'm sure she'd be fine, but you never know. Plus I don't want her to grab something and rip open her mouth stitches or whatever.

Juneau is out of it

Juneau laid in my lap for a while and enjoyed some good scratches.

We got Juneau back. Her teeth are quite nice looking, very white and clean. She's a bit loopy though and kinda seems like she's somewhat drunk. We have to restrict her exercise for a bit and soak her kibbles for seven days to give the extraction spot time to heal. She also gets to take some drugs for a while. Pain killers and antibiotics, or something like that.
We had her chipped while at the vet as well.

Edit: Juneau is still quite out of it. She's been sleeping for most of the time she's been home, but I did get her to eat some mushy kibble mixed with a bit of The Honest Kitchen.  While playing with a tennis ball with Conker, Juneau perked up and watched for a bit then went back to sleep.

New Deck!

So I've finally got a way to easily get into my room from the outside. Mom's bf dude is a really good carpenter and he's been building a deckramp thing for the last couple days for the door to my room.

Ignore the trailer and ladder

Before I had some cinder blocks set up like steps but they kinda sucked. This is a lot better. It still needs to be painted but the construction is done.  Neatly enough, Conker can't fit through the bars so if I wanted to put him outside and keep him there, I can block off the ramp and hold my Shiba hostage on my new private entrance deck.


Anyways...
Today Juneau went in for her tooth extraction and cleaning at about 7:30 AM. The vet called not too long ago and said Juneau is doing fine and that we can pick her up at 4.

Sasha has been moping all day so I took her and Conker hiking. Sasha saw me grab her Approach pack and instantly knew we were going somewhere and perked up right away.

The hike wasn't too long today. I kinda cut it short by taking a trail I have never gone on before that slices through the middle of the Cathedral Hills system. It was still a lot of fun.

Haven't taken one of these in a while.

Conker wasn't as much of a dork as he usually is, mainly since Juneau wasn't around. He was still an ass to Sasha, just not as bad as he is with Juneau.

Sasha decided she wanted in on the fun.

The lack of Juneau resulted in something I hadn't really expected. It was a lot less, exciting, without her. When Juneau is around Conker is more wild, annoying, and since Juneau is a high energy dog, she is also going every direction at the same time as well. That didn't happen today. Both dogs were relatively mellow.

Sasha braving the strong winds.

Today is a strange day in regards to the weather. We don't often get a lot of wind but man is it blustery! It was so windy that I had to take my hat off and attach it to my belt or it'd have blown off my head.

Angry clouds and snow in the distance.

But that's not the only strange weather. Though our elevation is quite low, we are surrounded by mountains that reach several thousand feet in height rather quickly. Some of them have snow on them from the past few nights. It's supposed to snow some more for a while.

I ran out of stuff to write about.

The farthest Sasha ever got ahead. She was only about 75 feet away.

Oh yeah. Sasha didn't like to be too far ahead of me and preferred to keep me in sight. Funny, since Conker and Juneau will both take off and only come back when they realize that I'm no longer around or I call them. Though she doesn't quite listen 100% and will often ignore me to dine on horse crap or sniff some grass off the trail (and get ticks in the process), she is much better than Conker and Juneau when it comes to staying nearby.

Will update on the Juneau situation later.

Update on the tooth: Extraction scheduled.

Well, we had the tooth looked at.  The pulp is exposed in 2 or 3 places and the break is, according to the vet and how Juneau has been acting lately, causing some pain.  There were two options we could do: Have the tooth extracted or do a root canal.  I am personally in favor of the root canal (friggin metal teeth cap-thing whoot whoot!) but in order to do that, we'd have to be referred to a specialist in Ashland, who is the only vet around here that does that sort of thing.  Plus the break is so extensive that the cap might fail.
So we opted for the extraction. Which is going to cost some $430-480.  That includes cleaning the rest of the teeth, anesthetic, monitoring, painkillers, antibiotics and whatever all that other crap is.
Anyways, she's going in on the 17th at 7:00AM or so. 

Everything else was great.  She's heartworm free (despite not being on preventives, we picked some up though) and if the vet hadn't been given an age, she would have guessed Juneau was only two years old!  I guess that says something about her condition.

Vet visit at 4 today

Poor Juneau gets to go to the vet!  She is one of those dogs who breaks down and shakes the whole time, so I am going to play with her a lot before hand to get her worn out so she isn't so wound up.

I will update later when I know what's going on with the tooth.


Here's another sneak peak of an upcoming review item.

Lets play: Where's That Tooth!

Remember when Sasha chipped a tooth? Well, Juneau BROKE a tooth.  See if you can find it.

This picture is terrible, courtesy of Fuji. Juneau's other teeth don't look that bad.

Not much left, is there?

Same tooth as Sasha, same side as Sahsa.  Again I have no idea what caused this.  None of the dogs have been given any hard chews lately and I can't remember if I checked the Girls' teeth right when I got back from Arizona or if the other day was the first time. Either way, this tooth was definitely intact when we left and was either busted during the trip or shortly after we got back.

Reused wolf skull image for comparison.

I don't think it's going to be a particularly cheap fix.  The pulp is exposed in not one but two places, most of the external carnassial is gone. Mom still thinks dogs don't need dental care but I know they do. However, she knows that this break is worse than Sasha's and that Juneau needs to have it looked at soon.  Until then, I am going to monitor the tooth daily and keep it clean, and if I have to, I will take Juneau to the vet myself.

What a way to start the new year. I hope this does not become a trend.

So Today...

Is sunny, which is odd.

I have been reluctant to give Sasha any bones or hard chews since I found her busted carnassial tooth.  I've been putting off their weekly RMD day for a bit but decided to just get it over with test Sasha's tooth out today.

So the Girls got...

 

Turkey backs, gizzard and liver, chicken heart and egg, ground beef, canned mollusks.   

Conker got a tiny bit of Honest Kitchen, some ZiwiPeak, rices, a chicken heart and egg, turkey tail and some unitenfitied turkey organ that was in one of the backs.  I think it was kidney.

Conker went bonkers for this, I might add.  I think he just ran out the garage... Anyways, he was barking and whining, savaging the Girls faces, and again, like usual, I did not get it on camera.  I wanted to since this was the loudest he's been in a long while.

So Sasha didn't appear to have any problems eating her turkey back.  I watched her carefully and she did not favor the left side of her mouth at all.  I guess she's either a badass and toughed it out through the pain or didn't have any.  I hope it's the latter, since tooth problems in dogs tend to be spendy.

Conker is determined to make me angry

He ripped down the black stuff I put along a part of the fence where he was fence fighting with the neighbor's dogs.  So now he and Juneau are always making a racket out there at the new neighbor dogs, who are nice and DON'T want to fence fight.  Stupid dumbass dog.

So...

Conker got a little bit of Honest Kitchen, some ZiwiPeak and a bit of chopped pork and turkey gizzard, and a small piece of turkey neck.
 

In other news...

Notice something a bit... off... about that upper carnassial tooth?  Yeah, it's broken.  The tip got chipped off by something.  I'm not exactly sure when or by what, but Sasha broke it sometime within the past three days.  This is what it SHOULD look like.

See that bigeass tooth before the molars?  It's got a nice sharp point. Sasha's doesn't. 

RMB Day and Sasha's Teeth and Progress

Today was a RMB day!  The dogs were all given a taste test of something I'll write about tomorrow, then after my shower they were taken into the backyard and given some bones to chew on.  

Sasha got a beef rib.  And it looks like autumn in this picture.  It's actually still very green here.

See the green?  Juneau got a beef rib as as well, and figured out after about 20 minutes that the sun was hot so she relocated to the shade.

Conker got some sort of pork bone, shoulder I think, and stayed next to the pool.  He was halfway in the sun and half in the shade.  He ate the entire thing.


Now the Sasha stuff.
I skimped last Friday on Sasha's teeth update.  Completely forgot, so you get it today.

It's now been some 42 days or 6 weeks since I began adding PlaqueOff to the dog's food. 
 
Here is the before shot of Sasha's teeth.

Click to see the large buildup of tartar/plaque on the carnassial teeth and molars.

 And here is after 6 weeks of using PlaqueOff.

No buildup on carnassials or molars.

 A couple closeups.

Carnassial and molars. 

Canine and incisors.

The redness around the gumline on some of Sasha's teeth is from chewing on her beef rib.  I try not to take pictures just after giving the dogs chews but I didn't want to wait today and took them anyways.
Juneau's teeth are, again, unable to be shown but still look better than Sasha's.

I still can't get the buildup off the canines, but everything else looks awesome.  Keep in mind that without the bones I have been giving the dogs, the buildup would have taken a LOT longer to come off with just the PlaqueOff supplement.  The bones acts as aggressive toothbrushes, and I will continue to give bones every two weeks or less.  I don't know if I will buy another container of PlaqueOff when mine runs out if the teeth stay clean, but if the buildup begins to come back I will.


Now Sasha's weight.

Sasha has been on a strict diet since May when I switched them to Taste of the Wild.  She dropped down from 70 to 50 pounds!  She now weighs only slightly more than Juneau who is also taller but much, much leaner.  Sasha is a shorter stocky dog.  Anywho, she gets about 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of kibble a day and has been maintaining her weight of 50 pounds for a couple weeks, so I guess that is a good amount for her. 

Here is a before shot of Sasha.

And after.

Again it's a terrible picture, I tried, but my camera is shit.  Anyways, you can see the tuck Sasha has now when in the before picture she has barely any.  She really does look a ton better now that she's down to a healthy weight.  She is also a lot more active even when I am not encouraging her to play.  That is nice.

Now that their teeth are great and Sasha's weight is down, I wonder what the Vet will say next time they are taken in.  Mom told me she got an earful about the Girl's teeth and Sasha's fatness on their most recent visit last year in November.  I hope the Vet will be satisfied with them now that I've had a change to correct the problems.

Sasha's Teeth 3

It's been 4 weeks since I began adding the PlaqueOff to Juneau and Sasha's food.  If you compare Sasha's teeth at the beginning to now, there is a conciderable difference in buildup.

 The pictures are lame since Sasha didn't want me messing with her mouth.

Anyways, you can see that the upper carnassial teeth have almost no buildup left!  I can't give PlaqueOff all the credit since I have given the Girls some beef ribs, but before I began the PlaqueOff even the ribs couldn't get some of that nasty crap off.  So I guess it helped to soften the plaque, and the ribs scraped it off. 
The only teeth that still have a lot of buildup left are the canines.  I think I'm probably going to have to scrape that off for her.

Juneau's teeth are amazing looking, and as usual, no pictures of hers.  Even her canines have greatly reduced amounts of plaque.

Sasha's Teeth 2

Sasha's teeth look ever so slightly better.  It's been two weeks since I started the PlaqueOff and it may or may not be helping.  I brush the dog's teeth every couple days (should be every day but I'm a lazy person) and today they all got beef ribs to munch on.  That might have scraped some of the nasty off.


I've begun to go back to the dog park regularly now.  I can finally walk normally, the stupid poison oak rash is just an annoyance now.   Some of the dog park regulars were wondering where I went and if something had happened to me.  One of them was ready to drop a note off on my door asking why I hadn't shown up in a week and a half.

Conker's Teeth

I figured since I had some of Sasha's teeth to compare that I'd post a picture of Conker's.

The only teeth that have any visible plaque are the carnassal teeth and a couple rear molars.  All other teeth look awesome.

Conker is one year and one month old.  His teeth aren't really kept clean by his raw diet (as some people claim) since he does not chew his food.  He gets smallish bones that are crunched one or two times then swallowed so he gets almost none of the cleaning benefits of bones.  I am working on a hunk of pork that's got a good sized bone in it that I'm going to let him gnaw on but I haven't made too many pork meals lately and that hunk is taking a while to get used up.

Other than his food, Conker regularly gets these chews.

Beef trachea:  Little to no cleaning action.
Bully sticks:  Some cleaning action.
Cow hoof: Cleans better than a bully stick.
Zuke's Z-Ridge/Z-Bones:  Still can't tell with this one yet. 

I'm testing the Z-Ridge and Z-Bones right now and will write up something on them later.

PlaqueOff

Yesterday I began adding PlaqueOff to Juneau and Sasha's food and today to Conker's. 

I bought a 60 gram container of it for $18.99 at the Grange.  It should last roughly a month since for Juneau and Sasha I need to use 1-2 scoops and 1/2-1 for Conker.  Each scoop is about 1/2 gram so I use just under 2 and 1/2 grams each day.  Once the Girl's teeth get better I'm going to decrease their usage.  After this container, if their teeth are looking good after the decrease the containers should last longer than just 1 month.

The container comes with a handy 1/2 gram scoop so you don't have to figure out what a scoop is.  Pictured here is about 1 and a half scoops.  It's made from a type of seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) that is found in Arctic waters near Scandinavia.  I guess that is why it's green.

None of the dogs noticed it when I added it to their food.  Hopefully they won't decide they don't like it and try to eat around it like Conker sometimes does with certain foodstuffs.  When added to Conker's food it makes a stark contrast to the mainly red colored meal. Pictured above is part of a turkey wing, beef meat chunks and organs, a bit of sardine, a fruit cube (more on that later) some probiotic powder (again, more on that later) and the PlaqueOff.


In other news...

Sasha is a fatass again.  She was apparently stealing food from Juneau while we were gone.  I specifically told the kid who was watching the house while we were in Tahoe to only feed Sasha the amount she gets and NOT to allow her to steal from Juneau.  Who knew that less than a week of me being gone would result in Sasha gaining a few pounds?  Oh well, that happens, I guess.

Dog Breath

It's often a nasty thing.  But when it comes to Conker, dog breath isn't.  his breath is neutral or slightly meaty, I think it smells nice.  Juneau's breath has a tinge of "dog" to it but it isn't bad either.  Sasha on the other hand... Don't go sticking your nose in her mouth.  It does not smell good.

These are Sasha's teeth.  I don't have any good ones of Juneau's since she is intolerant of people grabbing her mouth like that to compare, but her teeth look almost exactly the same.
While Sasha's teeth don't instantly look nasty, I've seen many dogs with far worse, they are still gross enough for me to want to do something about it.  She has large deposits of tartar on her upper canines and carnassial teeth.  There is a bit on her molars as well but not as much.

Unfortunately Mom is one of those:  "Well I've never had to brush my dog's teeth before so why should I do it now?"  Types.  I attempted to explain why a dog's teeth should be well taken care of but she was still blah blah blah about the brushing thing.  Which by the way, was not what I was talking about.  Even after I dropped the price on how much it might cost to get their teeth cleaned at the vet if we didn't do anything about it she still had the same mentality.

So I've decided that I'm going to get rid of the tartar myself.  I've heard good things about Plaque Off and are probably going to try that first.  As soon as more room opens up in the freezer I'm going to buy a rack of beef ribs for the Girls as well since those ribs I gave them when I got here helped a little.


*whine*  The bed isn't made!  *whine*


Stupid dog.
Anyways, I've found the Plaque Off at the Grange for something like $18.  That's not too bad of a price compared to some online sites and so far it's the only place I've been able to find it.  And if it works, $20 is nothing compared to what might happen if nothing is done about their teeth.

Plus Conker, since he's an idiot and doesn't chew his food, is beginning to get some plaque on his molars and I don't want it there so he can try it out too.  So when I get back from Lake Tahoe I'm going to pick some up and see how well it works.

RMB Day!

Today is a nice day and I've been wanting to give the dogs a raw bone to munch on for a while so I said why not?  I whipped a out pair of beef ribs I've had for forever and a pork butt bone out (also had forever), took the dogs into the backyard and gave them their respective bones.  Those beef ribs has a LOT more meat on then then I initially thought.
Conker got tied to a tree since he's a jerk.  He bayed at the Girls for five minutes before realizing they wanted nothing to do with him or his butt bone.

Conker with his butt bone.

Sasha with her beef rib.

Juneau with her beef rib.

Conker stripped the meat off his bone pretty quick.

Sasha decided laying down was easier.

Juneau went behind the planter a moment later.

Conker trying to hide the remains of his butt bone in the grass.

Sasha with her stripped beef rib.

Juneau took her time.

The dogs all enjoyed munching on their bones.  It was nice, having them all in the backyard without them fighting over something!  I guess tying Conker to a tree helped with that though...  I took Conker inside after a while since he ate way more of the butt bone than I wanted him to. Sasha munched up the rest of his bone then went after Juneau's while Juneau went after Sasha's.  Those two will trade bones and not care who has which one, as long as they've both got a bone they are fine.

Much to my surprise, the beef ribs cleaned a TON of the tartar off Juneau and Sasha's teeth!  I should have taken a picture but I forgot.  I'm going to try to make RMB Day a regular thing for them now since it helped clean their teeth and they enjoy it so much.