Update on Bette Davis
This is from her wonderful parents, Andrea and William in Idaho.
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Hi Jon,
Hope all is going well. I have some news on Bette that
I wanted to include you in. You know how horrible her breath was?
Well, we took her in to see what was causing it, and it turns out that two of
the teeth she still has are broken all the way down into the gum line, and she
has infections in them. It certainly hasn’t stopped her from
eating, and she’s up to 6.4 lbs. My vet was leery about putting her
under anesthesia, due to her realllly slow heart rate, so we had labs run to
see what kind of shape she’s in. My vet was shocked by the results
– she said if she didn’t know that Bette was 15 years old, she
wouldn’t have believed it. All of Bette’s organs and proteins
and everything are in excellent shape – she is very healthy. Except
for her teeth. My vet is pretty confident that they can do a light
anesthesia with a local pain killer and pull those two front teeth within a
couple minutes. They are too deep and attached to just tug them out. As
much as we hate to take the risk with any anesthesia, we also don’t want
her walking around with raging infections in her teeth and being in pain.
She eats well, but she doesn’t want anyone touching her mouth or trying
to look in it, so we’re assuming they are causing her some pain. In
the interest of quality of life we’ve decided to go ahead and have those
teeth removed. It looks like she could still have a good amount of life
left if we can get her over this little hurdle. I hope you agree with our
decision – if it wasn’t hurting her or they would just fall out on
their own we wouldn’t bother with them, but since they’re infected
I don’t think we have much choice.
Her surgery is next Thursday – she’s on
antibiotics for a week to try to get rid of the infection. I’ll let
you know as soon as she’s out how she’s doing. Because of her
slow heart rate they’re going to put her on an EKG while they pull the
teeth so they can monitor her and bring her out if she starts having trouble.
Cross your fingers and think good thoughts. We love her so much, and
I’ve taken a bunch of pictures so hopefully I can get those sent to you
soon.
We’re having a banner week on dogs – we’ve
got 2 of them having seizures and on meds now. Groucho has ear infections
and has to have his ears cleaned everyday due to the cropping job he got to
make him a “show dog”, the crazy pom has been having confusion
episodes all week, and now Bette’s teeth. Oh the joy of
seniors. Sometimes I just look around here and have to laugh. Dog
toys and dog beds everywhere, crazy dogs barking at walls, blind dogs wandering
around, Gladys falling into her food dish and needing a bath, and the constant
sound of dog snoring, somebody has to go out and pee every 5 minutes, everyone
eats a different food and has to be fed separately, and you can’t sit
down without someone pawing at you to be in your lap. It’s a wonderful
life, but sometimes I wonder if we must be crazy. I wouldn’t give a
single one of them up, and we’ll rescue another one once one of these goes
on from here. I think we spent about 300.00 in vet bills this week, and
we’ll have Bette’s surgery next week. I was seeing what you
were going through with Bullet – you’re doing a great thing.
The costs pile up and sometimes you just can’t win, but it’s worth
the fight. I wish we could help you out some more, but we’ve got
our hands full over here, as you can see.
Best of luck with Bullet, and wish us luck with Bette
Davis. She is such a joy – I can’t imagine this house without
her in it now.
Best Regards,
Andrea
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Note from Jon: I gave my blessing for the surgery and I know it will make her feel much better to have those back molars removed. I'm just so glad Bette has such caring parents.
I'm having similar situation with my dog Sydney. She somehow fractured one of her teeth ... I think we've caught it before the infection has gotten too bad. Her terrible breath was a bit of a give-away.
She is going in for some (Very Expensive!) surgery to fix it up. Hopefully all will be well.
I hope Betty Davis did well.
Feel free to stop by here: http://pitbullteeth.hopto.org have a laugh and if you're feeling generous drop me a buck or two.
Posted by: Mike | June 29, 2006 at 08:45 AM
.. Have just seen this comment about Andrea ( and her partner!!) and Bette - my dog is also called Bette; shes a scruff coated collie terrier cross and was a rescue pup too! How WEIRD is that?!?!?
Kind regards
Andrea and Bette ( and Rosie the cat- she'll have a tantrum if I don't mention her!)
Posted by: Andrea Jenkins | August 16, 2006 at 02:37 PM
.. Have just seen this comment about Andrea ( and her partner!!) and Bette - my dog is also called Bette; shes a scruff coated collie terrier cross and was a rescue pup too! How WEIRD is that?!?!?
Kind regards
Andrea and Bette ( and Rosie the cat- she'll have a tantrum if I don't mention her!)
Posted by: Andrea Jenkins | August 16, 2006 at 02:37 PM
.. Have just seen this comment about Andrea ( and her partner!!) and Bette - my dog is also called Bette; shes a scruff coated collie terrier cross and was a rescue pup too! How WEIRD is that?!?!?
Kind regards
Andrea and Bette ( and Rosie the cat- she'll have a tantrum if I don't mention her!)
Posted by: Andrea Jenkins | August 16, 2006 at 02:37 PM