September 15 -- It's Always Something

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So on the evening of the 14th, my better half was at the golf course, and I was taking the first quiz for The History of Rock, and I looked down at the dog and saw that he had a swelling over one of his carnasial teeth (those are the ones in the back that look like young mountain ranges).  I ran my thumbs lightly over his cheeks on the two sides of his jaw, and he squeaked.

Hmm.  A painful swelling.  I maneuvered his lips back until I could see it, and there was what looked like a big blood blister, but not big enough to account for the swelling.

I'm thinking this is an infection, and that if it is an infection, we need to get to the vet for antibiotics NOW (on Saturday night), not on Monday morning....  So I quickly finished the Rock quiz (and was quite surprised to do well, all things considered!), and Bert and I trundled off to Emergency. 

We were lucky -- it was a quiet night.  (We weren't nearly as emergent as a hit-by-car or a poisoning, and would have been at the bottom of the list if they'd had that sort of problem to deal with.)  They checked his vitals, and said all was normal (including his temp).  The vet said her daughter had had an abscessed tooth, and it had looked exactly like what was happening in his mouth.........  She sent us home with antibiotics (clavamox -- enhanced amoxicillin) and pain-killers (nsaid and narcotic -- both kinds!)

Throughout this whole thing he acted normal -- bright and lively -- except the day he came home from surgery.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here he is on Sunday, having been diagnosed with the likely cause of the swelling the night before.  You're looking at the good side of his face. 

I called our regular vet practice on Monday, and he was scheduled for dentistry-with-probable-extraction first thing Tuesday (the 17th).

The problem was an abscessed tooth, and they removed it.  Despite being almost 15, he had no trouble with the anesthesia, and woke up just fine.  I picked him up at about 4:30.  At 5:00 we went back to the vet, because he seemed really out of it (very flat affect) and he was doing a soft groan/cry at the end of every exhalation.....

They upped his dose of the narcotic painkiller, and said that old dogs have more trouble clearing anesthesia, so him acting strangely flat was probably that..........  He was strange all evening, never sleeping..........

He had his final dose of tramadol for the day (that's the narcotic pain-killer) just before bed, and managed to sleep through the night.

He's been getting better ever since.  Today is the last day scheduled for pain killers, but his antibiotic continues for another week.  I don't think I'd say he's completely normal yet, but he's doing pretty well.

As I said earlier, he has not acted "sick" during this ... event.  Four years ago he had that mystery fever (at almost exactly this time of year).  I've seen "sick."  That was it, and this was not.  This time his infection was where I could easily see there was something wrong, and get him in quickly, before he felt awful.

Hooray for modern medicine -- fixing him up and sending him home without the bad tooth and with meds to help him recover and not hurt!

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