Clean your dogs' teeth!

I'm serious. Do it. Start brushing now.

We just had Sonny's done. He had to have 6 (count 'em 1 2 3 ... well you get the idea) teeth extracted. All that dental work cost into the 4 digits in dollars. We had much funner plans for our income tax refund.

But at least now I can kiss my dog without passing out.

Let me show you some pictures of 2 of the teeth that were removed:






The dark places you see are actually roots. Roots that should be well covered by gums. In the second picture, you can see Sonny's bloody gum from where the first picture's tooth was removed.

I have these pictures courtesy of the BEST Vet tech I have ever encountered.

I was very nervous about having Sonny anesthetized. This tech really assured me that it would be okay. She told me she would personally tend to my pup's teeth. That he would be monitored by a second tech. That he would be hooked up to all the same kinds of monitoring devices that we would be. He would even have an IV tap inserted at the beginning just in case.

And after all of that she called me three times on Friday evening. The first was to tell me that Sonny was awake and moving around nicely (we had decided to leave him at the vet hospital overnight to let more of the anesthesia move out of his system). In that conversation she told me that she had taken pictures of Sonny's mouth. I gave her my email so she could send them to me. The second call was to let me know she had sent the images and to explain what I was seeing. The third call, well this may have been the best one, it was to let me know that Sonny was moving around, that he had scarfed up his dinner (with the pain pill and anti-inflammatory pill in it), and that he was wagging his tail.

She told me that she wouldn't be there when I picked Sonny up, but that she would call me on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday.

To my surprise, when I went to retrieve my pooch, the tech at the desk said she would call down to ****. I replied, "**** has today off. She won't be in until Tuesday." She told me, "**** came in just for you."

I couldn't believe it! I confirmed this with her and then gave her a huge hug.

This was above and beyond anything that I could have expected.

So, in conclusion, brush you dog's teeth. Give him bones to chew on. Talk to your vet about additives to his water. But most importantly brush his teeth.

You can't all have ****, the BEST vet tech ever!