Does my dog need antibiotics for gingivitis before a dental cleaning?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I would not advise giving any medications until she sees a vet. Red gums does not warrant an antibiotic and that would be way too much for her anyway. Continue to brush her teeth daily with a dog toothpaste product until and after her dental cleaning. Kisses to Bella!

The canine tooth looks like it might have a little evidence of gingivitis but it can be difficult to tell from a picture. I also would not prescribe antibiotics for dental disease in most situations - if the tooth is infected removing it is the best treatment option. Even though the tooth probably will fall out there may be other diseased teeth since it can be difficult to evaluate the extent of disease without sedation - you may want to ask your vet about a dental cleaning or if your vet does not do this procedure see another vet.

This will depend on why your dog was prescribed the doxycycline and the metronidazole. If it was due to bad teeth or infection in the mouth , then there is no reason to reschedule. I suggest you ask your veterinarian if he would rather reschedule.

If dental cleaning is no option then ask your vet to prescribe antibiotics for the gingivitis, and pain medicine such as carprofen. The antibiotics will kill the bacteria that cause the painful gingivitis and the carprofen will take pain away from the dental condition as well as some of her musculoskeletal problems. However, if there is a tooth root abscess, then the tooth needs to come out right away, as this is seriously painful and can cause sepsis with can actually be life-threatening.

In America you need a prescription for clindamycin. I recommend you have your veterinarian give Tink a prescription for pulsed antibiotics. For dogs with dental disease I recommend giving antibiotics for one week every month on a regular basis. That will help control the plaque and periodontal disease. If you have this done then you should be able to get a regular prescription every month. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Tink.

I wouldn't say that you can rule out an abscess, on the contrary, if it got better after antibiotic treatment, it's likely to be a tooth abscess. the antibiotic may solve the problem but you cannot know in advance, you need to finish the antibiotic course and wait a few weeks to see if it comes back or not. if it comes back he will need a dental procedure, and by the way he is nowhere too old for anesthesia, a few weeks ago one of my oldest patients, a cat 23 years of age, went through a small procedure under general anesthesia without any issues.

From this picture the level of plaque does not justify the gingivitis, as there is not much plaque on Mimi's teeth. So it could be that the nature of gingivitis is viral, or it could be just immuno-mediated. Further testing is required to understand if the cause is a virus. If these test are not available, then symptomatical treatment is advisable. Flagyl is an antibiotics that we commonly use for gastro-intestinal bacteria so perhaps I would consider a different antibiotic with a broader spectrum.