Senior dog with swollen gums & heart condition. What can I do at home?

I am so sorry that your pet has dental disease and a heart condition. Unfortunatley the tartar that causes dental disease is mostly underneath the gumline, hence the name periodontal disease. So most of the tartar that we see on the surface of the tooth is not the main issue here. It is the tartar that is touching the gum and underneath the gum that is the problem. This isn't tartar that you will be able to get off with the pet awake, because it will be uncomfortable for the pet. Also, you have a good chance of causing damage to the gum trying to do this in any awake dog. What you are asking is not possible unfortunatley. However, there are a number of heart dogs that can actually go under anesthesia for a dental cleaning, even with a heart condition. I would suggest taking Chhutki to get an echocardiogram of her heart to determine if she is a good candidate for anesthesia and then go from there. If she isn't, then the only thing you can really do here is to do a daily oral rinse and water additive such as this one --> https://www.chewy.com/nylabone-advanced-oral-care-liquid/dp/47912 Dental disease and at home care recommendations --> https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4951515 I do hope that your pet Chhutki proves to be ok to go under general anesthesia, just like many other heart disease pets, and can appropriateliy address her dental disease condition. Best of luck moving forward. Take care. : )

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This is certainly a somewhat common scenario unfortunately and it is important to make sure that the potential risks do not outweigh the benefits. That is why I can understand your veterinarian's concerns. Your veterinarian could consider a course of doxycycline or clindamycin antibiotic which are commonly used for dental disease as an important component of it is likely due to an infection. Also, it would be important to make sure that you clean her teeth regularly as that is likely going to help as well. Good luck and have a great day!

Hello, yes, anything you can use will help Lily. You can use a combination of products such as chews, wipes, water additives & dog specific tooth paste. If Lily's dental condition is severe enough, it might be prudent to talk to your veterinarian about adding antibiotics to the regimen. Using an appropriate antibiotic for one week, stopping for 3 weeks, & repeating will keep bacterial numbers down in the mouth & prevent the showering of bacteria into the blood stream where the risk of endocarditis might be higher because of her CHF. If you want to check out what products are recommended by veterinarians, check out https://vcoh.org ( veterinary Council on Oral Health ). Thanks for using PetCoach.

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.

The gums are definitely inflamed and it is probably due to you being too aggressive with the plaque removal. You need to be very careful doing this with a dog that has heart murmur. I don't know if that is her heart problem or not but if you scrape the plaque, that plaque is made up of bacteria, those bacteria go to the diseased heart valve and get stuck there causing a major problem. So, you are better off brushing the teeth once a day and using the water additive I linked for you before. Only scrape the teeth if they get very caked with plaque. The hyperplasia is not that serious. It is not an emergency. And it will take quite some time to go down or it may never go back down to normal. That is OK if it doesn't go down as long as it is not very red. Really, please understand, it is not serious.

Hi, Sorry to hear Dolly has this heart issue. Anesthesia is always risky, even for perfectly healthy pets. It puts a lot of responsibility for the heart to maintain adequate blood pressure and anesthesia is generally more risky with any heart issues than normal anesthesia. I would recommend that if the teeth just need a general cleaning, to not undergo the procedure and just maintain good dental health by brushing with doggie tooth paste and giving dental chews. If the teeth have a major issue such as a fracture or extraction that is necessary to address, it becomes balancing the risks of leaving a tooth inside that should come out, versus the risks of anesthesia. To fully assess the heart you can get an echocardiogram performed by a cardiologist and consult with them about anesthetic risks. Although if the teeth are fine otherwise, I'd say just maintain vigilant dental health and Dolly will be fine. Hope this helps! -Dr. Gordon

It sounds like there are some anesthetic concerns and that your vet does not feel comfortable removing the incisors. You may want to ask about referral to a veterinary dentist if available in your area. Ideally Frodo should also have an echocardiogram performed by a cardiologist first to determine the extent of his heart disease and assess his risk under anesthesia. This website lists board certified dentists but there may also be a veterinarian in your area who limits practice to dentistry. https://www.avdc.org