The musings of Dr Liz - I am grateful for -

Welcome to another "musings" of Dr Liz.  If this is your first one, why not go back and read some of my earlier ones!

I am grateful for.... Each day  we should all take a few minutes of each day to write down or recite to ourselves five things (you should really do twenty, but five always makes me feel good, so I stop there) that you are grateful for.

Today.... I am grateful for...

• that I am able to sit in quiet contemplation for five minutes
• that I do not need to worry where my next meal is coming from
• the beautiful sun that warms me by day, and the moon that lights the night path.
• the clean air (as clean as it can be in a steel city in Wollongong)
• the health of my beautiful children.

If you could ask your pet, what would you think they would be grateful for? 

What are you grateful for?

Dr Liz's Dental Discussion - Saving money

In my title of this posting, I have broken one of my cardinal rules that I had set

Dr Dean and Dr Doc - we save money by using
the same toothbrush (not). 

up for myself when I went out to write - there was going to be no mention of money, as I hate that the care a pet may receive get delegated to money.  But let's be honest - money is what makes the world go around, and who doesn't want to save money.

Really, the title should be - How To keep your pet's mouth healthy and in one piece, and save all of their organs too - but that isn't going to get you too excited (although it gets me really really excited... truly)

So, how can you save yourself $2500 plus? and stop your pet from suffering the pain which they hide from us?

Another way of asking the same question from your perspective.... How does spending money each year having my pet's teeth professionally assessed and disease treated save me  money?

I am going to ask two very very special pets who are part of the animalclinic family at Russell Vale Animal Clinic, to tell their story, and hopefully, answer your question.

Indi's story...

A summary of my day with Dr Liz my vet and Dr Christine from Sydney Pet Dentistry!

Hi, I'm Indi, and I am a very lovable, absolutely adorable Boxer dog.  Even though I am two years old, I  still act like a five month old... I love to play, jump, and race around the place.

When I first got the swelling on the right side of my face, that is what everyone thought I had done - run into something. Fair enough. It did settle down on the medication Dr Liz gave me... I didn't skip a beat - I was still normal, but my face looked a bit funny for a few days.

Three months later, though that swelling on the right side of my face came back. So, I had to have some awesome drugs, go to nigh nigh's, so Dr Liz could do her magic stuff.  The xrays showed a dental abscess on the right upper side of my mouth which Dr Liz went on to fix.

But.... during the dental charting process, Dr Liz found that there were gaps in my mouth where there should've been teeth.  So, she xrayed those areas.... and she found something which she had not expected... it was her first... she told me when I awoke how excited she was at finding her first dentigerous cyst, and how sad she was that she had found this cyst in me.

On the left lower jaw, where my first premolar should be, was nothing that you could see.  But the

A big cyst in my (Indi) lower jaw!

xrays showed a different story.  Underneath the bone and gum, was a bone eating cyst, which was caused by an unerupted first premolar. It was the size of the beak on a 5 c piece, but it caused the loss of three teeth.

I was very very lucky it was found as early as it was, as many times, the first sign that there is a problem is when the jaw breaks after it is so weakened by the cyst, it can't stay together.

Finding it early saved me alot of pain.  But the size of the cyst meant it needed to be removed by a veterinary dentist, so off I choofed to see Dr Hawke from Sydney Pet Dentistry.

So how could my owners have saved more money? If they only knew that special dogs like me should have their mouth xrayed from a young age, and especially if there are missing teeth.   Well, if I had my mouth fully radiographed at six months of age  then the missing tooth would have been seen and removed. Dr Liz says that is a procedure she has done many times, and it is easier than removing a retained baby canine.

Finding it when it was found though, when I was two, still saved alot of money, in that the cost of repair of a much larger cyst with a jaw fracture is multiple of thousands of dollars, not forgetting the pain that I would've been in during that time.

So, when Dr Liz (or any good vet) says your pet has missing teeth, and needs Xrays to make sure they are missing, take heed! She is saying that to save you money!

- Indi

Hannah's tale -

Good Evening.  My name is Miss Hannah, and I am a Pomeranian, and a Lady.  As a Lady, I shall not disclose my age, other than to say that I do remember the 00's fondly, as this was a time of my youth.

Dr Liz has been my vet through all of this, and it is through her hard work, that I still have 30 of my 42 teeth, when others of my breed and kind are lucky to have 5.

Of course, my mum or my dad brush my teeth every day - they have set up a roster -  because Dr Liz told them that it was important to brush  from when I was young.

When I was on the Pom Forum a few weeks ago, one of my  pom brethren (I shall call them Sim)  was complaining that they had to get most of their teeth removed (that wasn't the problem as they were now pain free and much happier ), but that their owner was whinging about how much it cost them.

So, I sat down I added up what my dad has paid over the past few years, and created an equation  to relate it to the number of teeth that were left.  And I compared this to what Sim's mum paid, and found that my dad had saved himself alot of money, and in the process, saved my teeth. Just be doing a little bit of work each year. He followed all (mostly) of Dr Liz's instructions  And kept me healthy in the process. How lucky am I.

 - Miss H

It's Dr Liz back now.... I have to thank Miss Hannah and Indi for giving us their side of the story.

As a vet, I am proud of my loving pet owners who choof their pets off to the vets twice a year for their free dental checks.... and the right age to start dental checks is as early as 8 weeks (to get the advise on how to brush and keep teeth healthy). 

August is National Pet Dental Month, where vets all over Australia are offering time out of their day to look in your pet's mouth.  The least you can do is take advantage of it, especially if your pet has not been to the vet in the past twelve months. 

As for all of us at Russell Vale Animal Clinic, every day is pet dental month, as we offer Free dental checks to all pets (new and old ) - and the biggest complaint we get - is that we give too much information - so if you are up to it, bring your pet in to us!

Yours for happy healthy pets (and teeth) - always!

Dr Liz's Dental Discussion - Anaesthetic Fear

Welcome to another of my "Dental Discussion" series, and this time, I am going to go through

Dr Dean and Dr Doc talk all things dental -
this time is about sleep drugs.

something which I absolutely understand as a human being and pet owner myself.

And that is fear.  And when we are talking about any procedure in our pets... well you guessed it - we are talking about the fear of the anaesthetic. I envy the human dentists, as they are able to do alot of their dental assessments and work with you sitting in their dental chair, and saying "Ah".  And you are right there in their chair, whilst they tell you all of the things that need to be done in your mouth to make it healthy.

Let me make it clear -  anaesthetics scare me, and I have personally had a bad anaesthetic experience during the birth of my fourth child, Paige.   I had a failed epidural, and I had the anesthetist from hell. She underestimated my anaesthetic drugs and I felt the early stages of my anaesthetic. When I awoke, I was in more pain from what she had done, and not from the caesarian surgery I had to undergo.

But as a vet, I take this experience as a lesson, and I ensure I take all steps necessary to ensure my pets have a smooth, safe, pain-free anaesthetic, and recover well to go home with big smiles on their faces.

Our on-site pathology lab -
answers in mere minutes!

And that is where your fear of anaesthetics should end --- it should end with me.   I would never suggest or recommend an anaesthetic for any patient that I didn't think wouldn't cope with it.

Simple. We take as many precautions before hand, such as pre-anaesthetic blood work, and a comprehensive physical examination (done by me, the vet) and determine what would be the safest

Our Surgivet Advisor Multiparameter monitor - with lots
of bells and whistles to keep your pet safe.

anaesthetic for your pet. We stock a range of anaesthetic medications so we can tailor the right anaesthetic combination for each individual pet.

And then there is the monitoring of the procedure, from the point your pet is sedated, to the point where they are sitting up, saying hallo after the anaesthetic, hugging their teddy bear surrounded by a warm blanket.

We have a multiparameter monitor, our Surgivet Advisor, which monitors oxygenation, Heart Rate, respiratory rate, breathing depth and pattern (capnograph), ECG and temperature (via our oesophageal ECG), Blood pressure and end tidal C02 (the level of carbon dioxide).  We have had this unit since 2006, and it is used daily.

It is our early warning system, but we never forget the human element. Anaesthetic monitoring means a human element. We use our equipment to help our anesthetic nurse, Dirk, to do his job to a high standard, rather than replace him.

Dental Xray, gas anaesthetic, monitoring gear...
and a vet watching it all.

But herein lies the problem - your pet has a problem in their mouth that needs fixing (existing dental disease) ... or they have a problem in their mouth that needs a touch up that will slow the progression of dental disease, what do you do?

 You know it involves an anaesthetic. And this is what you are scared of.

I never ignore fear, as it serves a purpose.  But I balance that fear with what we are hoping to achieve by facing it.  And in your pet, an anaesthetic is needed to either fix existing severe dental disease (for example, if there is a bad smell from your pets mouth),  or to slow the progression of disease (early stages).

Please do not let the fear of the anaesthetic stop  you doing what needs to be done in your pet's mouth to keep them pain free.  And never be frightened to speak with us about your concerns... we won't talk you into anything (it's not our style), but we will support you in making the right decision for your pet's sake.

Anaesthetics are scary, but geez, we are so lucky that we have access to many safe medications.  Don't let your fear stop you from letting us help your loving pet.  They always deserve the best.

I am Dr Liz, and I (and Dirk) are here to help you.