Tooth and Blood

My dog Milo attacked a cat the other day. There was a lot of blood. The cat escaped apparently unharmed and, as Milo was on the lead, I managed to pull him away. On closer examination the blood seemed to be coming from Milo's mouth. I looked at his teeth and one of his canines looked wobbly. That was the end of our walk for that day.

Instead I took him to the vet. Milo displayed no pain or discomfort. The vet told me that Milo had poor dental hygiene. He recommended that it was best just to leave the tooth be and let nature take its course. The tooth would fall out eventually. We agreed that I would come back after my holiday to book a tooth cleaning session. This will mean a full general anesthetic. Afterwards I shall have to clean his teeth on a regular basis. I did try to clean his teeth when he was younger but he protested every time and I didn't enjoy these sessions either but having seen him lose a tooth I feel bad.

The dog is not at all bothered. When I took him for a walk today he found one of those paper cases from a bun. Not content with licking the paper case he swallowed the whole piece of paper - crumbs and all. I feed my dog proper dog food but he just scavenges in the park and it is a habit which seems to have done him no favours but how do you stop a dog from scavenging save by keeping it on a lead the whole time and if you do that you'll only have the vet on at you for not giving the dog proper exercise.