# Need advice about what to feed during recovery...



## OnyxDog (Jun 15, 2011)

We are currently saving up to get Treasure's broken tooth pulled. We are not quite there yet, but I want to be prepared in advance. What should I feed for the first couple of weeks after the tooth gets pulled? I would imagine that her gums would be very sensitive where the tooth used to be. Should I grind her food?

Also, she will be able to eat normally after she recovers, right? She will still be able to eat all of the bones just fine?

Thanks!


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## bully4life (Aug 9, 2010)

Which tooth ? How old is Treasure, and what is she eating now ?


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

My dog has four teeth and she eats bones.

the vet will tell you if she should have soft food and for how long. I am currently fostering a dog who is eating soft food for 30 days due to having 20 teeth pulled. I don't know if one tooth would take that long.

I'm feeding him a grind of chicken, bones, and organs in the morning and chicken or pork cut up with eggshell and a little organ in it in the afternoon.


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## bully4life (Aug 9, 2010)

xellil said:


> My dog has four teeth and she eats bones.
> 
> the vet will tell you if she should have soft food and for how long. I am currently fostering a dog who is eating soft food for 30 days due to having 20 teeth pulled. I don't know if one tooth would take that long.
> 
> I'm feeding him a grind of chicken, bones, and organs in the morning and chicken or pork cut up with eggshell and a little organ in it in the afternoon.


20 teeth....poor thing


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

bully4life said:


> 20 teeth....poor thing


Actually, it seems pretty good to me. Snorkels had 38 teeth pulled. 

Parker will still have all his front teeth!

Oh, and I fully expect him to be a bone-crunching fool when his 30 days are up - if Snorkels can do it, any dog can do it. Even a completely toothless dog could eat a bone, I bet, if it were smushed up a little bit with a mallet.


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## OnyxDog (Jun 15, 2011)

Oh, uh... I'm not good with names of teeth. I'll attach a picture of it so you can see. She is a little over 5 years old. 

The proteins we have access to at the moment:

chicken thighs/feet/hearts/gizzards
turkey necks
sardines
beef heart/lung/muscle meat/liver/kidney/spleen
green tripe
ground venison
egg
pork necks


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I promise you she won't even miss it.


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## OnyxDog (Jun 15, 2011)

Oops! Posted the wrong picture... fixed it now.


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## OnyxDog (Jun 15, 2011)

xellil said:


> My dog has four teeth and she eats bones.
> 
> the vet will tell you if she should have soft food and for how long. I am currently fostering a dog who is eating soft food for 30 days due to having 20 teeth pulled. I don't know if one tooth would take that long.
> 
> I'm feeding him a grind of chicken, bones, and organs in the morning and chicken or pork cut up with eggshell and a little organ in it in the afternoon.



Oh, that makes me feel a lot better! Only one tooth missing is a lot better than only having four left! If Snorkels can do it, Treasure can certainly do it!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

if they vet says soft food, the only thing I think you'd need to do is maybe crush up some eggshell into her food because she won't be able to do any of the bones and you might need to supplement some calcium that way. 

Although for Snorkels, I do cut up chicken toes into pieces because she can't eat a bone that small - she swallows the toes whole if I don't cut them up. It doesn't bother her to do that and they digest just fine, but it bothers me so I cut them up. Everything else I let her go at herself.

And yes, you'd be amazed at what they can do. If your doxies are like my doxie, nothing will stand between them and finishing that thing off.


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## bully4life (Aug 9, 2010)

i could be wrong, but that looks like a tooth she would use to tear food. I would think she can resume normal eating fairly quick, since dogs essentially chew with their molars .


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## OnyxDog (Jun 15, 2011)

xellil said:


> if they vet says soft food, the only thing I think you'd need to do is maybe crush up some eggshell into her food because she won't be able to do any of the bones and you might need to supplement some calcium that way.
> 
> Although for Snorkels, I do cut up chicken toes into pieces because she can't eat a bone that small - she swallows the toes whole if I don't cut them up. It doesn't bother her to do that and they digest just fine, but it bothers me so I cut them up. Everything else I let her go at herself.
> 
> And yes, you'd be amazed at what they can do. If your doxies are like my doxie, nothing will stand between them and finishing that thing off.



So I could probably just feed her whole muscle meat with either cut up chicken feet or crushed eggshell? Or maybe cut up her meat into cubes? That doesn't seem too difficult... maybe this won't be as bad as I first thought.


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## bully4life (Aug 9, 2010)

xellil said:


> Actually, it seems pretty good to me. Snorkels had 38 teeth pulled.
> 
> Parker will still have all his front teeth!
> 
> Oh, and I fully expect him to be a bone-crunching fool when his 30 days are up - if Snorkels can do it, any dog can do it. Even a completely toothless dog could eat a bone, I bet, if it were smushed up a little bit with a mallet.


Wow, what was the situation where 38 teeth had to be pulled?


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

OnyxDog said:


> So I could probably just feed her whole muscle meat with either cut up chicken feet or crushed eggshell? Or maybe cut up her meat into cubes? That doesn't seem too difficult... maybe this won't be as bad as I first thought.


Oh it's easy peasy!! yes, do just what you mention here. And if it's true that that tooth won't slow her down for long, you might not even have to do it but a few days before you can go back to bones.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

bully4life said:


> Wow, what was the situation where 38 teeth had to be pulled?


She was turned in to animal control and asked by her owners to be put down. Her teeth were mostly rotted to the gum line. They said you could smell her mouth in across the room. She suffered for a long time so I'm glad they gave her up.

I don't know how they saved four, but it's nice they did because it does make her able to rip meat off bones, and somehow crush them up (the softer ones like chicken). Or maybe she does that with her jaws, and not her teeth. I know what takes most dogs a couple of minutes takes her anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half, but she gets the job done. i don't know, I'm honestly not real sure how she does it. 

And she eats some things pretty much whole. She will tear what she can off a chicken head and gnaw on it awhile and then swallow the head mostly whole. I know it's very scary for people to feed their dogs bones but if they could watch her it would ease their mind - her stomach does the real work.


If they hadn't saved the four teeth, I'd probably have to smush up bones with a mallet. She has her canines but she has a really bad overbite so they don't match up correctly.


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## bully4life (Aug 9, 2010)

xellil said:


> She was turned in to animal control and asked by her owners to be put down. Her teeth were mostly rotted to the gum line. They said you could smell her mouth in across the room. She suffered for a long time so I'm glad they gave her up.
> 
> I don't know how they saved four, but it's nice they did because it does make her able to rip meat off bones, and somehow crush them up (the softer ones like chicken). Or maybe she does that with her jaws, and not her teeth. I know what takes most dogs a couple of minutes takes her anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half, but she gets the job done. i don't know, I'm honestly not real sure how she does it.
> 
> ...


thank you for saving her,,.. a story with a good ending


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## tem_sat (Jun 20, 2010)

After my Doxie's last, and hopefully final dental, I just fed fish for a few days, however, he did not need any extractions done.


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## Mondo (Dec 20, 2011)

Tuffy had 3 teeth removed in November. He was on softer food for about a week or 10 days. That is when I started raw feeding, and why. Due to dental issues. In the future I would never feed anything but raw, if / when our boys move on and we adopt some new fur kids.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

That tooth that needs to be extracted is called the upper 4th premolar OR carnassial tooth. It IS a major chewing tooth, so in a way she will "miss" it but not in regards to being able to chew through bones. Shiloh our husky/wolf mix had to have that tooth extracted nearly three years ago. She's been successfully eating RMBs since. Emmy just had an upper first molar extracted (she has a malformed jawbone, which caused one side of her mouth to go "bad") and is doing great since. 

As far as diet for post tooth extraction, at least this is what I've done:

Ground meat mixed with finely ground egg shells for the first 5 days or so. Grind egg shells in blender or food processor. Mix in the egg shells with meat using a whole egg or two. 

Then cut up meat in bite sized pieces mixed with egg shells for another 5 days or so. 

It will take about 10-14 days for sutures and gum tissue to completely heal up, and I wouldn't feed whole bones during that time. 

Best of luck!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> It will take about 10-14 days for sutures and gum tissue to completely heal up, and I wouldn't feed whole bones during that time.
> 
> Best of luck!


Do you have any ideas why they told me 30 days for Parker, my foster dog? It's been two weeks on Thursday and I am antsy to feed him a real bone. I am assuming the stitches dissolve themselves.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

If he will let you peak in there, I would check out his mouth. Extraction sites should be fully healed by now but some dogs do heal slower than the average dog, but 30 days seems a little extreme to me.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> If he will let you peak in there, I would check out his mouth. Extraction sites should be fully healed by now but some dogs do heal slower than the average dog, but 30 days seems a little extreme to me.


THanks - I'll see if he'll let me look. I know Snorkels will fight like crazy to keep me from looking in her mouth. He makes this funky clicking sound like an old man with dentures and I wish I knew what it was.


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