We have decided to go a more natural/home medicine approach to our animals health. In the past we would do regularly visits, all the shots, vet wormers, flea stuff, everything you are expected to do if you 'really love your pet'. We feel that we may have been spending to much money to do things we could be doing and is all that stuff really that healthy? Now I know there is controversy over whether humans should get immunizations, so I understand that everyone will not agree here on how much is enough of modern medicine.

My question is what can we do for a dog that seems to be having tooth problems? She has gotten to where she will eat her dog food better with water in it. Our dog is almost 10 and her teeth are a little dirty. IN THE PAST we would take our dog and have there teeth cleaned. I am not completely opposed this, but am wondering if there is another way. If we start using baking soda is it too late? Is there a home antibiotic that would help heal her teeth?

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), June 19, 2001

Answers

Lynn, I don't know how bad the teeth are, brushing most certainly helps. If there is indeed infection in the gums I would be leary of giving her just anything orally as(you know I'm sure), some AB's work better for some things and some work better for others. Would your Vet send home or suggest an antibiotic to give her? The trouble with treating some of this at home is it's difficult to tell how much of an infection she might have, if teeth need to be pulled or not and things like that. If the infection isn't treated it can get to the point where itwill be detrimental to her system and affect her heart and other major organs. I hope you will continue her vaccines and as you also know, you can get most of those through your local feed store and some other places, except for Rabies vaccines which of course, your Vet has to give so you can get that little piece of paper certifying she has been "shot". :-) If your give her the vaccines yourselves, take her temp. first. If it isn't normal(around 101 to 102, depends on the dog and her level of exersize and the weather)hold off on the shots. Sometimes they will not be effective if the dog has a fever. If you have a flea problem where you are and you've had to have her wormed in the past, don't give her wormers without checking her stool under a microscope(you can do this or you can take the sample(just takes a teeny little bit of stool)into the Vet and determining what kind of worms she has, if any and worm only for what she has. If you are in heartworm country, take a little blood every year and put it under the microscope too. Don't want to give her anything for this miserable problem unless she is not showing the larvae in the blood. I hope everything works out OK and you have success with your program. Little Quacker

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), June 19, 2001.

Hello, have you consider talking to an person who is close to your area that is into aroma therapy or even essetial oils. They can do wonders on humans and aniamls!

-- Sheri Landgraf (sheriann@telusplanet.net), June 22, 2001.

I vaccinated my cat and dogs yesterday afternoon and marvelled at how much less stressful it is when I do this at home. My golden retroodle (standard poodle x golden retreiver) sits there wagging the whole time then begs for more (she gets a treat afterwards and seems to consider the shot a small evil for a nice treat). My whippet, who tends to spaz out at the vets, does the same. My cat, who will fillet the vet or tech or anyone who tries to restrain her except me, sits there and purrs, pausing only for the moment of the shot, then starting up again. I have the rabies shots given when the vet comes on his annual farm call for the goats/sheep. The only things I take my animals to the vet for are sickness/injury and teeth cleaning. My pets are all elderly and are losing their teeth. The whippet and the cat have both had intestinal infections due to the bacterial wash caused by infected gums. Giving the animal antibiotics may cure the infection, but it doesn't clean the teeth. If you want to prevent tooth decay, brushing the dog's teeth daily should help, but may be difficult to do with an older animal that's never done this. If the teeth are dirty now, I'd get them cleaned by the vet, then try the brushing route with a clean slate.

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), June 22, 2001.

Be careful doing your own immunizations. You can buy the rabies vaccine in many states, and administer it yourself - but it doesn't "count" legally. So if your pet bites, nips, or scratches someone the local authorities will impound and destroy the animal. By the time you pay for the office visit to get the legal rabies shot its just about as cheap to get all the immunizations (at least at my vet it is). Its up to you, but be aware that not having legal rabies shots for your pets leaves you open to loss of the pet and possibly even legal action if there's a problem. Just FYI.

Teeth - dogs need something to chew to help keep their teeth clean. Rawhide, bones, many types of dog buiscuits, all help to keep their teeth clean. I've NEVER had to have any of my dog's teeth cleaned. If your dog is having problems with his teeth to the point where he can't eat food you'd best get him to a vet. As someone else mentioned there's no telling how far advance the problem is but it sounds pretty advanced. If the dog won't even eat dry dog food anymore its far to late for any prophylactic treatment like bones and chew toys.

Heartworm medication - there's no excuse for not giving your dogs heartworm medication. And you can do it WITHOUT having to pay a vet. Buy the liquid ivermectin and dose your dogs with that. It's MUCH cheaper, is exactly the same stuff as in the (monthly) pills, protects against heartworms and a bunch of other parasites, and is available without a prescription. Also, you can mix it to EXACTLY the appropriate dosage by body weight. Remember collies are susceptible to toxosis from ivermec, don't dose a collie without advice from your vet. I'm told that includes border collies though my border collie mix tolerates it fine. Maybe because she's only half BC.

I was going to post the instructions for this here but they're really kind of long so I'm going to start a new thread on heartworm prevention. Follow the directions, I've included web references so you can double check it yourself too, its a lot cheaper and more accurate to do this yourself.

Personally I would STILL take the animals in once a year for a checkup, or at least as often as they need a rabies shot (2 to 3 years).

-- Sojourner (sojournr@missouri.org), June 23, 2001.

I'm not sure where you're from so I don't know the rabies situation there, but here in ME rabies is considered epidemic and rabies vaccinations are given annually. Most towns around here will sponsor a rabies vaccination clinic once a year where you can get your pets vaccinated for the price of the vaccine (usually around $8). Before I had livestock that needed rabies vaccinations I used to go to the clinic each year. Now I have to have the vet come to vaccinate the goats and sheep anyway, so I have the dogs and cat done at very little additional cost (much less than an additional office visit would cost). The only stress the vet's visit causes is that I have to keep my cat confined until the vet gets here!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), June 23, 2001.

There are two and 3 year vaccines for rabies and either are legal here in MO. Not only that, but I was told there is no need to give rabies shots to sheep, by Lincoln University staff. They laughed at me when I asked about it. I felt stupid. But maybe that varies with location - if its "epedemic" in your area it may very well be different.

-- Sojourner (sojournr@missouri.org), June 24, 2001.