my 14 year old dog

[dolores73]

has a little infection in his gum's what should i do,im very weary ..vet told me he should not get cleaning yet ...a couple a month ago he got sick and came out with pacrea live and colon problem,im concern,what should i do?

[proud_momma_2]

I have been a veterinary technician for 6 years.  Did your vet run any bloodwork on your dog to confirm that he would not be a candidate for this proceedure.  There are safe drugs to use on older dogs unless he has some underlying reason.  But if you let his teeth go too long the bacteria from his mouth can get into his blood stream and later cause problems to the heart and other organs.  We normally put all of our dentals on antibiotics a week prior to the dental and lasting a week after the dental (2 full weeks of antibiotics) due to the amount of infection and bacteria in a normal everyday dental candidates mouth.  I hope this helped and although I would reccomend a dental being done, due to his age I would not have one done without prior bloodwork.

[lindapalm]

He definately sounds like he needs antibiotics, at the least.  Our dog is eleven and has several teeth pulled, and does fine.  Is he eating okay?

[ginger899]

Hi dolores,
Why did the vet say he shouldn't have his teeth cleaned? Was it because in the vet's opinion, he wouldn't get on very well with the anesthetic?
Infection/inflammation in the gums is most often caused by hardened plaque (tartar) build-up on the teeth. With an older dog, once the vet got the tartar off, it might be discovered your dog needed some teeth extracted. Now dogs do get along with this quite well, generally. It has even been known that dogs who have had ALL their teeth removed to have a new lease of life, and their general health improve, when they are free from the pain, they often eat better and are fitter. Given some time, the tender gums harden up a lot, and quite often they can start to eat quite normally after a while. Though at first, water-softened or canned foods are best.

Now if the vet thinks he couldn't take an anesthetic, then that can't be done, I realize.

If he were human, there are quite a few remedies for gingivitis and mouth infections that work very well, but I am unsure what would be suitable for dogs. Some herbal mouthwashes work  very well indeed. But again -that wouldn't work for a dog!
So maybe the best thing would be for the vet to start him on a course of antibiotics to knock out the infection.
However, the only real, lasting solution would be for him to have some veterinary dental work.