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renal failure

I have an 11 year old chihulau (spelled wrong) She weighs 5 lbs. and was rescued from the streets in houston. she has renal failure and has really bad teeth. The problem is two different vets.said it would be too risky to put her to sleep to pull or work on her teeth. Her breath is really bad and I know she is in pain. My poor little girl needs some help. Does anyone have a suggestions?
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441382 tn?1452810569
I live in Bay City, Texas and there are several large hospitals that I know of in Matagorda and Brazoria counties.  I would think that there would be even more of a selection of large hospital-type places in the Houston area, I will ask some of our local vets here if they can recommend anyone in that area and will post back to you or send you a message as soon as I find something out.  

Ghilly
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank You so much for your reply. I live between Houston and Galveston, Tx. If you know of one of these places, please let me know. I will search to see if I can find one. I feel hopeful now. Again thank you.
Helpful - 0
441382 tn?1452810569
While there is always a risk involved when administering anesthesia, technology has come so far in even the last decade that today they are routinely doing things that they never would have attempted to do 10 to 15 years ago.

The bottom line here is that the ongoing oral infection is going to be extremely detrimental and possibly even fatal to your dog.  Yes, it is risky to anesthetize her, but that would be the case with or without the renal failure, so it's important to get the teeth taken care of.  I would find a large, well-staffed animal hospital.  Don't go to a small, local clinic, you want a state-of-the-art facility to give your girl the best advantage.  Talk to the vet about giving her a long acting antibiotic injection 24-48 hours BEFORE the procedure.  There is a long-acting injectable antibiotic called Convenia that lasts for 14 days.  The morning of the procedure they can put her on fluid therapy to flush out any toxins that the kidneys are not handling on their own.  After about 2 hours of flushing she should be ready for anesthesia.  A very mild anesthesia (one that can be used on Greyhounds) can be used, the teeth that need to be removed can be removed.  If any teeth are "iffy" they should just remove them now to remove the chance of having to re-anesthetize her later down the road when the teeth go completely bad and need to come out.  This way she'll only have to deal with the one dentistry.  Ask them their thoughts about leaving her on the IV for the rest of the day and then letting her come home where you can watch her.  The shot of Convenia will continue to work for 2 weeks to control any infection from the gums and control any bacteria that might have been kicked out into the bloodstream from the infected teeth and gums during the dental work.

As I said, a large, state-of-the-art veterinary hospital should have no problem with this type of procedure.  I can totally understand a small, local clinic being hesitant to do it.  A veterinary college would also be a good place to take her to have this done since you will not find more up-to-date equipment anywhere, nor will you find vets who know the very latest techniques anywhere else.  Spend as much time as you need talking with them about the Convenia and the fluid flushing, get their take on it, and my guess is that they will be familiar with the procedure and will agree that it's better to get the teeth out and get the oral infection cleaned up since that infection will be more detrimental to the kidneys in the long run than the anesthesia will.

Please let us know how your little girl does.

Ghilly
Helpful - 0
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