[107barney]

Originally Posted by Yorkiemom1

I do want to mention one tiny little thing.....I am 66 years old, April will be 67 for me....I clearly remember my childhood pets/teenaged years with pets/even as close as the 70's and 80's....I never took my dogs to a dentist!! Funny thing is, they didnt NEED it! Their teeth were in great shape, none of this rotting out of their heads scenerio we have now....I dont know if this is strictly a yorkie thing as I have only had Yorkies starting in the 80's....not breeding, just pets.....and there were not the teeth issues back then.....I dont know what in the world is rotting the teeth out of our dogs heads, but it is clearly evident. Soft food, canned food, food in loaves/rolls, raw food, table food....makes no real difference....rotting teeth is the end result.

Personally, I am at an age and my personality is such that as I age, I find I can not let go of tragic events.....if I subjected a senior to having teeth cleaned, and I lost that baby on the table during the procedure, I would never forgive myself....so I elect to give therapeutic dosing of antibiotics to my dogs that I do not want to subject to anesthesia and teeth cleaning.....there is not a tooth in any of these babies heads, that is so important that I risk putting an aging senior under anesthesia....major surgery, fine....life threatening conditions that need surgical intervention, fine....cleaning teeth that have been cleaned and maintained all these years....nope! Mine hit 12 and that is no longer a risk/ratio I am willing to take.

Also, a bad tooth can be not only very painful but can affect their hearts and kidneys and even their bones. I couldn't just leave my dogs with bad teeth unless they had another reason not to undergo anesthesia.