Doggie Orthodontia Con't Or Why Nana is Chasing Her Tail

When Toys Were Still Allowed

Well it is Tuesday and the retainer is (as of this moment) still in her mouth. I have become her favorite chew toy in the process.  I am doing the best I can to keep her tired.  We walk and we walk and we walk on leash.  But I choose where we walk - no sticks, nothing that she might decide to bite. This entails doing laps around the local regional park which has a large population of geese.  Most of our walk is an attempt to make some kind of forward progression while not jumping on me, making wild grabs at my vest, or eating goose poop. I was shocked at how large a goose poop can be,  it is the size of a small dinner plate.  I, in desperation, bought a muzzle so that I can let her run on the back pasture at the barn. Put the muzzle on, let her run, take it off and hopefully have a tired puppy.  Yes, I am very conflicted at having bought a muzzle for a very sweet puppy.  Besides, it pushes all her hair up and I'm not sure she can see anything.  She is so desperate to chew on something that she has taken to whirling like a dervish in pursuit of her tail.  She hasn't mastered the art of not getting dizzy yet and falls over - but is up again to chase it in the other direction.  Briards are comical dogs and need things to do, she is a very busy girl and I am working hard to find things for her that don't entail biting me or anything else.  This is a very short term problem and I will know if this retainer is working on Friday - hopefully we will both survive until then.  Oh, and just as a side note most of my friends are laughing at me for having a dog with a retainer.

Doggie Orthodontia

Yesterday my dog went to the dentist and came home with a retainer in her mouth that she will have to wear, if she doesn't break it first, for the next couple of weeks.  If you have stopped laughing I will explain why she had to have a splint (retainer).  It wasn't for cosmetic reasons, it was strictly medical.  Her lower canines were coming in straight up and into the roof of her mouth.  She has a narrow lower jaw with a slight underbite.  Her adult canines came in on the inside of her baby canines.  For about a week she had double canines. Hmmm....this didn't look good, so I grabbed a friend, who conveniently is a vet, to look at her mouth.  Which is why I found myself with an immediate appointment with a doggie orthodontist.  And in the immortal words of that vet as we sat on the floor of the exam room with the patient "Your screwed, those canines are going to grow into the roof of her mouth causing holes which become vectors for infection and then we will have to file her adult canines down and risk of infection is........"  Damn.

So.....there is a narrow window of opportunity to intervene as the adult canines are coming in to get them to shift outward and not drill holes into the roof of my dogs mouth.  As my youngest daughter said this morning: "How do you end up with all these high maintenance pets?!?!"  She was laughing....as I tried to protest that I don't go out looking for them, how was I suppose to know that the rescue cat I adopted had thyroid disease and needed a compounded medicine from a little boutique pharmacy.  Once they are mine, they are mine and it is what it is.

But in the meantime it is awful.  No toys for Nana, nothing to chew on, her food has to be soaked to mush and I can give her Benadryl to try and calm her.  She is a very busy girl and I am trying to come up with alternatives during this next week that will keep her interest and her mouth empty.  Not easy when you are only 5 months old and you think everything belongs in the mouth.  I've explained it to her, but I just don't think she gets it.