Mouse Troubles

Mouse has been a really great pup.

But she's had her troubles.
 

A couple weeks ago we noticed that her bottom lip was VERY swollen.

We didn't jump to taking her to the vet. 
We agreed to give it a few more days; if it got better then great, 
but if it got worse we would take her in.

It got worse.

[driving to the vet]

[We go to Dr. Berry at Timpanogos Animal Hospital]

Dr. Berry was 99.9% sure it was Chronic Ulcerative Paradental Stomatitis [CUPS].

Basically her body was rejecting her teeth.

 The disease is seen in cats, but very rarely in dogs.

 There is no cure.

Dr. Berry said there was a good chance that within a couple of years, she would lose all of her teeth.

He wanted to do a biopsy first though, just to make sure that was in fact what Mouse had.

If it was, he explained that he would pull the rotted teeth, then clean and do whatever he could to save the other ones.

He then gave us an estimate of the cost for the biopsy and possible future procedures.

Holy cow...

We made the appointment for Monday and gave ourselves the weekend to lay out our options

  and figure out what was best not just for us, but for our pup. 

What if we gave her to someone that could afford to fix her? But that didn't feel right.

And who would want a dog that has very expensive problems anyway?

 Honestly we considered putting her down, shame on us! It hurt us to even think about that option.

It would hurt us even more though if the rest of her life consisted of being in and out of the vet,

procedure after procedure. 

Giving up on her simply didn't sit well with us.

 We came to the conclusion that we needed to know for sure just how bad her condition was.

So, on Monday we dropped her off at the vet for her procedure.

A couple hours later they called informing us that Mouse's teeth were much worse than anticipated

and they were going to have to pull most of them.

I couldn't help but feel relieved when I heard this. If they were going to pull all of them at once,

 that means we wouldn't have to go broke taking her in and out every few months to get the other ones out.

They pulled all of her teeth, except for her canines.

Poor Mouse... Look at those fangs.
[And check out that tongue!]  

One week later we took her in for a re-check. Thankfully, her gums healed very well
and her canines are in great shape!
Dr. Berry said that usually the canine teeth are stronger and if kept clean, there's a good chance Mouse will keep hers.

In Mouse's short little life of only 1 1/2 years, she has had two pretty major [and pricey] medical problems. 
If this keeps up, we may not have her around much longer.

But we're hopeful that all will be well from here. 
And if its not, then we'll figure it out once we get there.

We're grateful for our healthy, almost toothless, Mouse.