Kimo's gum disease

About the end of last year, I was noticing that Kimo's leg was looking scaley and I noticed that he started dripping pink saliva.  Then he started not eating that well.

So I finally took him to the vet.

I thought it might be a skin problem or maybe a return of the mange, but it turned out that Kimo had gum disease.  It looked pretty bad, so it was diagnosed that he would have to have teeth extracted.

They took a blood test to make sure that he would be OK for the anesthetic and got a call back for Dr. Kamiya saying the blood test was mostly good and they would call back with an estimate.  Never got a call back so I called them after a few days.  They gave me a verbal estimate, but apparently they were having equipment problems so they couldn't do it right away.

So not wanting to wait, I did a search for dog dentistry Hawaii (or something) and came up with Aloha Animal Hospital and called them.

In the meantime he was really having trouble eating and I resorted to giving him raw egg mixed with small bits of fish.

They confirmed the diagnosis of gum disease and the vet (the weekend guy on duty) gave him some antibiotics.  With the antibiotics, he seemed to get a lot better.

I went back a few days later and saw Dr. Chang who's the head of Aloha Animal Hospital.

Yep, gum disease.  But he didn't like some of the readings of the blood test (in particular the albumen).  So the plan was to give him her antibiotic and some A/D canned food which was meant to build him up.

Kimo's condition got better with the antibiotics and the food.

The next blood test (a couple weeks later) was much better but still not quite back in the desired range.  We could take a chance and operate or try to build him up some more.

The second one.  So a couple of weeks later another blood test (which turned out to be improved and in range).

In the meantime, I took him to another vet for confirmation and possible alternative treatment.  And yep, gum disease confirmed.

Decided to stick with Dr. Chang for the operation and took him in the next week.  He pulled out most of this teeth.  Told me some of them more brittle which was a sign of bad nutrition.  He still has a couple of his front teeth and a few of his back teeth.

He prescribed puppy food for the next few months to build him up and recommended Hills Science Diet A/B which is what he feeds his dogs (if it's good enough for him...)

The first day or so, he didn't want to eat.  Don't blame him.  But then started eating more after a couple of days.

Took him back after a couple of weeks.  Gums look much better now.  But still has some rough skin condition on his lower front leg.  Told me to shampoo it off.  I told him I thought it might be his mange coming back.

Dr. Chang was surprised that was still on ivomec.  Told me that he has never had a dog in his practice on ivomec permanently.  So did a skin scraping which came back negative and took him off the ivomec.

I kind of combed off the scales off his leg but didn't bathe him yet.  And am giving him canned food with his kibble.  He seems to have a little more energy but his poop is starting to get soft again, especially after the first poop which is normally OK.  Maybe it's because I'm trying out different canned foods.

So now the crisis is over and am now in monitor mode.