Hi, I've been reading this forum for a while but this is my first post.
We have a 15 week old puppy named Bailey. She's very cute, smart and we love her to bits, but I'm getting a bit worried about all the health issues she's had already. She has a hernia, an overbite, blocked tear ducts, and her top front teeth still haven't come in. She's also just recovered from a urinary tract infection that took 2 courses of antibiotics to treat.
Her hernia is quite small (about the size of a blueberry) but it sometimes gets larger and firmer feeling and is harder to push back in. When we told the vet this today, she said that if it is getting larger and firmer then we would need to spay her earlier than 6 months and fix the hernia then. We may even have to spay her in the next few weeks (it wasn't bulging out during the appointment so she wasn't able to see exactly what we meant). I'd really like to get to as close to 6 months as possible but obviously don't want to cause any damage to her intestines either if they are coming out too far. Would it be ok to spay her as early as 4 ½ months in this situation? Are there any issues from spaying too early?
At Bailey's first puppy visit, at 10 weeks old, the vet said her overbite could correct itself as her jaws grow, but today she could see that it's gotten worse. I had also thought that it it was getting worse - at first I could get about half my little finger in the gap, now it's as big as my index finger which I just measured as half an inch. Does any one have any experience with an overbite of this size? I'm not even sure if this is a large or small overbite. The vet said she may need to have her bottom teeth filed if her bottom jaw doesn't catch up. The adult bottom teeth could hit the top of her gums, she didn't want to guess what the cost would be but said that for an older dog she had referred with this problem the specialist had charged $1600 to file and cap his teeth. For now we just have to wait and see how her jaws grow.
Also, her puppy teeth have been very slow to come in, the bottom front teeth came in when she was about 13 weeks and the top front teeth still haven't come through, although you can see them through the gums. Does anyone have any experience with baby teeth coming in this late or know if it's a problem? Bailey is 4lb 14oz now so she's not developing slowly in general, just her teeth are.
Bailey has terrible tear staining so the vet did the dye test a few weeks ago and her tear ducts were completely blocked. She gave us antibiotic/steroid eye drops, however the wetness, gunk and staining haven't reduced at all so I don't think it's worked. I clean her eyes with wipes with Eye Clear sterile eye wash pads morning and evening, wash her face with Spa Lavish Facial Cleanser nearly every day, and get the eye gunk out and dab below her eyes dry with a paper towel several times a day. I also put a bit of cornstarch in the area to try and keep the hair drier a bit longer, but it's still soaking within an hour. She eats Acana Grasslands which is grain free and we also give her a spoonful of probiotic yogurt with a ¼ teaspoon of buttermilk powder. She drinks distilled water with a tsp of apple cider vinegar per gallon from a stainless steel bowl. Even with all this the staining still gets worse every day. I've read most of the tear staining threads on here, but I was wondering if anyone has a Havanese with blocked tear ducts and if so were they ever able to get rid of the staining and just have clear tears. I don't want to be doing all this stuff to her if it's not going to make a difference anyway but I'm scared if I stop, it will get even worse and be a breeding ground for yeast and bacteria. The vet will flush her tear ducts when she is spayed so I'm really hoping that will resolve or at least reduce the problem and that it's not because her tear ducts aren't fully formed.
On a more positive note she's doing really well with her potty training, even with the uti, and runs to the door every time she has to go with no accidents in a week now!
I think that individually all these problems are minor, it's just all together it's pretty overwhelming and we seem to get more bad news at each vet visit!
We tried to get a picture of the overbite.
We have a 15 week old puppy named Bailey. She's very cute, smart and we love her to bits, but I'm getting a bit worried about all the health issues she's had already. She has a hernia, an overbite, blocked tear ducts, and her top front teeth still haven't come in. She's also just recovered from a urinary tract infection that took 2 courses of antibiotics to treat.
Her hernia is quite small (about the size of a blueberry) but it sometimes gets larger and firmer feeling and is harder to push back in. When we told the vet this today, she said that if it is getting larger and firmer then we would need to spay her earlier than 6 months and fix the hernia then. We may even have to spay her in the next few weeks (it wasn't bulging out during the appointment so she wasn't able to see exactly what we meant). I'd really like to get to as close to 6 months as possible but obviously don't want to cause any damage to her intestines either if they are coming out too far. Would it be ok to spay her as early as 4 ½ months in this situation? Are there any issues from spaying too early?
At Bailey's first puppy visit, at 10 weeks old, the vet said her overbite could correct itself as her jaws grow, but today she could see that it's gotten worse. I had also thought that it it was getting worse - at first I could get about half my little finger in the gap, now it's as big as my index finger which I just measured as half an inch. Does any one have any experience with an overbite of this size? I'm not even sure if this is a large or small overbite. The vet said she may need to have her bottom teeth filed if her bottom jaw doesn't catch up. The adult bottom teeth could hit the top of her gums, she didn't want to guess what the cost would be but said that for an older dog she had referred with this problem the specialist had charged $1600 to file and cap his teeth. For now we just have to wait and see how her jaws grow.
Also, her puppy teeth have been very slow to come in, the bottom front teeth came in when she was about 13 weeks and the top front teeth still haven't come through, although you can see them through the gums. Does anyone have any experience with baby teeth coming in this late or know if it's a problem? Bailey is 4lb 14oz now so she's not developing slowly in general, just her teeth are.
Bailey has terrible tear staining so the vet did the dye test a few weeks ago and her tear ducts were completely blocked. She gave us antibiotic/steroid eye drops, however the wetness, gunk and staining haven't reduced at all so I don't think it's worked. I clean her eyes with wipes with Eye Clear sterile eye wash pads morning and evening, wash her face with Spa Lavish Facial Cleanser nearly every day, and get the eye gunk out and dab below her eyes dry with a paper towel several times a day. I also put a bit of cornstarch in the area to try and keep the hair drier a bit longer, but it's still soaking within an hour. She eats Acana Grasslands which is grain free and we also give her a spoonful of probiotic yogurt with a ¼ teaspoon of buttermilk powder. She drinks distilled water with a tsp of apple cider vinegar per gallon from a stainless steel bowl. Even with all this the staining still gets worse every day. I've read most of the tear staining threads on here, but I was wondering if anyone has a Havanese with blocked tear ducts and if so were they ever able to get rid of the staining and just have clear tears. I don't want to be doing all this stuff to her if it's not going to make a difference anyway but I'm scared if I stop, it will get even worse and be a breeding ground for yeast and bacteria. The vet will flush her tear ducts when she is spayed so I'm really hoping that will resolve or at least reduce the problem and that it's not because her tear ducts aren't fully formed.
On a more positive note she's doing really well with her potty training, even with the uti, and runs to the door every time she has to go with no accidents in a week now!
I think that individually all these problems are minor, it's just all together it's pretty overwhelming and we seem to get more bad news at each vet visit!
We tried to get a picture of the overbite.