Worry

Reba hasn't really been eating the last few days. I had thought she might be stealing dog food from one of the outside dogs, but with the luxury of being home on the weekend, I was able to watch her closely. And she's just not eating. At first, I thought the dewormer I gave her on Wednesday upset her tummy. Not an uncommon reaction.

Yesterday, I just happened to enter the room right when she was going to eat. And it looked like she spit out her food. Curious and concerned I lifted up her lips and opened her mouth. There in ominous glory was a badly broken canine tooth. Crap. Sometime this summer she had gotten kicked and broke off part of this tooth. It's now a jagged mess. It looks like she's sheared a good chunk of tooth off and the blackish red root looks angry. No wonder she's not eating.

I'm pretty sure I know what happened. My dad had the dogs out (dad is not known for his supervision abilities) and I came across Reba "helping herself" to the sheep. One of my sheep now has a nasty looking bite. I'm wondering if Reba didn't grab hold, and have her broken tooth get caught, pulling a chunk off. I don't know if that's even possible but the timing is about right. She didn't stop eating until after that point.

Last night I started giving her Meloxicam to help with the pain and this week I'm going to try and get her into the vets. I know they don't like to remove canines because they are an integral part of the jaw. I'm hoping there's some other solution. Doggy fillings?? I know the police dogs belonging to the city nearby have titanium chompers. Either way, I suspect any answer is going to be expensive. Sigh.