Dr Merry Olive - Veterinarian - Medical Writer, Educator

22/05/2024

13/10/2022

One Mahsa Too Many

11/10/2022

I post this again. Please widely sign and share.

It is easy to pass by and think it is not your problem, what help will it make anyway, and countries need to solve their own problems.

This petition was written and edited by Iranian Australians. They are not asking for foreign countries to come in and sort out the brutal dictatorship in Iran. But they want to be heard and they want the brutal regime condemned.

Their friends and family are hurting. A woman was arrested by the morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly and two hours later landed in hospital in a traumatic coma and died. Women started protesting the incident by ripping off their coverings and cutting their hair. A protesting women was shot 6 times in the head. More protesters are being beaten and murdered by the government. Many have simply disappeared. The government has cut connections to the outside world so no one can get word in or out.

In signing this petition, it is saying I hear you, I hear your cries for help, and I condemn what the Islamic dictatorship is doing to the people of Iran. Please consider signing in support.

One Mahsa Too Many

08/08/2021

Another important reminder about cats' teeth and resorptive lesions.

Resorptive lesions are very, very common in cats' teeth - occurring in about 30-70% of cats. The lesions can be difficult to spot to the naked eye - sometimes the only evidence is a small area of inflamed gum. Once you probe the teeth under anaesthesic, however, you can feel the deficits, they bleed easily, and they are painful.

Where there is one lesion, there is often more. If you come across a cat that is missing teeth, your suspicions should be increased that the cat may have resorptive lesions. Teeth don't fall out without a reason.

Resorptive lesions are painful. A part of the tooth gets eaten away, exposing the sensitive centre of the tooth where the nerves are. The only treatment, where a deficit in the tooth sits at or above the gumline, is extraction.

The cat pictured was missing many of its small front teeth, it had lots of gum inflammation, and some of the back teeth had obvious deficits that could be seen with the naked eye. Under anaesthetic, dental xrays were taken of all the teeth. The xrays showed a resorptive lesion in EVERY single tooth except in the canine teeth. Many of these lesions weren't obvious looking at the teeth when the cat was awake. This cat required full mouth extractions. It is sad but those teeth would have been causing significant pain and the cat will be much happier without them.

You cannot judge a cat's mouth based on appearance alone. Feeling the teeth with a dental probe and doing full mouth xrays under general anaesthetic are required for proper assessment. Whenever a cat is missing teeth or if there is inflammation of the gums, anticipate that maybe you might encounter some surprises during any dental procedure on a cat.

30/06/2021

Mabel and Mookie

29/06/2021

This was a cat's mouth, in for a dental assessment and clean under anaesthetic. I was probing the teeth on the left lower side and the probe tip seemed to detect a divot in the 3rd premolar at the crown-root junction. I was worried it might be a resorptive lesion (where the tooth surface is eaten away).

I did xrays to check and was surprised to find the tooth had three roots instead of two! The probe was picking up the extra groove between the roots rather than an abnormal lesion. An xray of the teeth on other side of the mouth showed that only that tooth had an extra root.

This is important information to know if you need to extract the tooth. And you would only know this by taking dental xrays. I love dental xrays!

29/06/2021

27/06/2021

I almost do at least one dental procedure in a dog or cat every working day. Poking and probing to assess the teeth only gets you so far. It can identify gingival pockets associated with periodontal disease and it can sometimes identify deficits in the part of the teeth above the gumline. But it also misses so much. You are missing a lot if you don't have dental xrays.

The first photo in this post was from a tiny dog. Much of each tooth was below the gumline, with only a fraction of the crown sticking up. This xray was taken as a survey radiograph, after probing was uneventful. The deficit that can be seen in the neck region of that tooth (with the arrow) was not evident by probing. The xray also revealed two retained roots sitting unknown under the gumline.

Xrays are also extremely useful during extractions. The roots broke during extraction of the tooth. I created a gingival flap to get better access but the mouth was so tiny, the roots were still difficult to see. I lost my orientation. One trick I used is to take an xray with a needle sitting in the socket. This helps me orientate where I am.

In the last xray, I did the same after extracting a baby canine tooth. The tooth came out with mostly crown. I couldn't feel any root. I took the xray to see what was going on. The puppy's jaw was filled with so many baby and permanent teeth, a needle helped me orientate. Most of the root had already resorbed.