Betty had her dental yesterday...

Removed 9 teeth, and said her jaw was the second worst they;ve ever seen! Ten year old dogs mouth in a three year old dog.

Her first 3 years were spent in a mill, so not sure what they fed her. Ofcourse the vet thinks the raw is to blame. -Sigh

So, for jaw deterioration, they gave me a suppliment made for Home cooked diets. I'm to give her 1/8 tsp daily, 6mth supply.

Anyone know of anything else that will help build calcium? I know bones, but for a few weeks she's not allowed any hard stuff... sooo...

I've heard stories of even toothless dogs and cats gumming down on raw, so don't fret for loss of some teeth! Did they do an xray to see if she has bone loss elsewhere? If it's true bone loss, it will show up in more than just her jaw.

You can eat tons of calcium, and still have osteoporosis, and also end up with kidney stones, so I'd be careful of adding a lot of plain old calcium, you want it to be bioavailable, or be taken up into the bones, instead of building up in the kidneys.

You also need to build up the calcium with vitamin D and magnesium, manganese, zinc, silicon and boron in the right amounts, vitamin D being the most important I think. Fish is the best dietary source, esp salmon, but Betty doesn't like fish does she? You could use supplements, but some like cod liver oil has the vitamin D removed, so make sure whatever supplements you buy, still have it. Sunshine works for people, but not sure for dogs.

Sometimes adrenal gland deficiency can cause problems with bone loss, so you could look into adrenal gland function too.

The generic name for Fosamax is alendronate, just in case your vet doesn't know all the human names....

Naturally, the best bone building stuff is sunshine, a good diet full of the above supplements, less stress more sleep, and weight bearing exercise.

What is the supplement the vet gave you anyway?

I am nervous to give TOO MUCH calcium.

The suppliment is called "The Balancer : home-made meal supplement for dogs"

http://www.completeandbalanced.com/supplement.html

"Calcium, Vitamin D, Phosphorus, Vitamin E, Potassium, Thiamin (B1), Magnesium, Riboflavin (B2), Sodium, Niacin (B3), Zinc, Pyridoxine, Iron, Pantothenic acid (B6), Copper, Folic acid, Manganese, Choline, Iodine, Vitamin B12"

Funniest part? On the bottle it says:

WARNING: This suppliment should only be used with the recipes in the book: "blahblahblah"

No xrays, after forking over almost $400, I just didn't even consider those or any more indepth tests at the moment (SO is out of a job still, we are trying to get by!).

youch! that's a lot of money!!! Aren't we supposed to save on tooth cleanings/extractions/vet bills by feeding raw? Betty, you've got some splaining to do!

I had a tooth thing with Connor, had to put him under to have a silver cap put in, cost over $2000, I was in tears when I heard how much it was going to cost, and now he has ANOTHER cavity. I just don't have the money, I've got a broken tooth in my own mouth, so I certainly can't afford this! He's going to have to wait for it to fall out naturally, I keep wiggling it hoping.

Gonna go brush my other teeth, and wake the boy and make him brush his again!!! The dentist told me that some people just have bad teeth, and bad saliva, so they just get more cavities, but I tell ya, he's gonna take better care of his adult teeth, or I'm gonna kill 'em!

Too bad that Betty can't grow new teeth!

On a good note, the supplement looks okay, it's got lots of good stuff in it. I would never recommend a supplement in normal situations, but if the stuff helps, then great, but you should have an idea of how long before you can find measurable results. If the answer is along the lines of "oh, the supplement is to promote good health, it won't reverse the damage already done.." then I would only use it for six months and see if it's worth it.