Poor Scooby. I have continued to give him cow hooves as a chewing treat, even though I had a suspicion that is what cracked one of his large back teeth a year ago (and required dental surgery then, after pain he was living with that I didn’t realize).
At one point I got him some Spot’s Chews and he loved them. They were easy on his teeth, while at the same time having a design and ingredients that actually clean the teeth and gums. Furthermore, like everything else that HALO makes, the ingredients were healthy and did the job as described (not like some popular commercial chews that advertise they “freshen breath and clean teeth” when in truth they are made of inferior ingredients like glycerin, wheat gluten, corn products and a ton of chemicals).
However, I ran out of the Spot’s Chews and thought, “Ah what the heck — live dangerously! I’ll let Scooby have another cow hoof. What’s the worst that can happen? They already removed that broken tooth!”
Well I am here to tell you that the worst that could happen was that the cow hoof could break the big chewing tooth on the other side — and that is exactly what happened. However, I didn’t realize it at the time, so who knows how long Scooby was carrying on with a deeply cracked tooth that had to be causing him a lot of discomfort.
It was only when I was at the vet for another of my dog’s teeth that I asked the vet tech to take a quick peek at Scooby Doo, and wouldn’t you know, he had, in fact, cracked another major tooth through and through with that rock-hard cow hoof.
I am a big proponent of pet insurance and Pets Best has saved my life financially many times, but pet insurance does not cover dental! That meant that Scooby was suffering — and had to go through a big dental surgery and healing period — while I had to bite the bullet and pay for another big procedure without the help of insurance.
From now on I’m keeping a stash of Spot’s Chews and pulling one out whenever he has the urge to chew. I think of them as his after-dinner cigar! No more “jaw busters” for us!
–Tracie Hotchner
