Broken Canines

[spiritsmom]

This is not one of my dogs, this is my boyfriend's mom's GSD. He broke his two lower canines somehow in half. The root is exposed, but he's still eating normally and chewing tennis balls so he's apparently not in pain. Anyway, she can't afford to get those two teeth removed by the vet so she's just leaving it alone. I thought this was a bad idea. When Spirit broke an upper incisor my vet told me I had to have it removed immediately to prevent an infection as it leaves a channel for bacteria to get into and can create problems. I had hers pulled. How bad is it if she leaves those two teeth alone? I can't pay for it, her xmas present from me will be the spaying of one of her other GSDs that she can't afford to get done but at least wants her spayed. This dog with the broken teeth is her service dog and he's about 7 or 8 yrs old. She said her vet wanted $400 to pull the teeth and that's way out of her price range (and mine).

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Service dog?

Have her check in to OrthoDogs Silver Lining Fund. They generally do ortho stuff (duh ) but do work with service dogs in all areas of health, I do believe.
http://www.oslf.org/servicedogs.htm

And there is IMOM as well, of course. Is he neutered? That's a biggie there.
http://www.imom.org

And she can check these out as well for Service Animals:
http://www.iaadp.org/VCP.html
http://www.iaadp.org/iaadp-membership-benefits-vcp.html

And I don't know anything about teeth!

[arycrest]

I would definitely figure out a way to have it done. Jean gave you some good links, I'll just add Care Credit's link.
http://www.carecredit.com/

[spiritsmom]

Yeah he's neutered (thankfully). She trained him herself and had him certified on her own - she didn't get him from an organization. He's more of an emotional assistance dog and she gets muscle weakness and needs him for support.

I'll send her those links and see if she can find a way to get it done. I just didn't know if there were any serious problems that could arise from not getting them pulled.