HELP! Dog teeth & raw feeding & being poor... ACK

Right, so, at least we have a lovely house in a lovely neighborhood... I'm not ungrateful by any means... but aside from that we are quite poor. A few weeks ago, Liz went into work with me for a quick exam for something completely unrelated, and my vet found a fractured molar. He said it could've been like that for quite a while, and it wasn't an emergency, but it needed to come out. Fair enough.

It started changing color, he saw her again ~2 weeks ago when I had her lounging around the office with me, he said it's dead (it's like brown now) and I scheduled her for this coming Friday, because I know our only other surgery is a neuter & no biggie.

I was going to take Daisy in for an exam before getting her a non-anasthetic dental for Thursday morning - Doc said she should have one "just to make sure she doesn't have an issue like your other dog". So this morning after my workout, I was lying on the floor with Dais & decided to give her a quick once over. EGADS - her molar (same one as Liz's) has a big ol' pocket above it, the gum is inflamed, and I squeezed some PUS out! I'm freaking out - CLEARLY that tooth will have to go.

She's 12 and I don't want to put her under, I am unreasonably upset.

NOW FOR MY QUESTION:
Has anyone had major tooth extractions in raw fed dogs? Can I go back to feeding them raw after their mandated 2 weeks of soft food? I can't even ask my vet because he's totally against raw to begin with, and pushes Hill's & Royal Canin like crazy.

If you read this, thanks. You can have a cookie. But I only have paleo-friendly cookies right now, so I understand if you decline

Arnold has several broken but not taken out teeth, all of his canines, and he still eats raw.

I hope that helps...

Jules has had a molar out, as well as a fracture on his P4 that had a composite applied and he still enjoys raw, including demolishing a turkey neck just the other day

My old guy had a slab fracture on his canine, for the last 5-6 years of his life. When I found it it was infected, but at the time it cleared up. He did have some infections later in life, but the vet agreed it wasn't worth putting him under for. So a few times a week I would 'milk' it to make sure it wasn't inflamed, and gave antibiotics if it was inflamed or there was any swelling, which happened about every 6-8 months. He ate raw the whole time, no problems with that.

I would talk to the vet and see, if it really really HAS to come out or if a round of antibiotics and you keeping it clean would be enough. I hate putting older dogs under.

I hate it, too... but hers isn't a fracture (Liz's is, but the tooth has now died & changed color so that ship has sailed - the tooth has to go), it's like there's a gap/pocket in her gum right at the top of the tooth - I can **** near get my fingernail in there :yikes: and there's PUS Plus my vet is all about dental work - I'll be amazed if he doesn't tell me they all need like 4 extractions.

Poor girly

Turbo had a pocket too, and pus. Nasty, but I just had to work it all out on a regular basis and it wasn't too bad (I think he got the infections further back in his mouth at different times.

Hope she's ok!

Zobby's got a missing molar (run over by a van) and a missing incisor (playing tug with too much enthusiasm), and he eats his once-a-week-raw meal without issue.

THAT'S what I wanted to hear! Yayyy!

I think I'll also begin brushing teeth on a regular basis...

Fozzie just had his molar removed. I fed him ground raw for the 2 weeks of soft food and he's eating raw just fine now.

However, I'm going to be super duper careful about what kind of bones I give them now. No weight-bearing bones (even from small animals), no bones from large ungulates/cows/buffalo at all, and ABSOLUTELY no cooked, smoked, whatever bones. It's just not worth it to put them through surgery and pay tons of money! Even though I know I've saved a lot of money in dentals by feeding raw.

Ziggy recently had the back upper molar removed because it was cracked and infected. The problem with not pulling them when they are like that is that the infection will almost always keep coming back. I have heard it is ok to leave dead but non-infected teeth in, unless they become infected but not all vets will agree with that. MOst of my older dogs have worn or broken teeth but they are still functional

Ziggy had no trouble eating chicken backs within maybe five days of his surgery, necks earlier than that. My friend has a dog missing almost all of her upper teeth (from the eye tooth back) on one side and she still eats raw but backs are hard for her.

I'm not sure what you feed but you may want to avoid really hard bones or chews if you don't already to prevent further issues. Dogs do live marrow bones and other big hard large animal bones but there is a considerable risk of such bones damaging teeth.