Does my dog have an abscessed tooth or could it be an allergic reaction?

Asked by Jude (32198

) March 30th, 2009

First off, I just want to say that the plan is to take him into the vet tomorrow to have him checked out.

He’s an 11 year old Chihuahua/Pomeranian and I noticed a few days ago that there was swelling on his left cheek and his upper gums/left side. I’m thinking that, maybe, it’s an abscessed tooth. The thing is, he was eating his hard food just fine (although, I went ahead and softened his food because I was worried that he was in pain). When I got up this morning, I had noticed that the swelling had gone down quite a bit on his cheek and in the inside of his mouth.

Not sure if it was an allergic reaction to something or that something is wrong with his tooth. The last few days he was pretty lethargic, but today he is back to his old, bouncy self.

Has anyone ever gone through this with one of their dogs. What do you all think that it is?

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2 Answers

It probably is a tooth root abscess (slab fractures of the fourth premolars are quite common). The reason he seems to feel better may be that it has perforated and drained, relieving some of the pressure and pain.

syz (35938

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I live a long way from the nearest vet, so my first step in deciding whether to make the trek or not is to check temp. If they have a fever then off we go, if no fever then could be bite of some sort, here dogs get ant bites when they dig up bones. But if you are close to the vet and he was acting lethargic, I would take him in. He is old fella too and tiny so could be bad if it is abscess.

rooeytoo (26981

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