Dental Issues in Shetland Sheepdogs

Nothing else comes close to daily brushing for preventing dental disease. The reason most owners fail is that they start by opening the dog's mouth. Build it in stages instead, a few days on each step.

A proper dental cannot be done on a conscious dog. Cleaning below the gum line, probing every tooth for pocketing and taking dental radiographs all require full general anesthesia, and anything advertised as anesthesia-free dental cleaning is cosmetic scaling of the visible crown that leaves the disease under the gum untouched.

That means most Shetland Sheepdogs will be anesthetised at least once, and often several times across a 12 to 14 year life, for dentistry. The breed carries a documented MDR1 drug sensitivity, an inherited variation in how certain drug molecules are handled, and dental appointments are where it most often becomes relevant simply because they are the most common reason for a Sheltie to be sedated.

The action is straightforward. Get the DNA test done well before a dental is booked, not the week of the procedure. Give the written result to your practice. Photograph it for your phone so it is available at an emergency clinic if a tooth is ever broken out of hours. A cheek swab and a two week wait removes an unknown from every anesthetic your dog will ever have.

One more reason not to defer dentistry: the longer disease is left, the longer the procedure and the more teeth come out. A short dental on a mouth in reasonable condition is a much smaller anesthetic than a two hour extraction session on a mouth that has been neglected for five years. The dogs who need the longest anesthetics are the ones whose owners waited.