Rusty Noodleman

Today I am in Champaign-Urbana, IL with my little Rusty as he is getting taken care of at the small animal clinic at the University of IL. Right after the new year we noticed Rusty suddenly had really bad breath. I scheduled a teeth cleaning for him. Because dogs need to be put under general anesthesia for dental work he had to have pre-surgical blood work. So, I took him in a couple weeks ago to do that. Well, the results came back not so favorable with messed up red and white blood counts as well as enlarged platelets. So, he was put on antibiotics and we were told to come back in 2 weeks for a recheck.

Our recheck was this past Tuesday and unfortunately his teeth looked worse. Our Vet had never seen anything like this. His gums were receding away from his teeth exposing the teeth roots and he had all kinds of bleeding and sores around his mouth. He ended up being pre-diagnosed with a very rare disease called CUPS (chronic ulcerative paradental stomatitis).

The best explanation I found is that basically a dog with CUPS has spontaneously and suddenly become very allergic to the plaque in his mouth and on his teeth. Therefore any part of his mouth (tongue, cheeks, lips, etc.) that touches his teeth, becomes very infected with extremely painful lesions. The ONLY cure is to remove the teeth to keep plaque away. After this is done the dog feels a million times better and can live a normal healthy life. There is some thought that this is an autoimmune disease but since it is so rare, there isn't a lot of conclusive theory on it.

Our veterinarian is wonderful. We have followed her to 3 different practices because we like her so much. Of all 3 Dr's at our vet, they have only seen a case of CUPS once. Therefore we were referred to the University of Illinois. Rusty is currently undergoing surgery which is being done by one of the top canine dentists in the country. I feel pretty good about everything after meeting with all of them. There are several people monitoring his condition while he is under the anesthesia. They took a lot of time to discuss Rusty's situation with me and to make me feel comfortable. They are hoping to accomplish a solution in one surgery and plan to send Rusty home tonight with a clean mouth that will be free of pain. The good news is that the Dr. here seems to think we can save some of his teeth and he will be able to continue to eat normally, etc.

I was really sad when I first learned of Rusty's diagnosis. He is only 7 years old and there is no explanation for the disease. It couldn't have been prevented. It isn't genetic. It is basically just bad luck. The poor little guy. After having just lost one of our other dogs, I was pretty upset that Rusty was now going through this. He is pretty tough though and I am now confident that he will do just fine - even if he is minus 19 teeth. (For the record, dogs must have a lot of teeth, because when our dachshound had hers removed, there were 42 of them!)

Anyway, I am now sitting and waiting to hear from the Dr's once Rusty is in recovery. Angelica is with my mom today and I spent the morning re-exploring Champaign - Urbana - Mahomet - Rantoul and I am now at the Champaign public library. Boy have things changed since I went to school here! There are so many new restaurants, parking garages, apartment complexes, etc etc. I think it is funny to see students walking around everywhere talking on cell phones and texting. When I was in school, which wasn't that long ago, very few of my friends had their own cell phone and I don't think texting existed at that time. I was sad to see that one of my favorite gift shops /deli in Mahomet (Pickle Tree Farms) was shut down and is now for sale. I also stopped by Hardy's Reindeer Ranch and noticed that they have expanded and added a paintball range. I will have to remember this so I can bring my nephews this fall. The will love it!

Since I've got a few more hours on my hands, I am going to update my blog. Enjoy!