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Old August 13th, 2008, 11:22 AM
Gail P's Avatar
Gail P Gail P is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Ontario
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Getting hairs stuck in the gums seems to be a rather common occurence, I've just never seen it cause infection before. Years ago when I was in high school I did a co-op placement at a vet clinic and that is when I first noticed it. We'd have dogs out on the operating table (for something else, maybe a spay or a neuter), and I began to notice otherwise very nice healthy pink gums that had tiny black spots or black lines right at the edge where the tooth meets the gum. I began scraping at them with my thumbnail and discovered that the black was the very tips of hairs that were stuck up in there. I was able to draw them out just by scraping with my nails. Since then I always check my own dogs periodically and occasionally have to pull a few out of them too. It seems to happen most to dogs with smooth coats as their hairs are shorter and stiffer, probably when they're nibbling/biting at themselves to scratch an itch. They never seem to act bothered by having the hairs there, but I know what it feels like to have a piece of popcorn kernel stuck by one of my teeth and don't like the thought of leaving them there when I can easily take them out.
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