QUESTION

When we adopted our dog, Dinky, we found out she was probably 10 yrs old. Her tongue was always sticking out. I had dental work done on her and when they tried to clean her teeth, they all fell out. So, she has no teeth and her tongue sticks out twice as much. About 3 weeks ago, she was on antiobiotics and steriods because she had skin dermatitis due to allergies. Afterwards, her tongue started to look different. One morning, I noticed that her tongue looked blood red. I took her into an emergency clinic and they told me her tongue was drying out and I needed to keep it moist. There is a thin black outline around parts of her tongue and the emergency clinic doctor said that was not good. Black indicated that the tissue is dying. Do you have any suggestions as to how to keep her tongue moist when I am at work? When I am at home, every 1/2 hours and use a syringe to squirt water in her mouth and on her tongue. I worry when I am not there, because she will not necessarily get up to dip her tongue in water. Her regular vet has never seen this before. He is going to consult two other doctors for probable corrective surgery, making it slighly shorter. In the meantime, I do not know what I can use besides water, to help keep her tongue moist. Please help us.

Emily Iverson

ANSWER

Dear Emily,
The main reason your dogs tongue hangs out is due to the lack of teeth. Chihuahua's mouths are made too small for their tongues anyway and once the teeth are lost there is nothing that will keep the tongue in. As for the tongue drying out too much this should only occur if the household humidity is too low causing drying. You could look at alo vera gel in a form for oral use as this would keep moisture in better as would vegetable type oils particularily good in dogs is safflower oil as this is beneficial with the skin etc. Don't overdo the oil though and the dog would have to like the taste but it would give a protective coat that would last longer than water.

Paul Wilson