So, as some of you know, ever since her birthday back in August Layla has been on a hunger strike off and on. It started when I gave her some doggie birthday cake with her meals and she held out for it. We tried everything, and tough love won out in the end. She started eating all her meals for a few days but then the next few days would be totally uninterested in her food. This was highly unusual for her, since before her birthday she would eat anything and everything you gave to her and would do any trick she knew for food.

The on-and-off hunger strike continued until a few days ago, when we were in the car coming back from a hike and I just happened to notice something that looked like a speck of blood in the middle of one of her top molars. Upon further inspection (which took forever, since Layla hates to have her mouth opened and looked in) I confirmed it was a small lesion. Looks like at some point in the past couple months Layla chewed something too hard, knocked her mouth into something or any number of things that caused her to crack the tooth. It doesn't look too terrible (compared to photos of other dogs' cracked teeth I've seen online) and it doesn't seem to bother her other than eating her dry kibble -- that's probably why it took us so long to notice it. I had even checked her mouth back when the hunger strike first started to rule out a cracked tooth and everything looked fine.

The solution? Luckily she has her annual checkup at the vet next Monday, so until then we are soaking her kibble in water before serving it. She's done a total 180 on food ever since we started doing that. Where she would be totally uninterested and just lay by her food forlornly, she is now back to having the same excitement she used to for her meals. It's been three days and at every meal she's excitedly licked her bowl clean. And hopefully very soon we will be able to get her tooth fixed!

Liz, that's great that you figured it out. Not so great that she has to have teeth work done, but still happy you have resolved her issue. Poor baby.

Aww, poor girl. Glad you found the cause so she will soon be on her way to feeling better.

Good catch, sometimes you have to go back and check areas that you all ready checked. Hope they can either seal it or pull it for her to feel better.

I really hope they don't have to pull it, but until the vet sees it and possibly takes X-rays we'll have no idea how bad it really is. It doesn't look too bad from the outside to my uninitiated eyes, just a tiny bit of red pulp sticking out of the middle of the molar, so I'm hoping they can just seal it. Not looking forward to that bill but anything for her to be healthy and pain-free!

UPDATE: We just got back from Layla's annual visit, where the vet got a good look at her teeth and couldn't find any evidence of cracking or exposed pulp. There's a little tartar on the tooth I had suspected but other than that Layla's teeth (and the rest of her) look really good. The vet thinks that Layla just started liking her food soggy, since it smells and tastes a little better that way. As long as she's eating normally again and there's no tooth damage, I think it's safe to go with that explanation. Whatever floats Layla's boat!