There it was.
The upper fourth premolar. The carnassial. The big work tooth, the one a dog did her chewing on. The gum around it was bright red and pulled back from the base. Tartar along the enamel like a coastline. The tooth itself was fractured along the cusp, with a clean line across the top, exposing what should never be exposed.
She'd been hurting for months.
I let her lip ease back down. I rested my hand on top of her head.
Easton hadn't moved.
"She's got an upper carnassial fracture. The big chewing tooth on her right side. It's cracked along the top, and the gum around it is inflamed. She almost certainly has an infection at the root by now. That's why she's slow at her bowl. Chewing on that side has been hurting her, probably for three months."
"For three months?"
"Yeah."
He didn't say anything for a moment. He looked at Penny. Penny looked at him.
"And Caldwell."
"Ran a senior panel. That checks the systemic stuff. Kidneys, liver, and blood counts. It doesn't lift the lip and look at the teeth. You have to actually look."
I sat back on my heels.
"He didn't look."
"Doesn't sound like it. Not enough to see it, anyway."
He scrubbed a hand down his face. Slowly.
"Three months. I kept bringing her in. I kept telling him she wasn't eating. He kept telling me she was old."
"Easton."
I shifted forward and sat cross-legged on the rug in front of him.
"Listen, this is fixable. Someone needs to sedate her, pull the tooth, and clean what's underneath. She'll be back at her bowl inside a week. Two on the long end. She's going to feel like a different dog."
He looked at me.
"You can do it?"
"I can't, not yet. I don't have a space. I don't have an anesthesia rig. I don't have a surgical suite or a tech on standby. By the time I had any of it up, she'd have been hurting another month, and I'm not going to make her wait."
I sat back on my heels.
"Let me write you a referral. There's a practice forty minutes south of here, off the highway. Hudson Valley Animal Hospital. A friend of mine from vet school runs the soft-tissue side. Her name's Dr. Cabrera. She does these extractions in her sleep. I'll call her tonight. We can have Penny on her schedule before the end of the week."
He looked at me for a long beat.
"That close?"
"I'll talk to her tonight, then write everything up for you for tomorrow morning. The diagnosis. What to ask for at intake. Post-op care. What to watch. You won't have to walk in there alone. You'll have a sheet of paper and a name."
He took a breath. Let it out.
"You'd do that?"
"Of course."
