Feeling like a bad Corgi Mom....broken tooth

Hey everyone, I was brushing Grover's teeth this morning and he jerked away and I noticed blood on the brush. I looked in his mouth and he had a broken tooth! It is on the top left side and is one of his molars, I think. The think is that I'm not sure how long it has been there. I have not noticed anything amiss before now, but if I'm being honest, I haven't brushed his teeth in at least a month. (Lesson learned, I won't let these things go so long in the future). Poor guy has been eating normally and playing just as usual, but, God, I feel really bad thinking that he's had this issue for a while and I didn't notice!
But surely I would have noticed him chipping a tooth!! I don't remember any instance in which he cried out in pain or seemed sore or anything.
Now, the tooth looks brown around what I think is a hole in the tooth. I called my vet and made an appt for Monday (the earliest available). What should I expect? What are you're experiences with this issue?
Why does it look brown?
I feel just awful. Poor baby, I just dropped the ball on this one.

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Comment by Parker on April 25, 2010 at 2:19pm: Well, I grew up poor and dental care was not a priority in my family because things like food or rent or whatnot had to come first. So I have a firm understanding of this issue, John Wolffe. It is terrible.
Fortunately, I took Grove to the vet and had his tooth looked at last month and it was not infected, but he did chip off a sliver of his third molar, which is apparently a very common thing. The vet said it had happened sometime in the last two weeks, likely and that it wasn't inflamed or anything else that would indicate pain. Poor baby, it had to hurt though. The long and short is that they are not removing the tooth just yet. They gave me a course of antibiotics just to be safe but said they would reject the tooth periodically to see if needed to be removed. He said at this point that it didn't not seem to be chipped to the pulp (yuck!!! that word is just gross to me!), so it would be worse for him to have it extracted!
The Nylabones are out!!! No more of that in my house! We are now doing more rubbery bones. They don't last as long, but they seem to be easier on his teeth!

Comment by John Wolff on April 20, 2010 at 12:40pm: Ours get raw beef bones all the time; I thought the gnawing was supposed to be good for their teeth, scraping of plaque and stuff.
I've heard that dental problems are a major cause of animal mortality in the wild, especially predators. Teeth are important, and vulnerable.
If you've ever had a root canal, imagine having a toothache but not having a dentist, $2000, ability to speak, anyone to talk to, or even any comprehension of what's going on. Only pain.
There are millions of people even in this rich country who've never seen a dentist.

Comment by Parker on March 14, 2010 at 10:36am: Yes, I think it was the Nylabone. He's a big time chewer and I have always let him have a Nyla, but that thing has gone up for the time being! My husband speculated that he might have done it while we were at work or something and then just swallowed the piece.
I got him to let me look at it last night and I think the brown stuff might be tartar build up from him not chewing on that side of his mouth?? I'm not sure.
Thanks for the support guys! He's definitely my little fur kid and I hate to think of him in pain!

Comment by Rachael & Waffle on March 13, 2010 at 10:33pm: If it's brown around a hole, it might be decay. Like, the tooth is decaying at it weakest point outward. Um, maybe not though! I tried looking it up online and came up with nothing, not even in humans. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. I hope he feels better and has a healthy tooth soon!

Comment by Sky and Lyla on March 13, 2010 at 7:14pm: You are not a bad mom, sometimes these things happen. Does he get any kind of hard bones like the Nylabones? I won't let my guys play with those because they chew so hard with those back teeth I fear them breaking a tooth. I hope things go well at the vet. Let us know!