My friend recently took her husbands dog (8 or 9? year old jackrussel/rat terrier mix) in to the vet for a teeth cleaning.

His mouth had been smelling progressively worse, and she requested a cleaning. Conversation at drop off was minimal, and it was agreed the teeth needed cleaning. When she went to pick the dog up later in the day, she was informed they had pulled 18 teeth.

My friend or her husband did not receive a call during the procedure to inform of the teeth pulling. ???

I'm curious about others experience in this realm as this is my vet too. It is *so* out of character for him to not mention any thing about the possiblity of having to pull teeth, he is so thorough in discussion with me, but of course I ask questions...

18 teeth pulled seems drastic with no information to the owners. Not to mention the follow up care for something like that...no follow up appointment scheduled. Do dogs bounce back from this type of surgery? I told my friend to keep a close eye on him for the next few weeks.

18 teeth!?!?! Thats almost half of all the teeth a dog has!

I would be PISSED. Absolutely pissed off at the vet.

I would be very upset. That vet might be cleaning his on teeth, up off the floor. The teeth very well may have been needed to be pulled but that is not the Vets job.
I am not sure if my vets would even want examine never mind treat my dog with out my physical presence

 Quote: Jeff Cambeis

The teeth very well may have been needed to be pulled but that is not the Vets job.

If not the vets job, then whose?

The husband was *royally* pissed...

Thing is, I know someone else whose dog needed cleaning, and the tooth actually crumbled during the procedure, so extraction was necessary. I cannot imagine in this case 18 teeth crumbled during the procedure.

I feel like calling my vet and asking him just WTH...?

Oops sorry Michele. I meant to say it is not the vet's job to decide. It is his job to consult me on what in his opinion is best for my dog.
I am wondering if this guy belongs to some kind of group treatment plan where the cost is spread out over premiums? I can not even imagine this happening.

Forget calling the vet call your lawyer. I am not sue happy person but a guy like this should at the very least get his license suspended for a few months. IMO it your and your friends moral duty to inform the local public of the vets behavior. Of course that is dependant upon hearing the whole story.

I've seen old, usually small dogs who have been fed wet food or kibble their entire lives, and who have never once had their teeth cleaned, lose a lot teeth.

The teeth may have been loose and ready to go. Or crumbling. Or cracked. I've seen teeth, during the course of cleaning, so loose they just fell out.

The problem with dentistry is that a doctor cannot tell until the dog is on the table just how many teeth may have to be extracted. Dog and cats won't "open wide" and allow the vet to examine and probe each tooth ahead of time. So it's a big unknown going in.

DVMs CAN have a rough idea, based on the state of the mouth and the dog's history, just how bad things might be.

The possibility of extractions can (and should have been) be communicated to the owner, along with a best case/worst case estimate.

I think I understand why the vet did it, but would really like to hear what they say.

Thats a tough one. I would hate for a vet to leave painful teeth or try to repair the unrepairable. It would also be nice for all the work to be done under 1 anesthesia like was done in this case. At the same time it definately would be a shock to return to a toothless dog. Given that they really needed to be removed, I would still rather be shocked than the alternatives.

I'm with Sarah, should have been some kind of discussion about the "possibles" with the procedure before the owner even left the building. Good warning to the rest of us to bring these things up when we have something done to our dogs.

Although I would be upset for not at least getting a phone call, I am with Sarah.
If the dog was starting to have progressively worse stench from the mouth then I would venture to say that some of the teeth were starting to die or rot and when the tartar and build up was removed there was nothing left of the tooth OR to hold the tooth in place.

 Quote: sarah morris

I've seen old, usually small dogs who have been fed wet food or kibble their entire lives, and who have never once had their teeth cleaned, lose a lot teeth.

The teeth may have been loose and ready to go. Or crumbling. Or cracked. I've seen teeth, during the course of cleaning, so loose they just fell out.

The problem with dentistry is that a doctor cannot tell until the dog is on the table just how many teeth may have to be extracted. Dog and cats won't "open wide" and allow the vet to examine and probe each tooth ahead of time. So it's a big unknown going in.

I'm with Sarah here - our old family Pomeranian went to the vet at about 14-15 years old because he stopped eating. He had always had atrocious breath, but when they got him on the exam table, he fought the tech a bit while she was trying to peek in his mouth and 2 teeth fell out right on the spot!! Obviously, they knew what was causing his loss of appetite (I can't imagine what it must have felt like for the poor guy to have so many rotten teeth!) but they couldn't know how MANY teeth were bad till they got him in for surgery... they ended up pulling 12 (not sure if that included the ones that just FELL out). I don't think my parents were informed of the extent of damages until they picked him up that night, and he suffered no ill effects afterwards - healing was quick and smooth.

Now, if I had brought my 3 y/o dog in for a cleaning without obvious signs of dental ills or discomfort, and they decided to pull teeth without me being consulted - I'd be pissed! But in our case, with an old, small breed dog, who's mouth was clearly not right, we were happy to just have the teeth pulled to relieve pain, and we trusted our vet to just do as was necessary while he was on the table and inform us of the total after it was all through. Some vets are big on estimates, some aren't - but if you've been seeing the same guy for a while, you'd be familiar with that.

Was this dog not showing ANY signs of discomfort in his mouth?? That seems odd. A dog with THAT many rotten or damaged teeth would most likely be experiencing some sensitivity, pain, or lack of appetite as a result... if my dog looked perfectly healthy, I'd want an explanation of how bad the teeth were before they pulled them. As Sarah said, a best case/worst case estimate would have been appreciated.

Good luck to the little toothless pup! Our Pom lived another 2 years without any trouble eating... none that was related to having only half his teeth anyway.

~Natalya

Wow, I dont care if my dogs teeth were falling out- that was way out of the vets jurisdiction- in my opinion its right up there with the vaccinating the dog without informing the owner.