I had a great experience with their veterinary dentist, Dr. Joo. I have a 20-year-old cat with arthritis, chronic kidney disease, and chronic pancreatitis going back 6 or 7 years. Because of these I... Read More
I had a great experience with their veterinary dentist, Dr. Joo. I have a 20-year-old cat with arthritis, chronic kidney disease, and chronic pancreatitis going back 6 or 7 years. Because of these I hadn't wanted him anesthetized for tooth care, since I figured he was on his way out. Bad decision; turns out he's one tough cat, not planning on giving up soon, but his teeth were awful and for the last year and a half we had been trying to keep mouth pain at bay with antibiotics when it flared up. That wasn't doing the job any more, and I felt had to make a decision - if I wanted to keep him around I had to address the root cause of the problems in his mouth. My vet works with Angell and I was referred there, but their dentist was backed up for months. The office there referred me to Dr. Joo, and though it's nearly an hour away without traffic, straight through Boston (so when the traffic's bad it's awful), when I was able to get an appointment the next week I grabbed it. (And of course, the available appt. was at rush hour.)She assessed his condition (she admitted she was skeptical when she saw his stats before he arrived, but was impressed when she saw him), and even carried him down the hall so the cardiologist could take a quick listen to the murmur she thought she heard (turns out it wasn't a murmur, it was an "intermittent gallop"). We discussed the costs vs. benefits of a cardiac workup - and she supported my decision to decline - and was able to keep him that day to do the surgery in the morning! (They wanted him overnight to begin hydration.)She called me that evening to tell me how he was doing, and again about noon when the procedure was done, and was happy to chat a bit (about the cat of course) both times. When I arrived in the evening to bring him home, she told me that she'd noticed his pupils didn't react the same, so she'd had the ophthalmologist take a look, which turned up age-related changes (no surprise!), nothing serious. Besides the malocclusion she'd spotted immediately, which caused one tooth to constantly bite his cheek (ouch! so that tooth was pulled), he lost several more to resorptive lesions, and 3 more because they were loose - 8 in all - plus of course got a good cleaning of what remained. And the cost, while of course not cheap, was well below the estimate I'd received at Angell the year before for a couple of extractions.And independent of my great experience with the vet and the facility, I've found I made a good decision, as Boris is eating better than he has for years and I'm not tied down syringe-feeding him. (CKD, pancreatitis and bad teeth will all affect appetite or willingness to eat, so I had no way of knowing in advance how much was the teeth.) Obviously he will continue his slow decline, and might go over a cliff any time, but I don't know when that will be and I can be happy until then that he's not suffering pain from his mouth. Read Less