I brought two cats in for a routine teeth cleaning and it ended in a week long nightmare.
Zeus, the male cat, had issues almost immediately after I brought him home. Hera, the female had issues a cou... Read More
I brought two cats in for a routine teeth cleaning and it ended in a week long nightmare.
Zeus, the male cat, had issues almost immediately after I brought him home. Hera, the female had issues a couple days later. After the cleaning, I was told that Zeus had to have two of his teeth pulled, and Hera, just one. When I brought both cats home, Zeus didn't want to eat and just slept all day. I thought it was just the recovery from the surgery that had him feeling strange, so I just gave him pain medication as instructed and let him sleep. The next day, he didn't move or want to eat much. He pretty much didn't move from his spot and was lethargic the whole day. Later that night it started to get worse. Zeus started shaking with a high fever and drooling a lot. I didn't want to wait till morning since he stopped eating and I didn't want him to end up with Hepatic Lipidosis. All the signs were there, Lethargy, Depression, Weight Loss, Excessive thirst and urination. So naturally I got worried and didn't want to wait till after the Christmas Holiday to get him some help.
I went to the Small Animal Emergency Clinic in the middle of the night and they immediately put him on IV's and told me he had a fever. The next day they transferred Zeus to Animal Medical Center across the street from Animal Hospital of Lubbock. After a couple scans of Zeus's mouth, the doctor at Animal Medical Center told me the reason Zeus is in so much pain is because the roots from the teeth were left in his mouth after the teeth were extracted. Apparently, what Dr. Gonzales at Animal Hospital of Lubbock did was called a Crown Amputation. This is were they take the top part of the tooth off and leave the root in.
Naturally I didn't know why this type of procedure was done so I called Animal Hospital of Lubbock and was told by Dr. Gonzales that she didn't see any reason to remove the root as the scans she had didn't show the need to do so. Animal Medical Center kept Zeus a couple nights and had him on IV fluids and syringe fed him because he wouldn't eat on his own. They were very helpful and explained the entire situation to me and even consulted a doctor at Texas A&M to get his advice on what should be done. Everyone agreed that the roots should have been removed. I ended up having to go to a Specialist in Dallas, TX to have the roots removed correctly, seeing as the original procedure wasn't done properly. I was told that only an animal dental specialist has the proper tools to do the procedure.
When I called and talked to Debbie (Office Manager) and Dr. Jones at Animal Hospital of Lubbock, they both agreed with Dr. Gonzales and said that she told them that she didn't see any roots on the scans. So, because their equipment didn't show the roots, Dr. Gonzales did everything the way it should have been done with the equipment they had on hand. At first I was told that a crown extraction was done, but then the story changed to "our scans didn't show any roots". Since they didn't see the roots because of their crappy equipment, they are not at fault. THAT MAKES SENSE!
Hera, the female cat, had one tooth pulled. About 4 days after the procedure she didn't seem to want to eat. I decided to take her to Animal Medical Center were Zeus was on IV fluids to have her checked out as well. The doctor found that the tooth next to the one that was removed was extremely loose and needed to be taken out. It was basically hanging by a thread and was the reason Hera didn't want to eat. He took the tooth out and did a scan of her jaw and told me she had a fractured mandibular symphysis. I wonder how that happen? When I took Zeus to Dallas, I brought Hera along to have them look at her fractured jaw, turns out, she had to have 8 more teeth removed because she had an infection in her jaw.
So to recap, both cats were healthy when I brought them in for a routine cleaning, but both left in worse shape than when they came in. Cutting corners to save money puts animal lives in danger. If this place can't pull teeth properly, DON'T DO THE PROCEDURE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
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