Pulling teeth

[JemarsSerena]

Loki had one puppy tooth that was blocking the adult tooth trying to come in on top of it. I took him to the vet to have it pulled. When I picked him up they told me they had pulled a total of 5 teeth. Two of the teeth were broken and one was the tooth I wanted pulled The other two becasue the vet said they were blocking adult teeth as well. Loki is no worse for wear, but was this OK for them to do without asking?

[AngelBunny]

I have an excellent relationship with my vet. She's practical and we see eye-to-eye.

Dr Donna lets clients who are interested stay when she operates on their dogs. I've seen fosters neutered and a fatty tumor removed from the inside of Tula's left hind leg.

However, if I couldn't be there, I wouldn't be upset to return to pick up one of my dogs to find more teeth had been removed than we'd originally discussed.

The answer to your Q depends on the relationship you have with your vet.

[spidey]

Were you available to the vet during the day? At the clinic I work at, we have people sign paperwork indicating their wishes, since we never know what's really going on until we get in there and have a good look and take x-rays, and it's very often the case that you don't know about problems until you have the dog anesthetized. With a puppy, as long as the vet did a good job of extracting the puppy teeth, I would much rather the teeth be gone than risk adversely affecting the adult teeth.

[JemarsSerena]

I trust my vet. We've been seeing them since I was a kid. I was just a little suprised that I didn't at least get a phone call. I'll just ask them to call me next time. I was available to be reached. I agree that if they had to go, I would much rather see them gone. Loki may be doing bite work, so he will need a proper bite.

[tony power]

there is a reson why i have an accountant & a investor & a mechanic is cause they know best you need to trust someone eventually

[jlhnokc]

Originally Posted by tony power

there is a reson why i have an accountant & a investor & a mechanic is cause they know best you need to trust someone eventually

Yes, but would you be ok with your investor moving a large amount of your money with out ASKING you first? Or your mechanic changing out your engine before asking you? I think that was more the point of the thread...You should always be asked first before anything is done...

[jlaack]

Loki had one puppy tooth that was blocking the adult tooth trying to come in on top of it. I took him to the vet to have it pulled. When I picked him up they told me they had pulled a total of 5 teeth. Two of the teeth were broken and one was the tooth I wanted pulled The other two becasue the vet said they were blocking adult teeth as well. Loki is no worse for wear, but was this OK for them to do without asking?

This is just my personal opinion, but I feel that a vet should discuss everything before doing so unless my dogs life is on the line or close to being on the line. We had our dog in surgery before and a plan of action. Once the surgeon opened up the leg, it was clear that our 'plan' would not work. We had a back up plan in place, but evenso the surgeon stepped out of surgery to call me and have me make the decision. I even called and discussed quickly with my husband and called the surgeon back. While it was inconvenient for the vet to have to scrub up again before heading back into surgery and you of course want to minimize the length of the anesthesia having made the call was not jepordizing my dog's health to let me make the decision. He was very closely monitored and the vet stated he wouldn't have called if doing so could have affected our dog negatively because of the delay. My dogs surgery was a 4 hour surgery and a tooth extraction takes a fraction of that. I personally do not like vets to make decisions without discussing with me first unless doing so could harm my dog. This is one example but there are plenty of other decisions in which the vet consulted me first not when I picked up my dog. I also have a great relationship with my vets but they value my input as well. Having had teeth pulled too, personally I wouldn't do five teeth for myself at once so I'd likely not make the decision for my dog either. I'm glad he is doing okay.