Don't Come Here For Sympathy

We recently saw a 7-year-old greyhound that had ten extractions a few years back. She came in for a routine teeth cleaning, but after a brief impromptu inspection of the teeth in the waiting room, I suggested that we would probably have to do multiple extractions yet again. Her owner was not particularly accepting of that statement. After considerable discussions with myself, David Wolf, and one of our staff veterinarians, we decided to clean the teeth, have him come into surgery while the dog was still anesthetized and show him what his dogs mouth looked like after we had done the cleaning. One tooth, a tiny rear molar all the way in the back, fell out while cleaning on the right side. On the left side, although not shown in the pictures, the tooth was loose and would have come out with one light tug. If you can remember back to when you were a child, you can recall how disturbing it is to have a loose tooth in your mouth. Hopefully no one has had to face that as an adult.

Looking at all the teeth both before the cleaning procedure and after, it was apparent in the view of our staff members at our clinic, that probably at least twelve teeth needed to be extracted. We showed the adopter all of the issues his dog had and explained how much his dog's exposed roots will attract new plaque and tarter. For reasons unknown, he denied us permission to extract any teeth despite their horrible condition. You can only imagine how I felt. He was clearly not considering the well-being and comfort of his greyhound as it gets older and her teeth will only worsen with time. As Dr. Berman said, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.'