- Joined
- Jan 1, 2019
- Messages
- 4
- Purraise
- 0
This will be a bit long-winded because I'm pretty upset so please bear with me.
So my former feral boy has been to 3 different vets in two states. He has been with me since about 1 year old. I've always been very proactive and consistent with his care, food, etc because of his feral early stages of life, so when I inquired about teeth cleaning at his appointments each vet has told me, "his teeth look good, I wouldn't do a teeth cleaning." I would look at them a bit puzzled and ask, "are you sure?" because it doesn't make sense to me that humans need our teeth cleaned at least once a year to maintain and treat any problems so why wouldn't cats?
He's been a patient at his new (cat-exclusive) vet for 18 months now. His last visit was 10 months ago and his vet, just like the other 2 previous vets, said his teeth looked good and didn't recommend a cleaning, yet again.
Well fast forward to this morning and my now-almost 7 year old kitty went to his vet for his annual checkup, blood work and vaccines. As the vet was giving him his exam and doing his dental check, she not only said he had a bit of plaque and tartar and would recommend a teeth cleaning within the next year, but that he's missing a few teeth! Of course my reaction was a shocked "what?" I asked her if she remembers him missing any teeth 10 months ago. She replied "no" and proceeded to check her visit records for any notes she made about him having missing teeth in previous visits. There were none made, thus they have probably been lost within the past 10 months.
So I'm sitting there (and still upset now) thinking, "I asked you at every visit if he needs his teeth cleaned because he's never had one done and I was worried. Every vet has checked him and assured me he didn't need it and I would be doing something expensive that he didn't need. And now in the past 10 months he's lost 2 teeth and likely is in pain (that I could have avoided had I just ignored your opinion and gotten his teeth cleaned anyways)?!"
An I justified in being p*ssed off? I also feel like I failed my boy somewhat because I believed all three of these vets when they respectively reassured me his teeth were fine and have probably unknowingly let him live in pain for at least 10 months. Luckily, his diet is 95% wet food because he has FLUTD, so any pain he might be experiencing when eating should be minimal.
So my former feral boy has been to 3 different vets in two states. He has been with me since about 1 year old. I've always been very proactive and consistent with his care, food, etc because of his feral early stages of life, so when I inquired about teeth cleaning at his appointments each vet has told me, "his teeth look good, I wouldn't do a teeth cleaning." I would look at them a bit puzzled and ask, "are you sure?" because it doesn't make sense to me that humans need our teeth cleaned at least once a year to maintain and treat any problems so why wouldn't cats?
He's been a patient at his new (cat-exclusive) vet for 18 months now. His last visit was 10 months ago and his vet, just like the other 2 previous vets, said his teeth looked good and didn't recommend a cleaning, yet again.
Well fast forward to this morning and my now-almost 7 year old kitty went to his vet for his annual checkup, blood work and vaccines. As the vet was giving him his exam and doing his dental check, she not only said he had a bit of plaque and tartar and would recommend a teeth cleaning within the next year, but that he's missing a few teeth! Of course my reaction was a shocked "what?" I asked her if she remembers him missing any teeth 10 months ago. She replied "no" and proceeded to check her visit records for any notes she made about him having missing teeth in previous visits. There were none made, thus they have probably been lost within the past 10 months.
So I'm sitting there (and still upset now) thinking, "I asked you at every visit if he needs his teeth cleaned because he's never had one done and I was worried. Every vet has checked him and assured me he didn't need it and I would be doing something expensive that he didn't need. And now in the past 10 months he's lost 2 teeth and likely is in pain (that I could have avoided had I just ignored your opinion and gotten his teeth cleaned anyways)?!"
An I justified in being p*ssed off? I also feel like I failed my boy somewhat because I believed all three of these vets when they respectively reassured me his teeth were fine and have probably unknowingly let him live in pain for at least 10 months. Luckily, his diet is 95% wet food because he has FLUTD, so any pain he might be experiencing when eating should be minimal.