Horror stories after teeth removal

[Errin Paddywack]

In the last week I have heard two awful stories of dogs having teeth out. First was someone my friend knows, an older couple with a little Yorkie about 7 or 8 years old. They took him to the vet, not quite sure why and were told he needed teeth removed so they booked him in. When they got him back he had had a lot of teeth out, more than they expected. Anyway he just wasn't right after and they couldn't get to the bottom of it. Finally went to another practice and the vet there gave him a thorough examination and found damage to his neck. He was put on steroids and anti inflammatories which helped briefly but he got worse and they had to let him go. The guess is that the damage was done while he was having his teeth out.

Then at the weekend got talking to someone we know in agility and she told us about taking one of hers to the vet because of a bad tooth. Dog needed it removed so was booked in. After the extraction she started to have problems with weakness in her front legs. Back to vet but no conclusion on what was wrong. Then she started to have problems with her back legs as well and was finally diagnosed with nerve damage in her neck. She was put down.
Common factor in these two cases was that it was the same practice, a local franchise.

Has anyone else ever come across anything like this?

 

[Birker2020]

Never heard of this before, the only thing I can think is that the neck was extended for too long a period or at too great an angle to give better access into the mouth and this caused a pinched nerve which in turn caused ataxia (like wobblers). That isn't beyond the realms of possibility and ataxia can cause problems in forelegs as well as hind limbs depending on the location of the nerve damage.

Or maybe during recovery the dog was laid incorrectly causing a pinched nerve.

Just wild guesses though.

 

[cauda equina]

Poor dogs, how awful

 

[Jenko109]

I had a cat who had teeth out.

He was never the same afterwards and his health declined pretty quickly over the following months.

He was a very old cat.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

If I've ever heard something similar before, I've managed to repress the memory of it. How terribly sad for the owners, but I'm indecisive about what to believe. The timing makes it easy to think that something happened during their tooth extraction surgeries, but at the same time, it doesn't seem impossible that unrelated coincidence could be involved.

You said both cases happened at the same practice, but if they have more than one veterinarian, I wish you had also been told which veterinarian it involved, so that you knew if it was the same veterinarian, or two different ones. It would also be interesting to know if that veterinary practice have access to a similar level of dentist tools which human dentists have, or if they only have the more basic tooth extraction tools. Even though the parts of the tooth which is above the gum might be in bad condition, it's still not always easy to get out all the roots, and I presume that it doesn't make it easier if you only have basic tools to work with. But they should of course be used to work with the tools they have.

The neck injuries could've been anything from unrelated coincidence, and/or perhaps they had previously unnoticed neck problems, to that maybe someone did make accidental mistakes during the surgeries which ideally shouldn't ever happen but in reality still does, or maybe a specific veterinarian isn't good at tooth extractions, or maybe the practice have a bad practice when it comes to how they perform tooth extractions...

You've heard of two, very sad, cases, but, oh this feels horrible to say, still only two cases. That's enough to be very worrying, it's enough to make you cautious, but I don't think it's enough to be able to conclude that it's a definitive pattern.

 

[marmalade76]

My dog is old now and her teeth are getting a bit manky but I have felt that they're better off not messed with, after reading this I think I'll continue with this approach.

 

[Clodagh]

My dog is old now and her teeth are getting a bit manky but I have felt that they're better off not messed with, after reading this I think I'll continue with this approach.

I always think that’s the trouble with stories like this one. We don’t know the full story but you have now decided to leave your dog in pain rather than look into it. It looks more like legitimising your ‘I’d rather not spend any money here’. Theres tonnes of people on AAD alone who have had dental work done on dogs with no ill effects whatsoever. The only slight reaction I’ve ever had was a very old dog taking a while to get over the GA

 

[marmalade76]

I always think that’s the trouble with stories like this one. We don’t know the full story but you have now decided to leave your dog in pain rather than look into it. It looks more like legitimising your ‘I’d rather not spend any money here’. Theres tonnes of people on AAD alone who have had dental work done on dogs with no ill effects whatsoever. The only slight reaction I’ve ever had was a very old dog taking a while to get over the GA

She chomps on bones quite happily and until she does not, I will leave well alone.

 

[Lauraback]

My dog had 3 teeth out a few months ago (she’s 10) no problems since apart from a ACL rupture but we knew that was a possibility as she had been stiff on that leg for a few weeks and had inconclusive X-rays. So not related to her teeth removal. It would make me suspicious of the vets you mentioned when 2 animals had problems after

 

[Errin Paddywack]

I had a cat who had teeth out.

He was never the same afterwards and his health declined pretty quickly over the following months.

He was a very old cat.

That has reminded me of something I had forgotten. Happened 70's I think. Our family cat aged about 11 had to have one or more teeth out and didn't last long afterwards. He had a sort of stroke which had him circling and he lost so much condition, then developed glaucoma and went blind very suddenly so was put down. Probably the anaesthetic in his case. He was a gorgeous huge golden longhair. Just a farm cat but such a beauty.

 

[Clodagh]

She chomps on bones quite happily and until she does not, I will leave well alone.

I assume you’ve never had gum disease.

 

[skinnydipper]

My dog is old now and her teeth are getting a bit manky but I have felt that they're better off not messed with, after reading this I think I'll continue with this approach.

She chomps on bones quite happily and until she does not, I will leave well alone.

If her teeth are 'manky' all isn't well. Her manky teeth could cause heart disease.

 

[marmalade76]

If her teeth are 'manky' all isn't well. Her manky teeth could cause heart disease.

She's an old dog, stuff like that will quite possibly be on the cards anyway!

 

[Rowreach]

People really underestimate how important dental health is for animals.

My cat has very dodgy health (rescued as a tiny abandoned kitten), is not very old and has already had two dentals. He has a heart murmur and obviously a GA is risky for him, but to leave him with sore gums and rotting teeth risks an infection which risks heart attack which also means he's likely to be in a lot of pain anyway, despite being perfectly happy to chomp away on cat biscuits when he can get them.

I trust my vet and so he gets his teeth done under GA, and they are very good about letting me know as soon as he starts coming round that he's survived it. The alternative (not sorting his teeth out) means leaving him in pain and risking him dying a very unpleasant death.

No amount of horror stories (two) will put me off getting dental care for my animals.

 

[Boulty]

It’s not something I’d ever come across but would advise your friends to politely ask if there has been a review into why this might have happened.

It doesn’t mean it IS down to the dental procedure in both / either case but this is something that should be being looked at internally to check for literally anything that could have happened to cause the issues and ways to prevent it ever happening again if there is any possibility at all that it’s related to the procedure.

With someone skilled in dentistry with access to powered equipment & the right elevators etc then the moving about of the head / forces being applied should be pretty minimal.

Gingivitis, tooth root abscesses & fractured teeth can all be very painful and it’s normally much easier to save as many teeth as possible if treatment is started earlier on rather than when the issue has reached crisis point / the animal has stopped eating. (Had a case at work recently where a patient needed a feeding tube placing as their mouth was too painful for them to eat and then several different procedures over a few weeks as there were too many things going on for it to be possible to sort it all in one go without a dangerously long GA time).

Will caveat this by saying I’m an awful owner who never brushes the hooligans teeth even though I REALLY should as he seems to have a genetically awful mouth & has already had a dental when he was 2 1/2

 

[Nasicus]

Man, even if you brushed (haha) aside the pain and disease aspect of bad teeth, I don't know how anyone can stand the god awful rancid death breath smell that accompanies dogs with bad teeth.

 

[Birker2020]

I got something similiar to this for Summers teeth, only did it three or four times but the difference with smell was noticeable.
She had a check up about five weeks ago and didn't comment on her teeth so presume nothing too bad.

 

[misst]

My elderly JRT had 2 dental ops for a gum tumour - the 2nd removing several teeth and piece of jaw bone. She had no after effects at all eating and drinking within days normally and no ongoing problems until she got dementia a couple of years later - unrelated I am sure.
Moti had some teeth removed last year and so did my daughters daxie. Neither have had problems.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Update on my original post. Got my friend to check up on the border collie and it seems that she may have mixed up two separate instances. She was talking to a couple and it seems one told her about a dental and the other about the collie with spinal problems and somehow they got confused. Very unlikely it was the same branch of the franchise anyway as they live a few miles away.

As regards the Yorkie that is being taken very seriously by the vet who diagnosed the neck problem. The practice is doing a virtual PM by studying the X-rays that they took. The owner only took his apparently healthy dog to the vet originally because his daughter pointed out it had smelly breath. Poor chap is now over £2k out of pocket and no dog.