Adventures in canine dentistry

The phone rang at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, June 12 — it was the receptionist from the Animal Dental Center in Towson. They were going to be able to fit Kelsy in to have her tooth looked at, could I please get on the road as soon as possible? “Yes, ma’am, I can do that! I’ll be on my way as soon as possible!” The woman gave me impeccable driving directions, and warned me where to avoid trying to make up time, because of cops. I was extremely grateful.

I made a few phone calls to let everyone know that we were going up the road, got dressed and lifted Kelsy up into mom’s Subaru Outback. (Earlier that morning, before work, both my parents came and got my cats and traded cars with me. It was MUCH easier to get Kelsy in and out of the Outback than my Mazda 6!) The Outback provided a large dog oasis for Kelsy – plenty of flat, blanket-covered space (including her own bed) to lay on and windows partly down to keep her cool. We left the house within an hour, after fielding follow-up phone calls from the emergency vet in Huntingtown, who was anxious to know that I was aware of the appointment.

Kelsy and I arrived at the ADC a little bit before noon. I met with Dr. Brown and her dental resident, and gave them detailed information explaining what happened, and what I knew about Kelsy’s medical history and medicines. I had brought Kelsy’s complete file with me, along with her prescriptions. I already knew that the entire visit might be for naught if the cardiologist couldn’t work Kelsy into his schedule… the same receptionist that gave me the directions had called me while I was on the road.

Kelsy has a heart condition and is on daily medicine for an arrythmia. Because she missed her last heart check-up, the dentists didn’t want to proceed with putting her under anesthesia until they knew what the status of her heart was compared to her last visit/records. The outcome of the cardiologist report would determine what anesthesia she was to be put under as well as her medications following surgery.

The two doctors described to me what they saw in Kelsy’s mouth: the trauma she had caused could only have happened if Kelsy broke the upper jaw bone before and after the canine itself, and the canine is a very long tooth (you only see about 1/3 – 1/2 of it, the rest is up in the bone) which has a rather large blood supply running to it. The good news? Kelsy didn’t break that blood supply and bleed to death. In fact, her mouth stopped bleeding about 10 – 15 minutes after the accident occurred, while I was still on the phone trying to make arrangements to take her to the emergency vet.

The bad news was that Kelsy had already injured her canine tooth as a younger dog and the tooth was now dead, as evidenced by a black dot at the tip. (M said that she probably hurt the tooth fetching a ball up and down the driveway. Driveways – good for bounce, bad for teeth. Bottom line – throw over grass or in the woods!)

There were two options to choose between:

1. Finish the trauma that Kelsy had started by extracting the tooth, as well as some of the bone surrounding it. A good option because it only required Kelsy to go under anesthesia once; a bad option because it would leave her with an uneven bite. She will inevitably place more pressure on the other canines and perhaps injure them, too, if she is not careful. ($1,200)

2. Try to save the tooth, which is a three-visit process involving A) putting the tooth back into place and wiring it in place with a retainer-like device that would need daily cleaning, putting a splint on her nose for 4 – 6 weeks, and making sure she doesn’t do anything to get in the way of it healing; B) bringing her back after 4 – 6 weeks to go under anesthesia for a second time to do a root canal on the dead tooth, fill the tooth and wait 6 months for C) a third visit under anesthesia to make sure that the tooth is secure and strong. There is a 90% success rate with saving teeth in this manner, but Kelsy is already 10.5 years old and the tooth we are talking about is already dead. ($4,000) If the tooth fails to survive, then the tooth would need to be extracted at an additional cost (see option #1).

Keep in mind… All of this is on top of a $500 cardiologist visit.

When the doctors returned to the room after totalling up the costs of the two options, I had managed to get a hold of M on his cell phone. I bade Dr. Brown to call M and speak to him directly, letting him make the final decision of care. After hearing the detailed explanation of the two treatments and the cost, M chose option #1. After he got off the phone with the doctors, I sent him a text message thanking him for being around to make the decision, but also letting him know that I would’ve chosen the same thing if I couldn’t have gotten a hold of him. It’s good to know you’re on the same page as the person looking after your furkids.

At 1 p.m. I left Kelsy in the care of the capable doctors, handed my credit card to the receptionist and signed that I would cover the bill, and went to Applebees for my first food in almost 24 hours. After that, I wandered around Towson Town Center mall like a zombie, only taking solace inside the hallowed walls of Papyrus.

5:30 p.m. I was on my way back to the ADC when I received the call — Kelsy was coming out of anesthesia and I could come back to get instructions on her post-surgery care and pick her up.

Around 6:30 p.m. I’d finished all of the paperwork and recovered my receipt and medications. Kelsy came down the hall intent to bulldoze right past me and out the front doors. She was tired of being a patient, and I didn’t blame her. I lifted her into the back of the car and got us back on the road to home. We arrived a little before 9 p.m., which meant that Kelsy had waited long enough and was allowed to try to eat some watered down wet dog food and take her medication. Her nose was painfully swollen, but the anesthesia had worn further off and she was watching me again and wagging her tail. Although it must have made her nauseous, she held down her food and meds for an hour, so I gave her a bit more around 10. She drank a lot of water (a good sign), and I escorted her out to the backyard several times, where she surveyed her domain and looked at me, “I’m glad to be home!” she seemed to say. “I had a rough day.”

Kelsy was the best patient in the world – she didn’t paw at her nose with her feet or try to rub her face on the carpet. With the exception of the pain pill (which I had to administer), she ate all her medication in her food. She plagued me to lay on the floor with her and rub her belly, and I was happy to oblige.

M came home the following day, on Friday, in the late afternoon. It was a happy reunion, and later he turned to my mom and paid me a high compliment indeed: “When Jen is here, I don’t have to worry. I know she’ll take care of my girls.”

I was laying on the floor at the time, rubbing Kelsy’s stomach. I got up to put the wad of hair I’d rubbed out of her coat into the trashcan in the kitchen, and M got down to lay with her. He touched her feet, and she jumped up and walked away. Mom was laughing as I came back into the room and Mike was calling Kelsy to come back on over… but Kelsy had circled the living room and came to stand in front of me.

“I think she’s gotten a bit attached,” he said. I couldn’t tell, but I thought perhaps his words were flecked with amusement.

“Well, six weeks and a major trauma will do that,” I replied, scratching her ears and stooping over to place a kiss on the crown of her head. When I stopped, she walked back over and laid down with M.

Kelsy may not be my dog, but I think after all of this she knows that I love her like one of my own… and I’d like to think that she loves me back for it.