Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Valentino's Real Dental Scheduled for May 9

You live and learn and make mistakes along the way. The cheap dental for Valentino done March 2 did nothing to relieve him of his mouth miseries. Afterwards, I was told by the receptionist they pulled five teeth, but nothing more.

But with his increasing drooling, some of it brown, swallowing constantly, the excess saliva produced, I had to do something. I took him to another vet for a consultation. There were red lines of inflammation above nearly every tooth. She noted two cracked broken canines and wondered why they had not been pulled a month earlier in the dental.

I had wondered the same thing. I had even wondered at one point if any teeth had really been pulled.

I finally called the clinic who did that dental and asked which teeth exactly had been pulled. The woman who answered finally said "about five teeth". "About?" I queried. "I want to know exactly which teeth were pulled."

Her first response was "two molars and some pointy ones, the sharp long ones."

"You might be describing canines," I said, "and he still has all four of those, although two are cracked and broken."

"Then incisors," she corrected herself.

I was horrified. What clinic doesn't mark and list the teeth they pull on a cat and what vet tech or assistant would describe teeth as "pointy" instead of by name or number.

I was resigned then to my mistake. I have to look forward, not back.

I know how awful it is to have a painful tooth. I lived with one that needed pulled for months, before I finally found someone to do it. I'd be driving, tooth throbbing, and when stopped at a red light, would pull out pliers I carry in my car, and think, "I'm doing this, right here, right now." But the pliers were not shaped properly to fit into my mouth to yank a back tooth.

Cats have 30 teeth. They have 12 incisors, those little bitty teeth, six up top and six on the bottom, lodged between the "pointy" teeth, the canines--better known as fangs, those long daggers that curve down, below the gumline, into the line of the jaw.

Cats have four canines.

Behind the canines, are the premolars. Cats have ten of those in total. They have three on each side up top and two on each side on the bottom. Behind those are the molars, one on each side, top and bottom, four in all. 30 teeth.

The vet who will do the "redental", my new word, got records from the other clinic where his first dental was done and she thinks they say, because it isn't clear, that they pulled only incisors. I don't even consider incisors real teeth, because they're so small, and when they go bad they usually fall out on their own.

You get what you pay for. If something seems too good to be true, in price, it usually is.

Well, Valentino is set for May 9 and I need to scrounge up money any way I can to pay for what he needed done in the first place so now, it will really get done.

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