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Dentals, Anesthesia And Peeing


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Forgive the length of this! My greyhound Molly is 11 and quite small (45 lb). We go to an integrative veterinary practice and her regular vet does not do surgery; in fact, outside vets do many of the surgeries. My girl has had previous dentals without problems.

 

Her teeth needed a clean, so we scheduled one for Jan. 11th. I was allowed to wait during the procedure. She was scheduled for 8am and so we went. I was told at 8:45am that, due to her being a greyhound, with "notoriously dirty teeth," her dental needed to be last in the surgery suite. I could leave her there, or take her home and return at noon. So we went home and were back at noon (still no food or water for her). She was sedated and taken in. We were given updates by the surgical vet tech (whom I know, and works there). But it was taking an hour to scrape here, an hour to scrape there, and finally she needed a large molar pulled. At 4pm, she was carried out to us, still very loopy. In 30 minutes, she was up and walking. She was discharged at 5:30p.

 

Some of this seems like just rudeness and poor planning (they knew Ms. Dirty Teeth had the 8am appointment!), and some like something else was going on alongside of her dental. I understand that emergencies happen, but no one said a word. I saw very little of the vet after the dental.

 

My girl is now peeing like crazy (every 2 hours -- she can hold it overnight for about 6 hrs). She was on soft food for 2 weeks, it’s cold and dry where we live, and she isn’t getting out for her usual walks with the snow. But – am I missing something? Her two week follow up (different vet) was fine. I had her tested for a UTI (neg) and her kidney values are okay. Extended anesthesia? Any ideas? Thanks!

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Forgive the length of this! My greyhound Molly is 11 and quite small (45 lb). We go to an integrative veterinary practice and her regular vet does not do surgery; in fact, outside vets do many of the surgeries. My girl has had previous dentals without problems.

 

Her teeth needed a clean, so we scheduled one for Jan. 11th. I was allowed to wait during the procedure. She was scheduled for 8am and so we went. I was told at 8:45am that, due to her being a greyhound, with "notoriously dirty teeth," her dental needed to be last in the surgery suite. I could leave her there, or take her home and return at noon. So we went home and were back at noon (still no food or water for her). She was sedated and taken in. We were given updates by the surgical vet tech (whom I know, and works there). But it was taking an hour to scrape here, an hour to scrape there, and finally she needed a large molar pulled. At 4pm, she was carried out to us, still very loopy. In 30 minutes, she was up and walking. She was discharged at 5:30p.

 

Some of this seems like just rudeness and poor planning (they knew Ms. Dirty Teeth had the 8am appointment!), and some like something else was going on alongside of her dental. I understand that emergencies happen, but no one said a word. I saw very little of the vet after the dental.

 

My girl is now peeing like crazy (every 2 hours -- she can hold it overnight for about 6 hrs). She was on soft food for 2 weeks, it’s cold and dry where we live, and she isn’t getting out for her usual walks with the snow. But – am I missing something? Her two week follow up (different vet) was fine. I had her tested for a UTI (neg) and her kidney values are okay. Extended anesthesia? Any ideas? Thanks!

Did the extensive peeing just start? Or has it been the entire time since the procedure?

Does it seem like she's drinking more too?

Is she still on meds (antibiotics, etc) from the dental?

Did they do a urine culture, or just UA?

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Not sure how often was she urinating before her dental, but seems it could be many things. Dental surgery dislodges a lot of bacteria, so vets often send dogs home with antibiotics.

Dogs of any age often need to urinate more during the day due to environmental changes, stress, anxiety, etc. Pain, illness or infection might affect hound's overnight needs depending on timing of food/water intake. Perhaps email update clear photos of your hound's teeth and gums to your vet to ensure continued normal recovery.

Dogs are given a lot of fluids during surgery that's eliminated during recovery for a couple days, but weeks later seems excessive.

Hopefully others can offer more help.

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Thank you both!

 

She's been peeing extensively since she came home from the dental. And she's been drinking more water than usual since then, more than I can ever remember in winter. She had soft food for 2 weeks post dental, and it was more soupy than her usual food, but she's basically back to her usual food.

 

To add -- she normally eats raw, which was not allowed for the first 2 weeks after the dental. Now she's on half raw, half cooked. She's also underweight (and lost weight during the 2 weeks post), so I've been giving her about 3% of her weight instead of 2% since the 2 week check-up.

 

She was given no antibiotics after the surgery, only pain meds for 5 days. And since we got the results from the urine test the day after, I would guess it was a UA. There was never any blood in the urine that we saw.

 

 

 

 

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Little unclear, are the kidney values you're referring to from the pre dental work up? When was the UA? And what pain med?

Edited by NeylasMom

gallery_12662_3351_862.jpg

Jen, CPDT-KA with Zuri, lab in a greyhound suit, Violet, formerly known as Faith, Skye, the permanent puppy, Cisco, resident cat, and my baby girl Neyla, forever in my heart

"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong."

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It seems really weird to me that they didn't give her any antibiotics after a dental, especially with a tooth being pulled. But maybe that's not out of the ordinary? Hopefully others can weigh in on that.

 

But excessive peeing is usually a UTI and if they didn't do a culture then they can't really know that she doesn't have one. I would go back to the vet and request one. Do you know what the ph of her urine was from the UA?

 

Also worth thinking about whether it has been really dry in your house since that time. Where we are it's been super cold so even with a humidifier running its very dry in the house. That means more drinking and ultimately more peeing.

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Her kidney values were from her 6 month senior screen on Dec. 18th. She didn't have additional workup done right before the dental. The UA was done on Jan. 28th. And the meds she was given post dental were Gabapentin, Metacam and Arnica. She's rarely needed pain meds, thankfully, so I have no experience with previous reactions to them.

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So basically this has been going on for 3 weeks, definitely time to revisit with the vet. I would consider doing the culture as others have suggested, and if her first morning urine isn't concentrated I would redo blood work. Or if cost is an issue you could wait for culture results and if those are negative run her in for a blood draw.

 

Weather is also a possibility, but the timing of the symptoms would be a huge coincidence if it were that.

 

ETA: one other possibility, my raw feed dogs dont drink much water. Possible the different food is causing her to drink more and thus pee more. I would still want to investigate medical issues, but something to keep in mind.

Edited by NeylasMom

gallery_12662_3351_862.jpg

Jen, CPDT-KA with Zuri, lab in a greyhound suit, Violet, formerly known as Faith, Skye, the permanent puppy, Cisco, resident cat, and my baby girl Neyla, forever in my heart

"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just an update that the peeing has improved so that she now can go 6 hours overnight. She's her usual self and eating fine. Her gums are a rather unpleasant red on both sides -- she had the tooth out on one side and a gum flap stitched down on the other side. I'm brushing very gently and using VetzLife Gel on her gums. Wondered if anyone has seen an adverse result with this?

She sees our regular vet in 2 days. Her dissolvable stitches are still there after nearly 4 weeks. And we're having the blood tests redone.

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