Vet removed 22 teeth without asking me

[MyJollyJadeBird]

AIBU to think this vet should be reported?
I left my dog (8yo) with my vet to have a dental clean and polish, but when I collected him, they had removed all his upper teeth and some lower. He was wailing. My regular vet had warned me there were 4 teeth that might have to be removed. But a different vet did the surgery. My regular vet apologised and said they stood over their assessment of 4 teeth that day, but couldn't explain the other vets decision. Since then they've been careful to put nothing in writing.
AIBU to think this was criminal and if so, what recourse do I have? I don't want to report the whole practice because they've been so lovely up until this, just the surgeon vet!

Held in by the tartar, by the sounds of it.

They didn't do it to profit from it, they didn't delay and charge extra for a subsequent anaesthesia, they made sure that the dog was treated fully before it was left to continue to suffer pain and infection until the owner deigned to decide if she wanted him to not be in pain - they're a good, conscientious vet.

In any case, at least half the dogs I've ever known rarely used their teeth when some decent chow (in their minds) was on offer - it didn't touch the sides. OK, my experience is largely with hounds and the odd very odd pastoral types, but like cats, dogs are better without teeth than they are with 22 rotten or terminally loose ones.

I was not advised on post op care other than 5 days antibiotics and pain relief when I pushed them on what I should now feed him with no upper teeth and while healing they said stewed chicken and rice. I’ve been giving him scrambled egg also. I do know which one it is and I will be requesting the medical records along with the consent form I now have a copy of.

I'd be relieved that my dog had rotting teeth removed, which can contribute to organ damage if left, let alone the pain they cause. It sounds to me as if they discovered teeth that were in a much worse state once they actually got into the mouth, but only charged you for the quoted work, which was an absolute bargain!
I wouldn't be angry, but accept that my dog had had much needed work done.

I don’t know how you managed to be quoted £200 to take four teeth out. I’ve just been quoted £850 to clean a chihuahuas teeth!

How could you not be angry? I’d be livid. It’s your dog and he should have asked for your consent before removing 22 teeth!

Why would you be livid? Why would you want them to leave you dog in pain or under anaesthesia for longer whilst they called you to say he needed 22 teeth removing. What are you going to say to the vet when he calls. No?

This all sounds quite made up to be honest

Your vet couldn't have removed 22 teeth in such a short amount of time if there wasn't something seriously wrong with them. It's not possible.

Your dog has had extensive dental work, which it clearly needed, at an incredibly low price. I'd be buying the team a couple of bottles of wine and a few boxes of chocolates, not complaining.

No vet takes teeth out for fun. They came out because they needed to. For your dogs health.

And if hes had that many teeth out, chances are he will need more in a couple of years, so brace yourself for that. Some dogs just have shit teeth (my own included, he has one canine tooth left!)

I completely agree. As I said previously, I had a very similar experience and I was shocked but of course I knew a very would t extract teeth for no reason. This was 15 years ago and even then, £200 would have e been an absolute bargain. I’m sure the dentist advised the OP that the dog would be just fine without teeth, and they would be correct.

Rubbish. Utter rubbish. Why is it abuse? Explain why?

What conspiracy do you think happened here?

That’s an extension reasonable charge for removing that many teeth.

Still, it allowed people to get angry and dream about jailing someone, based in nothing, so job done

It can happen. A vet made an error operating on my dog and they waived the £1400 charge. Or rather, I refused to pay and they agreed. Plus gave me follow up physiotherapy for free.

Not that I think that's what's happened here. I'm not convinced it's true. For one, the cost is too low. For two, IME no vet throws another one under the bus, so vet 1 would have waffled about the teeth must have been worse once they could get a proper look.

So if they asked you if they could remove 22 teeth what would you have said??
obviously, there was a problem with the teeth or the vet would not have removed them!

Yeah but the mad emotional reactions saying the vet is a criminal aren't, unfortunately

The cost is too low. The time is too short. OP is claiming she’s had none of the advice given routinely. Also very unusual to any vet to say x many teeth need to come out, you just can’t tell when conscious.

I think she’s making it up for some vet bashing and didn’t realise she was so far out on the cost she’d made up for the story.

some quite unhinged responses that’s for sure!

Well I’d hope to god that the vet would report any owner that refused to allow the extraction of diseased teeth in their dog. That’s a terrible attitude to have. How much do you want your dog to suffer FFS?

I'm a vet nurse and this is an absolutely brilliantly spot on description of a dogs dental !
If the vet did 22 extractions within 90 minutes then i imagine the dog's mouth was pretty horrendous , sometimes a vet can spend 90 minutes on just one stubborn tooth alone.
As pp have said it's impossible to see the full extent of what needs to be done when the dog is conscious, perhaps there has been a miscommunication with your vet but i don't believe the extractions will have been done in error and if they had spoken to you would you have asked for the decayed teeth to not be removed ?

If they needed to come out, I’d be happy it had been done. My cat has had all of her teeth out and they would only do it into stages which I hated.

Have you ever had dental pain, OP? Your poor dog must have been in agony if they needed 22 teeth removing. Be grateful that the work has been done and your dog is suffering much less now.

Yeah, the details of this story don't ring true. The time taken and the price are not compatible with 22 extractions.

Just asking...have you considered the first vet may have screwed up? Underestimated the price, the amount of teeth to be removed.You can only tell for sure when dog is under GA and x-rayed. And the second vet felt honour bound to stick to the price, even though there were 18 more teeth taken out. They must have been hollow shells of teeth on x- ray