Flying colors

Elvis came through his dentistry with flying colors.

I'm glad I'd made plans to be there when he went under and when he woke up. The vet tech and I had our hands full getting the mask on him since it bumped up on his eyes and he didn't care for that at ALL.

Wake up was a bit easier since it was mainly just a case of steadying him and letting him know I was there. He was really groggy and disoriented for about 20 minutes, but he really shook the effects off faster than I was expecting.

Start to finish was about 1 1/2 hours, and the cleaning was really needed. Apparently some of the tartar that came off was the size of the tooth itself. Also, the roots are exposed on the one trouble spot, but because that tooth is in so solid, the decision was made not to extract it. That's cool. It just means we'll keep a eye on it, and he'll probably get another cleaning in a year or so.

His toenails also got cut WAY back. I hated to have to ask them to do that, but he literally panics to the point I'm afraid he's going to have a heart attack, so I only tackle them three or four times a year. As much as I hate long nails, I just don't care to put him through the trauma more often.

So all in all he did really well. He's got clean teeth for the holidays and, more importantly, he shouldn't have another tooth infection for a while.