It was high time for my dogs, Zane and Arran, to get their teeth cleaned.  When Bill and I took them to the vet in November, we mentioned that we were interested in having our dogs get dentals.  Though they are recommended on a yearly basis, I hadn’t managed to get Zane in for a dental in about three years.  And to my knowledge, Arran had never had one in his lifetime.

Zane and Arran…  Zane is the one in the front.

The vet agreed that they needed to get cleanings, though Arran’s front teeth looked pretty good.  She and her assistant took blood from the dogs to make sure they were healthy enough to be anesthetized.  They both were, so we made appointments for a couple of weeks later. This week, they both got their procedures done.

I wouldn’t be writing about this if it had gone like it does in the United States.  In America, when I’ve taken dogs in for dental cleanings, they’ve pretty much stayed there all day.  I’d drop them early in the morning after not having given them their breakfast.  They’d get knocked out and I’d pick them up in the late afternoon.  They’d still be pretty groggy.

I was expecting the same procedure here in Germany, so I brought both dogs with me when it was Arran’s turn on Monday morning.  I was surprised when the vet tech said I could wait for him if I wanted to.  He would be ready to go home in less than two hours.  Another thing they did differently here was invite me to stay in the room with Arran until he got groggy.

I ended up taking Zane home and going back to get Arran awhile later.  Then on Thursday, I brought Zane in and just waited for him.  The procedure was exactly the same, except the vet also trimmed his nails for me.  At the end of both procedures, the vet tech presented me a bill for 339, 26 euros before VAT.  With VAT it was a little over 400 euros.  This price was for both dogs.  Since we had a VAT form on file, we didn’t have to pay the higher amount.  I took the bill home, texted Bill, and he arranged for a bank transfer.

Both dogs were completely back to normal by noon.  Both told me when they were ready to eat.  Arran had a mild lapse in continence, probably because they gave him fluids to flush the anesthetic out of his body.  I think I prefer the way they do dentals in Germany, though I think our vets do it that way because they don’t really have any facilities for keeping pets.  I was glad to get to take them home, though.

The dogs now have nice clean teeth and much fresher breath!  Since Arran tends to bite himself when he eats, the vet also gave me some iodine to put on the bloody wounds he’s given himself under his bottom lip.  Our vet asked how long it had been since their last dentals and I had to explain to her that in the five years since we were last in Germany, we’ve moved three times.  Unfortunately, I just didn’t get around to it the way I should have.  Hopefully, we’ll get to stay here awhile so I can keep their teeth clean and bright!

Now to get myself to a dentist.

For those interested, this is where we take our dogs…  We also used them five years ago, when we still had our last rescues, Flea and MacGregor.  We really like this practice.

Flea and MacGregor.  This was taken in November 2009 in Fayetteville, Georgia a couple of days before we lost Flea to prostate cancer, which unfortunately was diagnosed by the same vets when we were in Germany last time.  We lost MacGregor in Raleigh, North Carolina at NC State vet hospital on December 18, 2012 when an MRI found a large tumor in his spine.  I still miss them both.

MacGregor and Flea in happier times…  this was taken in Germany.