Radar the dog is getting a dental tomorrow [View all]

And I'm scared to death.

His teeth are shamefully bad. However, he's been fragile since we adopted him. Elderly, heart condition, skinny...He arrived at the humane society emaciated, matted, with his nails grown in circles, not neutered and with bad teeth. When they went to deal with the neutering and the teeth, they listened to his heart and skidded to a stop. No way was he getting anesthesia until he was more stable. Once they achieved that, he did have the bare minimum done, but we knew his remaining teeth were still on borrowed time going in.

Ok, it's years later. We've avoided anesthesia because he's still fragile. His appetite and GI system are still delicate, he's on heart meds, he's got a collapsing trachea and he has intermittent episodes of shaking, from head-only to enough to make him stumble or fall over. But we're at the point where if the teeth don't kill him, the anesthetic might. The anesthetic is better odds, but not by much. I can't even discuss this with DH because they're completely bonded and losing Radar will break him.

I do have the same vet who handled Belle's, a seizure risk, spay doing the procedure. The vet and other personnel are damned good. I'll be at work and available. We have everything we need, equipment and meds, available to make this as safe and successful as possible.

This is going to be an interesting 24 hours.