ComplaintsforGreen Dog Dental

• Initial Complaint

  02/22/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  We believe Green Dog Dental (GDD) was negligent with our 14.5 year old fur baby at the Venice Beach/****************** location, and now she is gone.We took her in at the end of March as a follow-up appointment from six months earlier at a different vet. Our beloved dog went to GDD for lab work, an ultrasound, and an oral exam. Sadly, we had to put her down on 4/20/23 with presumed acute kidney failure merely two weeks following the oral surgery that GDD said she had to have.Her ultrasound was performed by **************. He found a small cancerous growth in her gall bladder that was well placed away from the ureters. However, we were told a decent prognosis of almost a year with non-aggressive treatment, and potentially longer with treatment we planned to pursue, a reality we could accept.Her lab work showed kidney levels that were about .1 higher than normal range. We were assured by Dr. ******* that we had to rush the oral surgery and that her blood levels were fine to proceed, so ******* cleared her for X-rays and oral surgery.Regrettably, we went ahead and scheduled our sweet dog's oral surgery the following week, given these assurances. At no point was there any concern expressed by GDD for our dog's health or overall complications.During the oral procedure, we received a call from **********, someone we had never even heard of--we had been led to believe that *******, the person who recorded her oral exam report, was going to be performing the procedure. *** told us that they gave our dog a "specific amount" of sedative, which we were told she resisted. Instead of calling us at that point, GD proceeded to give our dog "the whole amount" of anesthesia, which we never approved nor were aware of, in order to sedate her enough to be able to do the x-ray. Only after this was done and they did the x-ray did *** call us. During that call, *** said she would have to pull 32 teeth, contrary to *******'s report from the previous week indicating it would be no more than 10 teeth pulled. But during that call, we were being told by a doctor that it has to be done because she is already sedated.We just didn't know any better even though we asked so many questions. We were made to feel like we were annoying them with our inquiries. GDD didn't inform us that there is a relationship between anesthesia and kidney failure; they didn't inform us that there is a relationship with surgical trauma or associated dehydration and kidney failure. Our dog already had elevated kidney levels, but GDD never advised us of these risks specific to her condition, and we never approved additional anesthesia.As she started getting more sick after the oral surgery and not eating or drinking, we asked GDD what we could do, sending texts and e-mails describing her deterioration, but GDD never advised that it could be an acute kidney issue requiring immediate care, despite that acute kidney failure is commonly caused by anesthesia, surgery, trauma, dehydration, as we learned too late. But GDD said it would be fine to wait the weekend and see if she improved, and that she was still recovering from surgery. She didn't improve, so after the weekend, GDD treated her in vain for three days for acute kidney failure. Because we trusted in GDD's assurances, now our sweet and healthy fur baby, who never had an illness her entire life, is gone. It was a brutal, painful, confusing time of agony for her and for us. She wanted to live.As we come to find out, we are not the first people this has happened to at Green Dog Dental and apparently in the last few weeks "this has been happening a lot." Please save yourselves from the hearbreak and from spending thousands upon thousands of dollars in charges from these upselling product pushers who do not care about animals.I have been contacted recently by people who have read my review saying that GDD has done the same to their beloved pets, and the doctors have lied and told them by saying this has never happened while under their care. We spoke with **************** who is the owner of GDD and he even agreed that he would not have performed this procedure on our dog had it been him who was attending to her. He also offered to reimburse us for the failed procedure but has not and the office staff has not.

  Business response

  03/03/2024

  Thank you for reaching out regarding this complaint.
  
  Firstly, we were all very sorry to hear of the passing of this elderly patient. She was diagnosed with bladder cancer at our practice and was very ill. 
  
  On 3/24/23, this 15 year old canine patient came to us with a severe dental infection, and decreased appetite.  She displayed signs of significant oral pain and discomfort during the dental exam.
  
  Because of the patients age we recommended additional diagnostics to make sure the patient was stable enough before proceeding with any procedure.  On 3/29/23 the patient returned to be seen by a board certified internal medicine specialist, who diagnosed (via abdominal ultrasound) a large cancerous mass attached to the wall of the urinary bladder.
  
  After reviewing all the diagnostics our veterinarians offered these clients with the options: leave the patient in its current state or try improve her quality of life for the time she had left, as she was already displaying decreased appetite, which was assumed to be due to the dental pain she was in.   With all procedures there are risks, especially when patients are suffering from multiple ailments. Its our job to provide clear information to our clients so they can make the best most well informed decisions.  The options, and risks were discussed with the owner at length.  The owner decided to proceed and agreed to the dental procedure on her 15 year old dog.
  
  We successfully performed dental procedure and the patient when home, uneventfully.  A few days following the procedure, this 15 yo patient started to decline and fell ill.  We helped her through this time, and it was sad and difficult for us all, as a medical team during this time.  The clients opted to euthanize their pet, about 2 weeks after the oral surgery.
  
  Our goal is always to help our patients live longer healthier lives. Too often we are met with elderly patients whose dental care and oral pain has been grossly overlooked. These cases are difficult as these patients usually come to us with a host of different health challenges and illnesses and our goal is to help them live comfortably for whatever time they have left.
  
  That was our goal with this patient. We are extremely saddened to hear these clients feel we did anything other than try to improve this patients quality of life and relieve them from the daily pain they were living with.
  
  We would like to add that that our practice has been in business for more than 10 years and has handled tens of thousands of medical and dental cases.  Unfortunately, we cannot save every living being, but we do strive to ensure our patients live as long, happy, and pain free as possible.

  Customer response

  03/08/2024

   
  Complaint: 21287922
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The statements made by this business are variously false and incomplete. 

  Our beloved dog was 14 years old. The diagnosing vet told us the bladder tumor was not contributing to any deleterious health effects, the tumor was "small and well-placed", and could be removed through surgery. Our notes reflect this. 

  The response furthermore fails to mention that this same vet diagnosed elevated kidney levels. Yet, when we asked about complications arising from the dental procedure, every veterinarian at this practice told us that we had to have the procedure as soon as possible and that neither the bladder tumor nor the elevated kidney level would pose a risk. Then, during the procedure, we were further not informed of any risk when the vets called us mid-procedure and told us that, instead of 6 extractions, **** urgently needed 32 extractions, and that they had already exceeded the anesthesia dosage without our consent.

  ******** response also fails to mention that he himself told us that he wishes he had been in town because he would not have performed this procedure given those circumstances. 

   Not only that, but ****** also told us that **** did not receive proper care after the surgery, when we contacted the practice the very next day, and every day, multiple times a day, pleading in futility with the vets for guidance or help and describing that her condition was deteriorating very quickly. We were instead assured that it takes two weeks for a dog to recover from this surgery. Finally, **** spent the last three brutal days of her life at this practice in a vain attempt to "flush her kidneys" in light of the acute kidney failure that had developed following the procedure that we had been describing to the vets. We then had no choice but to euthanize **** exactly two weeks to the day of the surgery. 

  To refute ******** insinuation about ****** health condition: she had every regular, successful vet visit during her entire 14 years and never had a medical issue...until this practice. 

  Lastly, we have been contacted by other customers of this practice, of various age ranges, who have had very similar experiences. 

  By their own admission they made repeated wrong decisions during and after the procedure.

   Sincerely,

  ***************************

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