Lola is 4 1/2 now, and her pearly whites aren’t quite as pearly-white as they used to be. She has a VERY healthy mouth, but she’s at the age now where we need to be proactive about her health so she’s with us for a good long time yet. She had her first dental cleaning on Wednesday, and it didn’t go quite as well as we’d hoped.

She had some mild gingivitis and a little tartar on her back molars, but otherwise she looked great, the vet said. It seems, though, that she’s one of the few dogs who is very sensitive to one of the two sedation drugs they use during the procedure (asepromazine). It took her a long time to wake up from anesthesia and she was pretty out of it for more than a day afterward. The doctor was concerned enough that she wanted to keep her a little longer to make sure everything was good.

Thankfully, the crew at our Banfield loves her to pieces and were very diligent in helping to make sure she gets back to normal. She’s doing great now, and now that we know about her bad reaction to asepromazine, we can make sure it’s never used on her again — in case we have to take her to another vet for an emergency, for example.

And now, for your entertainment, a picture of dopey Lola, keeping it classy!