Hi everyone,

About 5 years ago I took in a stray cat, my first pet ever, so I'm
pretty inexperienced at dealing with vets, etc.  I  take her in
annually for a physical and any necessary vaccinations, etc.  As best
I can figure she is between  9-12 years old.

Two years ago she had dental prophy and had 3 abcessed teeth
extracted. I took her in for her noon appointment, then about 4 p.m.
they called and said "She's awake and very eager to come home" so of
course, I ran right over and got her because she'd been pretty
stressed out at being separated from me.  She was bright, alert and
hungry.

Unfortunately, that vet left town so I had to find another. After the
exam the new vet said she needed another dental prophy and - in light
of the fact that one of her fangs had fallen out the previous week - I
agreed.

They scheduled me for 7:30 a.m. which I figured was great because I'd
have her back home in the late morning. But when they called to
confirm the appointment the day before, they said "And you can plan to
pick her up the same time next day."

Whoa! I said. Why would they keep her overnight? They said it was
routine because "we like to keep them for observation."  (Even though
there is no human there between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. so I don't know how
they'd do this observation.)

After a little tussling during which I implied I'd take her elsewhere
rather than leave her unattended the night after a procedure, they
agreed to release her in the afternoon if the doctor deemed her ready
to go.  That too was a tussle...they didn't release her until the last
possible minute, 6 p.m. even though her prophy was done at 9:30 a.m.
and she hadn't needed any extractions this time!

Of course, I wouldn't want them releasing her if they didn't feel it
was safe to do so, but it sure seems to me it was their policy, not
her condition, which dictated her release time. But I don't know this
for sure.

I'm also concerned because it turned out she didn't actually have a
7:30 appointment;  they have ALL the surgical and prophy patients
arrive at the same time, then they sort of work on them as a group
from 8-1. As it was explained to me, "We have 3 in there at a time.
The techs do the prophy under supervision of the doctor and he does
extractions or anything else as necessary."  I know for a fact that
with my previous vet, he just took them one at a time.

I mean really, what if two of the patients needed medical attention at
the same time?  Does one just have to stay knocked out for an
unnecessary waiting time?  And is that why they plan for the recovery
to take longer? And which poor anxious critter had to sit there for 4
or 5 hours awaiting his turn?

I've already decided that this whole thing made me uncomfortable
enough that I'll keep looking for a new vet. But please let me
know...which of these experiences is more typical?

Thanks,
Lily