Re: Cat with 10 teeth extracted!

Witchy Woman · ‎03-15-2010

Well, if it were my cat, I would not be leaving, but, that aside.

Make sure kitty has some pain management meds if needed. There is one that can be applied to the gums. I cannot imagine that there wouldn't be some pain with THAT many teeth coming out.

And, of course, soft food -- maybe baby food on hand in case she cannot manage pate or something smooshy.

Bless you for agreeing to care for this kitty when her owner cannot take the time to do so.

People!

wenfen · ‎09-19-2013

This is a fairly common procedure for cats. I had an cat with feline HIV from a cat bite & after many years developed Stomatitis, which made her gums & eating very painful. I was like you thinking that it was cruel to extract most of her teeth, but the Vet assured me that Cats do Not use their teeth to chew food & do quite nicely without them. You will need to give this cat pain meds for approx 3 days (2X per day) from a pre-loaded syringe (no needle involved) & they will just sleep & be perfectly fine. Good-luck with the kitty & God Bless you for taking care of it for your friend!

Kookielady · ‎03-10-2010

Thank heavens that you are kind enough to watch over her cat. If it was me I would postpone my trip. My cats mean the world to me. Bless you for doing this.

nycgrl · ‎05-08-2012

I would never leave my cat after surgery. My cat has a terrible virus that reoccurs when stressed. It is the calici virus and can be deadly. I haven't had a real vacation since I adopted him because he gets stressed and makes himself sick. If I do go out of town it would only be for a long weekend and I have someone pet sit. As for the teeth, we had a cat who had all his teeth removed - he drooled alot, but otherwise was fine with food - both wet and dry. Until this cat is healed though, I would recommend only small pieces of wet food and hopefully the vet will prescribe some pain meds - pre-measured in the syringe - goes right on the gum. It's called Butphenine - it gives them the "munchies" too. No adverse side effects. Poor baby - sorry to say your friend is very selfish!

candys mine · ‎08-20-2012

Better no teeth than bad teeth. The timing of the proceedure could have been better. Has your friend left yet? How is kitty doing taday? Make sure you have the Veterinarians name and Phone number in a promanent place. Have yor friend call her Vet and give them YOUR name and an okay for you to use her credit card to pay for any charges while she is away. I trust my vet and have left a credit card number on file with them when I vacation so the sitter wouldn't have to think about that if my kitty got into trouble. Soft food or kibble moistened with broth might be good for kitty but if kitty won't eat anything but crunchies I'd give it to him. A starved cat( which a cat will do to themselves) gets into a whole nuther set of problems. With luck kitty is on his way to recovery already.

geezerette · ‎03-16-2010

@Venezia wrote:
I have a rescue Siamese that had a genetic condition that caused her teeth to be reabsorbed into the gumline (never heard of it before this cat). It causes all kinds of problems - inflammation, pain, infection - so there's no treatment except to have the bad teeth removed. She ended up having two different surgeries (a year apart at a cost of about $2000 and she was only a couple years old at the time).

She only has a few teeth left now and she prefers soft, wet food but will still eat dry, if it's very small kibble. She's a happy cat though and a sweetheart!

As for leaving any of my cats when they're not well or have just had surgery? Not a chance in this world! Not unless it was a dire family emergency and then I'd limit the time to the least possible.

Good luck taking care of the kitty and bless you for doing it! I'm sure she'll need some TLC.

My cat suffers from the same condition (I can't recall its name right off the top of my head). My vet says it's not uncommon and there is no treatment (at this time) other than to pull the affected teeth. Apparently it's very painful. I felt so bad when I first had his teeth cleaned; like you, I had never heard of this and had no indication my poor kitty might be hurting. Over the last couple of years, each year when he has his teeth cleaned, a couple of teeth end up either being pulled or they just come out themselves during the procedure. My cat has actually been able to eat better now that his bad teeth are being removed. He eats both wet and dry, which he tends to just gulp rather than chew.

(I wouldn't leave any of my animals either under those conditions, but you are to be congratulated for taking the poor little thing on. I hope she'll be okay, but I think I'd get the name of her vet before your friend left, just in case.)

Venezia · ‎03-09-2010

To everyone here who has said s/he wouldn't dream of leaving their kitties after any surgery..........

It's wonderful to know there are so many true cat lovers among us!

@JavaQueen - Please be sure to come back and let us know how things are going.

Angeleyes55 · ‎03-10-2010

Sometimes we get our good hearts taken advantage of don't we.. The poor cat and why all ten teeth at the same time? Now who is the cat going to chew the bone with so to speak? Soft food for sure and the pudy cat will lose weight as we would if we had ten teeth pulled.

Venezia · ‎03-09-2010

@Angeleyes55 - If all the teeth are bad, it's better to remove them all at the same time for the same reasons as in humans: every time you go under anesthetic for any op, there's always a risk. One op means one recovery period for the animal. Plus, doing it over several ops multiplies the cost drastically, as they have to "repeat" everything (medicines, tests, tech time).

Don't believe it for a minute, that the cat will automatically lose weight! My Siamese hasn't. She loves her food just as much as she ever did before her own dental procedures.