Vet took six teeth out.

goo

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Vet just took six teeth out when doing dental, so sad looking at my 13yrs old cat with no more teeth on both side.....


back ground,
Leslie is a diabetic cat the last 5 years and I tried very hard to keep it under control and I try my best to keep his oral healthy, as you know it is not a easy task. He has a very strong personality and alway act like a big brother to my other cat, I know it is tough for him he can no longer keep up with other since he got diabetes and now this....


Question for you guys
Since most of the tooth on both side is gone can he still take dry food? And what else I can do to make his life easier?
 

cloud_shade

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I wouldn't try feeding him dry for a while--his mouth needs time to heal. Canned food tends to have more benefits overall, especially in an older cat where their kidneys benefit from the extra fluids. Since the canned foods tend to have fewer carbohydrates, it may actually help control his diabetes as well. Do you monitor his blood sugar at home? Do you give insulin? If so, you may need to adjust his dose while feeding only canned since it does have fewer carbs. I assume he is indoor-only for his safety? I know of several toothless cats, and they do just fine eating a canned diet. Odo just had two more teeth pulled (so he's not toothless yet, but getting there--he now only has one canine (fang) tooth left and looks pretty funny. But it doesn't seem to bother him any, and he's able to eat his canned food just fine.
 

AbbysMom

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My Molly had quite a few teeth taken out as well. You should not feed dry at first, as mentioned above, in order to let her mouth heal a bit. After that she had no problems eating both wet and dry food. After every extraction she actually starting eating more, which gives you an idea on how much the teeth were hurting her.
 

debskats

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Katy had several teeth removed about 6 weeks ago. I agree that it would be better if they didn't eat dry for awhile, but Katy won't touch anything except dry . . . so I didn't have a choice. And to top it off, she liked to crunch her food before she swallowed it. I was really worried about what/how she'd eat right after the dental, but she managed to eat her dry that evening though she did have to master how to just swallow the food whole rather than crunch it!!! Thankfully the kibble she eats is small.
 

beandip

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Leopold doesn't have any teeth behind his canines, neither top nor bottom. He got along OK with dry food, although most of it bothered his stomach. So for that reason and the reasons that Cloud_shade mentioned, I took him off of dry food altogether. Wet food has a lot of health benefits. It would be really beneficial for Leslie's diabetes too, as mentioned above.


EDIT ...I forgot...I was impressed with Leopold's newfound skill - tearing up chicken gizzards despite having so few teeth. He did alright!
 

white cat lover

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Twitch has not one tooth in her mouth. For about a month, I fed 99% wet food. After that, I gave her some dry food back. She now eats 50/50 wet/dry. She cannot seem to manage funny shaped kibble well, so I try to stick to round kibble. Then again, she surprised me by eating MAX cat(cat face shaped kibble) the other day!
 

icklemiss21

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Most cats do not chew on dry food, so once his mouth has healed, he should be able to have the dry back.

Since he is diabetic and an older cat, he would do well with the extra water content etc in wet food and you may want to discuss a wet diet with your vet, do discuss the food change with a vet though as it will change how you treat his diabetes.

His diabetes may well improve now with no infection from the teeth, the stress can cause the levels to rise and after having Scully's bad teeth pulled, his diabetes / blood levels dropped considerably.
 
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