Not an Allergy!

I posted earlier how my boy Grigio had become ill two days after having his teeth cleaned, and was diagnosed as having a reaction to the Clavamox that had been prescribed.

However, a week later, he became ill again, and when I brought him in the vet was concerned that he had a lot of air under his skin. I had to bring him to another, more specialized, hospital for an endoscopy to discover the cause.

But the vet there diagnosed the problem without the endoscopy because it's seen often in cats that have been anesthetized (which is why I'm posting this to alert others to this issue). Apparently, when they placed the tube down his throat for the anesthesia for his teeth cleaning, they nicked his trachea. This allowed air to lead under his skin, and in the vet's opinion was the cause of all his ills after the teeth cleaning.

I had to leave him in critical care because the treatment is to confine the cat to allow natural healing--which happens in most cases. If he doesn't heal, they will have to repair the tear surgically. I had good news today that he seems to be doing well, and I'm hoping to bring him home on Monday.

Ironically, the vet that thought he was reacting to the Clavamox, noticed that there was some air under the skin on the back of his neck, but he had given him a shot of another antibiotic, and cats often get a slight swelling after the shot, so he never considered it further. Thus, it took another week, and more suffering for my cat, before the problem became acute enough for diagnosis.

So whenever your cats get anesthesia, watch them for any signs of swelling or even general lassitude because the sooner they're confined, the better for them.

I am so sorry about this happening to you little one...

do you have the name of this condition??

Oh my gosh- poor little kitty! Are you going to say something to the vets that cleaned his teeth??

To answer your questions--

The condition with air beneath the skin was referred to as "something emphysema" (I didn't catch the first word).

I called my vet about all this. I go to a big animal hospital, but the only vet there I find reliable is one of the heads of the place. When I do elective things, I always schedule my cats with him--and he's wonderful. Unfortunately, when you bring in an animal in distress, you have to take whoever is available. But I called my vet to c omplain because neither of the vets who saw Grigio seemed to understand that this was an animal in pain, nor did they connect the air under his skin to the dental procedure. That, to me, is almost malpractice. So far as the damage to his trachea during the anesthesia, the vets who are now taking care of my boy say that this is sadly fairly common and does not reflect badly on whoever did the anesthesia. However, if it's all that common, then I think the two vets who never considered it are even more at fault.

The good news is that I "visited" with Grigio today. He won't come home until Monday because, as I discussed with the vets, confining him at home will be much more difficult and involve much more stress for him than being at the hospital. I'm not even sure he knew me because he was so "high" on his pain meds! And he was too happy to be out of his cage than to be concerned with the human in the room! He investigated every inch of that small room--but we did have some time for a snuggle or two. The vets believe that he's healing well and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his healing continues and he doesn't have to face surgery.