Ghostie - dental cleaning

My little Snowshoe mix has terrible plaque on his back teeth. I mean, encrusted - like a shell with barnacles!

Over the last three months or so, I have been giving all the cats ProDen PlaqueOff, enzyme toothpaste - used Biotene antiseptic on him and a couple of others due to gum inflammation - and enzyme dental treats when and if they would eat them.

G's teeth HAVE improved... I can actually see TEETH in the back - not just the points of the teeth where they meet... and his gums look a little less swollen and inflamed, but the tartar is still really thick... . (His breath was hoooorrrible!!! It's better now.)

Anyway - I have set up an appt for a scaling and polishing ... in addition - his eyes have been bothering him -so that is paramount. I want that checked out first.

Any advice for me re: blood, anesthetics, post-op recovery issues that I should know about. This vet is VERY good and thorough.

I guess I could keep going with the current regimen, but I think his teeth need some intervention.

ETA: Here is a site on Cornell U re: cat anesthesia
http://www.research.cornell.edu/care...Ps/CARE105.pdf

All I can say is a pre-surgery blood panel is very important. My vet recommended one before Boo had his last dental, and everything had come back okay. I think that is very important personally. On the other things like anesthesia, I'm not any help there Sorry... Hope the dental goes well

Very very very highly recommend bloodwork within the week of his dental scaling and polishing.

The sedation we use for dentals at the clinic I work at is different than those for neuters. We use something more gentle. Alot of clinics use either propofol or telazol. Either one is a good sedative, propofol is more gentle.

You can talk to your veterinarian about IV fluid maintenance to maintain blood pressure and hydration to reduce risks of sedative/anesthesia complications.

Even without extractions, scaling is a little painful, so you may have to give her canned food for 1-2 days.

The scaling process itself is fairly simple. After induced, a tracheal tube is placed, and kitty is maintained on an anesthetic gas, usually either isoflurane or sevoflurane. The rear portion of the wet table (the table where the dental procedure is performed) is elevated so water will drain down into the sink instead of into kitty's lungs. Using an ultrasonic scaler by the technician, the tartar is removed from the teeth with a high powered stream of distilled water. If the tartar is thick enough, they may use tools to "crack" the tartar off first, then scale. The teeth are examined and suspicious teeth are probed to check the stablity and depth of the tooth. If they are unstable, they are extracted. The decision for which teeth need to be extracted and the extraction itself are complete by a veterinarian. Then, the polishing begins. Polish is applied to the teeth or the polisher, and then each tooth is polished individually. The mouth is then rinsed. Some clinics will apply flouride foam to the teeth afterwards, some use CLS during the scaling/rinsing. If the teeth are infectious, sometimes ClindOral is used, which is concentrated clindamycin (an antibiotic), which is decided by the attending veterinarian. The entire process for a kitty usually takes me 15-20 minutes. If there are major extractions, it's still usually no longer than 30 minutes. Once the dental procedure is complete, the anesthetic is turned off, and kitty is placed in recovery. Once she begins to wake, move, and present a gag reflex (usually indicated by swallowing), she is extubated (the tracheal tube is removed). She is still monitored after extubation until she is alert.

After the procedure, recovery is much simliar to a neuter. Start off with ice cubes a couple of hours after you get her back home, then maybe an hour later, offer a teaspoon or two of canned food. If she's going bonkers after that, and needs more, you can offer her the same amount, but I wouldn't recommend giving her more than that. Decreased appetite is common for 1-2 days after anesthesia, however.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Probably way more than you wanted to know, but I wanted you to be well informed on what would most likely occur during the procedure.

Good luck!

Okie

Just talked to the vet's office. Everything went well. She did say that he was already missing a few teeth. Sheesh. He's not even 3 y.o.!! I would say he was not well cared for in his previous two years of life. Well - not so anymore!

Glad to hear he's doing so well; that's great news.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a cat who's just a little older than Ghost (he's almost four years old), and I suspect the vet will tell me he needs a cleaning the next time he goes in for a check-up. He's Siamese, and that breed is genetically predisposed to dental issues, as you probably know.

Reading your story puts me a little at ease, as the idea of putting my guy under really scares me, even though I know that dental health is important.