I am just curious to hear other people's experiences with general anesthesia for cats that have hyperthyroidism that is well managed and controlled.
Toffee cat (15 years old) who is well managed hyper-t kitty has resorptive lesions in his mouth and needs a dental. The trick is that my other senior cat Duncan (not related to Toffee) went into anaphylactic shock during his routine dental a few months ago and nearly died - everything swelled up and lungs filled with fluid - emergency hospitalization saved his life. It was shocking and dreadful (and a freaky uncommon thing to have had happen). And expensive ($5000+ in emergency vet bills). Understandably, this has made me nervous about Toffee having general anesthesia now (never used to be overly nervous).
Toffee is hyperthyroid but very well controlled/managed for ~ 2 years now - I caught it early during regular bloodwork screening (annual checkup) so he has never had any issues and had only lost 6 ounces of weight when we caught it!! In the past year, a few different vets have listened to his heart and not a hint of a murmur or anything. Toffee is a robust cat in good health (other than the managed hyper-t).
Because of my newfound fears of putting any cat under general, my regular vet is giving me a referral to a great vet who works at a combined vet practice that does emergency care (24 hour) as well as routine vet care. That way, if something goes wrong, Toffee is already in an emergency facility (this is unlikely to be necessary, but I need to do this to alleviate my own fears since other kitty's near-death experience was so recent). I could get an echocardiogram done, but that is probably going over the top as I've heard that well-managed hyper-t kitties with no obvious outward heart issues can do just fine under general anesthesia.
Please if you have had good experiences with general anesthesia and a hyper-t kitty, or know anything about this, or can provide any other advice to alleviate my fears - then please then share what you can with me.
THANK YOU!!
Toffee cat (15 years old) who is well managed hyper-t kitty has resorptive lesions in his mouth and needs a dental. The trick is that my other senior cat Duncan (not related to Toffee) went into anaphylactic shock during his routine dental a few months ago and nearly died - everything swelled up and lungs filled with fluid - emergency hospitalization saved his life. It was shocking and dreadful (and a freaky uncommon thing to have had happen). And expensive ($5000+ in emergency vet bills). Understandably, this has made me nervous about Toffee having general anesthesia now (never used to be overly nervous).
Toffee is hyperthyroid but very well controlled/managed for ~ 2 years now - I caught it early during regular bloodwork screening (annual checkup) so he has never had any issues and had only lost 6 ounces of weight when we caught it!! In the past year, a few different vets have listened to his heart and not a hint of a murmur or anything. Toffee is a robust cat in good health (other than the managed hyper-t).
Because of my newfound fears of putting any cat under general, my regular vet is giving me a referral to a great vet who works at a combined vet practice that does emergency care (24 hour) as well as routine vet care. That way, if something goes wrong, Toffee is already in an emergency facility (this is unlikely to be necessary, but I need to do this to alleviate my own fears since other kitty's near-death experience was so recent). I could get an echocardiogram done, but that is probably going over the top as I've heard that well-managed hyper-t kitties with no obvious outward heart issues can do just fine under general anesthesia.
Please if you have had good experiences with general anesthesia and a hyper-t kitty, or know anything about this, or can provide any other advice to alleviate my fears - then please then share what you can with me.
THANK YOU!!