Taking Casper to Vet Today - Dental Issues?

Last time we had Casper for a check up  (February 2014) the vet mentioned he had a bit of tartar building up but, not enough to warrant concern.  Kept that in the back of my head for future reference.

The past few days, he is having a difficult time eating.  Clearly, he's hungry as he's asking for food but then walks away from it after barely touching the food.  I've tried everything to tempt him; various wet foods we know he likes, freshly cooked plain salmon, canned tunafish, etc.  He only seems to eat a tablespoon at a time, if that and then is done.  Kibble is out of the question, he flatly has refused it which is why I'm thinking he has a dental problem.

He's behaving normally other than that.  Using the litterbox, friendly, and for the most part I don't think his activity level is all that off (of course, his is low now at nearly 14 anyway).  He doesn't seem to be in pain when we touch his mouth area but, would not let us get a good look inside.  

Anyway, of course this happens as we were going to change vets.  I had the old one send me his and Cocoa's records and we only got them about a week ago.  My intention had been to wait until their yearlies were due but this has changed my plans.  I called the new vet, highly recommended by Cocoa's foster mom, and also they get almost all good reviews everywhere I can find mention of them, including Angie's List.  They were very nice when I called and explained the situation and, got me in for a 5:30 pm visit for both of them tonight.

Anyway, I'd like to know if there is anything I need to be aware of prior to going as far as dental care is concerned for senior cats.  I do have some slight concerns, last week he had what appeared to be a wheezing attack (never happened before).  Could that have been a tooth breaking and him swallowing it?  He's never had any breathing problems in the past.  Overall, other than his periodic barfing after eating in the morning and, and a bout of a URI when we first got him, and some still unknown illness last winter that was treated (probably an upper respiratory infection),  mostly he's been pretty darn healthy.

Wish he'd waited one more week until my holiday bonus hit the bank lol, but one can not choose timing of any illness.  At least it happened before Christmas or New Years when everything would be shut down other than emergency facilities.  

Any advice and knowledge appreciated!

I'm updating just in case anyone sees this.

We left Casper overnight.  He'll have his teeth cleaned in the morning, possibly will lose a tooth  There was quite a bit of tartar build up, his gums in the back were pretty raw looking and a small amount of blood was seen.  Other than that, his bloodwork was perfect and the doctor was actually surprised to find out he was 13-1/2.  He said he looks great for his age.

We feel very confident with the new vet.  Everyone, from the front desk to the doctor was incredibly nice and you can tell they genuinely like the animals they work with and, more so, enjoy working with each other. The cats are kept in a separate boarding area also, which our last vet didn't offer.  

He should be ready for pickup around 4pm tomorrow, maybe sooner.  Cost is between $525-650 depending on how much work is needed.  It's expensive, but also not quite as much as I expected.  Hopefully, he'll be much improved by treatment. 

Cocoabean, however, seems to be looking for him, missing him.  It's kind of sad

Poor Casper. I'm sure he'll feel like a new guy after this.

I'm glad this seems to be a good vet. It really makes all the difference in the world.

Sending him some for tomorrow.

I hope it goes well in the morning. Poor Casper, but it really is so much better for them to have the teeth out. My Pushy has had two operations now with teeth removed. It's always stressful leaving your cat at the vet, but it seems to be an operation that they bounce back from fairly quickly. At least Pushy did, both times. He's a hog though, so anything that helps him eat is alright with him! :lol3:

Thanks for the good wishes!

Everything went really well according to the front desk.  We pick him up in a couple of hours.  I don't know if they had to pull a tooth or not yet, hopefully not.

The sadder thing, is that our girl, Cocoa, is really upset with his absence.  We didn't even think about that happening.  She's meowing, looking for him, won't eat and really apathetic.  Can't wait until he's home and she realizes he hasn't totally disappeared.  

I'd like to know what was done and how cocoa is when he comes home.

I will update once we have him home for sure!

Been home for an hour or so now.  Casper is doing fantastic.  He had 3 extractions done.  

He was SO excited to see us!  Doing really hard head bumps and all.  When we got home he kind of did a once around the downstairs checking out his territory.  Did a little head bump greeting to Cocoabean.   Tore off his bandage by himself before I could do it for him.  Ran to his food bowl.  We gave him a small amount of wet food to judge if he was ready to eat.  He ate so much better than we've seen him do in a while.  He kept it down, so more was forthcoming.  Cocoa, ran over to have dinner also, relieved probably that he was home and her routine was back to normal.  

He didn't require pain killers or an antibiotic at home.  They gave him both of those earlier today.  Said he has to eat soft food for 3 days which is no hardship.  Both of them love wet food of all kinds.  We were given a dental rinse to add to their water dishes, declined any attempt at wiping down his teeth.  He'll never allow that.  Overall this went much better than we could have hoped for.  We're looking forward to him feeling so much better than he had been.

BTW, love love love this new vet practice.  Kudos to all of them.  For a crappy experience, it was a good one.