Eating After Dental Extractions

Hello all,

My cat, Jesse, had to have dental surgery today and 8 teeth were extracted. He's been home for a couple hours and I've tried to give him wet food since I assumed he'd be hungry having not eaten since the night before. He seems interested in the food but after licking it once, he opens and closes his mouth and paws at it. He's done this a few times over the last hour, but not actually eating, just a lick here and there. I'm wondering if this is normal, or if he just needs more time to adjust to his mouth feeling funny or the numbing to wear off. He's always had a pretty good appetite. When should I begin to worry?

Are you making the canned food soupy? If not, add water and mush the food up into soup. It'll be easier to eat.

Cats do need about a day to recover from anesthesia so I wouldn't worry too much today. Did the vet send you home with pain medicine? Tooth extractions are painful so a few days of liquid pain medicine are needed.

Thanks for the response! He actually just started eating a little (hooray!). I gave him one option that was soupy and another (on a plate) that I didn't add any water to. Oddly enough he chose the non-soupy one.

No I was not sent home with any pain medication. He received an injection of metacam which the doctor said would be good for 72 hours. Should I be asking them for pain meds or wait to see how he does? I just assumed that he would not need additional meds besides the injection since they didn't give any to me.

I would ask the vet for pain medicine to give once the metacam has worn out. A few doses would be enough. Buprenex is a god choice. It's a liquid that you squirt into the side of the mouth, in what's called the cheek pouch. The medicine will get absorbed that way.

aah okay thank you for the info. They're supposed to call me tomorrow with results from his fecal test, so I'll ask them about that.