My cat Buddy has been diagnosed with IBD for years and last October we had a bad scare where the doctor suspected small cell lymphoma. Whether it was that or not we don't know, his current medication regime and has (thankfully) been managing it. Back in October the vet said she suspected some minimal tooth decay. She said she would not consider oral surgery until the IBD/SCL issue was taken care of. He wound up having his dental cleaning done today and were told at his last exam last month that they would need to extract a tooth on the bottom where the gums were swelling up over the tooth. They said that 2 crowns in the back of his mouth must have fallen out at some point, but the roots were still in his gums and needed to be removed.
I get a call a few hours after dropping him off and they said he is doing well and they are currently working on him, but upon looking at X-rays and the inside of his mouth they determined they had to extract a total of 7 teeth and 2 roots. One of the teeth removed was one of the upper canine teeth. They were able to extract the tooth without causing damage to it (the others they had to split and then remove) so they actually gave us the tooth to view the damage. I don't recall exactly what she said it was, but she said it's a disease where the decay begins at the root of the tooth and works its way inward towards the pulp then out the enamal where the tooth is exposed. On top of the decay at the root we could see 3 very tiny holes where it eroded through. They said his nerves were exposed and he has likely been in pain for a long time, but most cats do not show that they are in pain unless it is fairly serious. We had one incident 2 weeks ago where he started clawing at his mouth and rubbing his head against the floor after eating. It was obviously pain so we had his cleaning moved up so it could be done sooner.
He's been home for 4 hours and the vet said we could offer food and water immediately, but he may not eat anything until tomorrow. If he hasn't eaten by tomorrow afternoon I need to bring him back in. So the thing is I can see that he is hungry. He goes up to the food (first we tried his regular frozen raw rabbit, it was very mushy). He sniffed it for a few minutes, looked like he was interested, but wound up walking away. Then we thought wet food would be easier so we gave him some of that. He sniffed it and rubbed his lips against it like he is hungry, but when he starts to lick it he pulls his head away and starts licking his mouth and runs under the bed. For round 3 I pureed the wet food with some water and placed it on a small stool so he didn't have to bend his head down as much (thought maybe pressure was hurting him). He has sniffed that twice and rubs his mouth against it but when he started to lick it the same thing happened and he ran under the bed. He is obviously hungry, but he must be in too much pain to eat. The vet gave him 2 doses of pain meds that last 12 to 24 hours as well as a nerve block in his jaw that works from 4 to 8 hours, but I don't think it's enough.
I'm going to call the vet when they open first thing in the morning if this continues, but has anyone else come across this issue? Any food suggestions I could try? He takes a hyperthyroid medication twice a day in a small glob of laughing cow cheese, but I honestly don't think he will be able to get it down. He can miss one dose without any issues, but if he misses 2 there could be a problem. I'm just worried because he hasn't eaten since dinner yesterday; no food or water past midnight due for the anesthesia, so it's been a full day without food. He got a lot of IV fluids today, but no actual food.
Is there anyone else who has had an experience like this? What happened and how did you resolve it?
I get a call a few hours after dropping him off and they said he is doing well and they are currently working on him, but upon looking at X-rays and the inside of his mouth they determined they had to extract a total of 7 teeth and 2 roots. One of the teeth removed was one of the upper canine teeth. They were able to extract the tooth without causing damage to it (the others they had to split and then remove) so they actually gave us the tooth to view the damage. I don't recall exactly what she said it was, but she said it's a disease where the decay begins at the root of the tooth and works its way inward towards the pulp then out the enamal where the tooth is exposed. On top of the decay at the root we could see 3 very tiny holes where it eroded through. They said his nerves were exposed and he has likely been in pain for a long time, but most cats do not show that they are in pain unless it is fairly serious. We had one incident 2 weeks ago where he started clawing at his mouth and rubbing his head against the floor after eating. It was obviously pain so we had his cleaning moved up so it could be done sooner.
He's been home for 4 hours and the vet said we could offer food and water immediately, but he may not eat anything until tomorrow. If he hasn't eaten by tomorrow afternoon I need to bring him back in. So the thing is I can see that he is hungry. He goes up to the food (first we tried his regular frozen raw rabbit, it was very mushy). He sniffed it for a few minutes, looked like he was interested, but wound up walking away. Then we thought wet food would be easier so we gave him some of that. He sniffed it and rubbed his lips against it like he is hungry, but when he starts to lick it he pulls his head away and starts licking his mouth and runs under the bed. For round 3 I pureed the wet food with some water and placed it on a small stool so he didn't have to bend his head down as much (thought maybe pressure was hurting him). He has sniffed that twice and rubs his mouth against it but when he started to lick it the same thing happened and he ran under the bed. He is obviously hungry, but he must be in too much pain to eat. The vet gave him 2 doses of pain meds that last 12 to 24 hours as well as a nerve block in his jaw that works from 4 to 8 hours, but I don't think it's enough.
I'm going to call the vet when they open first thing in the morning if this continues, but has anyone else come across this issue? Any food suggestions I could try? He takes a hyperthyroid medication twice a day in a small glob of laughing cow cheese, but I honestly don't think he will be able to get it down. He can miss one dose without any issues, but if he misses 2 there could be a problem. I'm just worried because he hasn't eaten since dinner yesterday; no food or water past midnight due for the anesthesia, so it's been a full day without food. He got a lot of IV fluids today, but no actual food.
Is there anyone else who has had an experience like this? What happened and how did you resolve it?
