11 year old cat swallowed left bottom canine tooth. help!

[kipsmom107]

I was giving my 11 year old cat a treat which is hard like her food and she started gagging a little. She stopped and I opened her mouth to make sure she was okay and I realized she swallowed her left bottom canine tooth! Will it puncture her little intestines? Should I take her to the vet? Should I be worried about gum disease? Please help. Our local vet is closed because it is after 8:00pm.

 

[detmut]

you can call Northwest Pennsylvania Pet Emergency Center at 814-866-5920 

 

[kipsmom107]

Thank you, I actually used to live in Erie where it is located. I remembered they are open 24/7 so I called and they said she should be fine and will pass it but to keep an eye on her. She is getting older so I just instantly become a worry wort if anything different happens.

 

[LTS3]

I would take the cat to the vet for a dental check up at some point. Loose or missing teeth can indicate dental disease such as resoprtive lesions or gingivitis.

 

[kipsmom107]

She has an appointment to go to the vet Monday. Thanks for the advice!

 

[di and bob]

I'm sure she isn't the first one to swallow a tooth, and she may have lost it earlier and you didn't notice. I RARELY find lost kitten teeth (two in my 50 years!), and look how many they lose! I'm sure she'll be fine, but I agree that a vet visit is in order, there may be dental problems if she has lost one. All the luck!

 

[kipsmom107]

We took her to the vet yesterday and the big one didn't fall completely out, just broke off and there was another tooth further back in her mouth that was broken too. She has to be put under next week to have them removed. Now I'm nervous because she is 11 and has to be put under. Have any of you had an older cat be put under for a dental surgery? She seems perfectly healthy and still plays a lot. They took some blood at the vet and we will get the results back from that by Friday. I'm just so nervous she won't make it through the surgery.

 

[cprcheetah]

As long as they are using safe anesthesia and doing bloodwork before hand, dental procedures are relatively safe.  I work for a vet and we anesthestize older cats for dental procedures all the time.  We always do bloodwork to check the liver and kidneys to make sure they can process and handle the anesthesia okay, we also use an iv catheter in case of an emergency during the procedure we have direct access to the vein.  We also have monitoring equipment that monitors their pulse and oxygen levels while under anesthesia.

 

[kipsmom107]

Thank you cprcheetah! She is our only cat and my husband and I don't have any human babies yet so she is our whole world. Just nervous for her. She is NOT a fan of going to the vet as you can tell by the picture from yesterday lol

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• kipsmom107
• Mar 3, 2015

 

[pushylady]

Let us know how she does with the surgery.

 

[kipsmom107]

I will, thank you for all the answers and support everyone!

 

[kipsmom107]

Sorry I am just filling you all in now. It was a hectic few weeks. We ended up taking her back to our family vet who is about 2 hours away from where we live. Her blood work came back that she has diabetes. They didn't think it was bad enough to postpone surgery so she had surgery to remove what was left of her tooth yesterday and is doing great today! Now we are learning all we can on feline diabetes and preparing to give her shots twice a day. Thank you all so much for your help along the way.