My 1.5 year old cat had all of his bottom teeth removed yesterday due to stomatitis - he was scheduled to have all of his teeth removed, but they called me during the surgery advising that because they are seeing significant swelling, they recommended staging it and removing the rest after he recovers due to the concern that he would stop eating.
His appetite has been more than fine - he has eaten 4 cans of Fancy Feast in just over 24 hours (normally he would eat 2-3), and while he seems to be kind of trying to figure out how to eat normally again (presumably because learning to eat with half your teeth would feel weird), he definitely is eating more than normal, and has even tried to sneak into my other cat's dry food and start eating that too. He is drinking normal amounts of water - he was super thirsty when I took him home, and litter box is normal. He is still much sleepier than normal even about 30 hours post surgery.
The concern is that his chin looks super swollen and puffy and he is still drooling a lot (although the drooling is now just water - it had some blood right after surgery). It is definitely more swollen now than it was last night. It's hard to photograph well - this is the best I could get. They have him on Clavaseptin and Gabapentin (I asked for tablet pain killer instead of Buprenorphine because he takes pill pockets well but hates liquid syringe medication and he is still on Prednisolone, which he has been on for about a month while the surgery was being scheduled. When I called the vet, they said that they don't find swelling on its own to be a huge concern as long as he is eating - which he definitely is.
What are other people's experiences with this? Is it normal to see a lot of swelling 24 hours after extractions? Is it normal to split a full mouth extraction up into 2 surgeries like that? I hate that he is going to have to go through this whole thing a second time for his top teeth, and I assume it's also making it overall a lot more expensive.
His appetite has been more than fine - he has eaten 4 cans of Fancy Feast in just over 24 hours (normally he would eat 2-3), and while he seems to be kind of trying to figure out how to eat normally again (presumably because learning to eat with half your teeth would feel weird), he definitely is eating more than normal, and has even tried to sneak into my other cat's dry food and start eating that too. He is drinking normal amounts of water - he was super thirsty when I took him home, and litter box is normal. He is still much sleepier than normal even about 30 hours post surgery.
The concern is that his chin looks super swollen and puffy and he is still drooling a lot (although the drooling is now just water - it had some blood right after surgery). It is definitely more swollen now than it was last night. It's hard to photograph well - this is the best I could get. They have him on Clavaseptin and Gabapentin (I asked for tablet pain killer instead of Buprenorphine because he takes pill pockets well but hates liquid syringe medication and he is still on Prednisolone, which he has been on for about a month while the surgery was being scheduled. When I called the vet, they said that they don't find swelling on its own to be a huge concern as long as he is eating - which he definitely is.
What are other people's experiences with this? Is it normal to see a lot of swelling 24 hours after extractions? Is it normal to split a full mouth extraction up into 2 surgeries like that? I hate that he is going to have to go through this whole thing a second time for his top teeth, and I assume it's also making it overall a lot more expensive.
