Tooth Extraction Recovery Advice and Experience

[andink]

Hi everybody,

In addition to reaching out to my vet (waiting for her response), I thought it'd be a good idea to crowdsource for some helpful advice/experience with kitty tooth extraction recovery.

My 5-year old tabby Oliver got 6 teeth extracted on Monday (Sep. 11), including his two top fangs/canines. After picking him up in the mid-afternoon on Monday, the vet sent me home with two pills of "cat ibuprofen" and 6 syringes of Buprenex to manage pain over the first 48 hours. At this point, it's about 72 hours post procedure, and Oliver has been off of his pain medication for close to 20 hours.

Overall, Oliver seems to be in a fair bit of pain. He's drooling a lot and this morning, there was thick layer of drool that had built up/coagulated on the outside of his lower lip (almost like if somebody had globbed on a thick layer of vaseline). The drool itself is white (without any signs of red or anything). He's sleeping a lot and thankfully he's started to go to the bathroom again as of late last night. His appetite has decreased a ton (but it's not completely non-existent). Besides that, he does respond to my boyfriend and me when we approach, he'll walk around a little, and he is currently sleeping on his cat tree perch (vs. hiding away).

Does anybody else have insight into what tooth extraction recovery looks like and how long it took for their cat(s) to start to improve (bearing in mind he got 6 teeth removed)? I know the recovery process will be slow and obviously take longer than 72 hours, but the vet really only gave a thorough explanation of pain and the first 48 hours.

 

[cejhome]

Please ask your vet asap! It may be infection. Its been almost 20 years since we had to have our kitty at the time's teeth all extracted except for her fangs (stomatitis). It was done by a dental specialist. I remember we had to keep her in a crate for a while then make sure she was kept in a room where she didn't have things she could jump up on. I do not remember any white discharge or heavy drool. We only gave her buprenorphine. That did her just fine. She slept most of the time the first few days. She definitely didn't act like she was in a lot of pain. We did have a scary incident the first night (of course after hours) - she "threw a clot". She was sleeping with her chin resting on her paws and that must have put too much pressure on her stitches/clotted area and had blood all over her front. Ran as fast as we could to the emergency vet. They go us in right away since she looked so awful, it looked like a lot of blood. It had stopped bleeding by then - they examined her mouth, cleaned her up and explained what happened. I can't remember if she had antibiotics or not. I think she probably did.

 

[fionasmom]

Call the vet and update them; if that does not seem right to you because Oliver's condition is worsening, ask to bring him in. I am not implying that he will not recover from this, but he is exhibiting signs of pain which are going to complicate his recovery, food intake, etc even if there is not an infection. It is almost impossible to get a good look into a cat's mouth, so making a determination yourself is not likely.

Fiona had teeth extracted by her vet, not even a dental specialist, and was tired and sore, eating soft food, but what I recall the most is that she seemed to feel so much better that the bad teeth were gone.