Cats

» furrball9 - Risks of feline dental procedures

Has anyone had any bad experiences during or after having their cats teeth professionally cleaned?

My concern is that my cats creatinine level is 2.4 and i would hate to have the process (and fluids) trigger the kidneys into a worse stage.

-- posted by furrball9

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» ThatCrazyCatLady - Risks of feline dental procedures

In response to Risks of feline dental procedures posted by furrball9:

Hi furrball9! I haven't had any bad experiences, and I haven't heard of any bad stories from anyone else. I did decide to google it and see what kind of things came up...

If you read this link, it says that, "Infection within the mouth will be picked up by the bloodstream and carried to other parts of the body. Kidney and heart infections frequently begin in the mouth."

http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/dental...

So if your kitty has teeth bad enough to possibly cause a kidney infection, that could be worse than the risk of the cleaning. From research, it appears that their main fear is due to using anesthesia on any animal.

I was also concerned by this article:
http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/chroni...

It says the stress of surgery alone can negatively affect the kidneys - scary stuff! But I'd imagine it's much less of a problem with a cleaning than with having teeth pulled or something more major.

I would certainly voice concerns with my vet and ask enough questions to help me make a decision. Things to consider would be your cat's existing kidney condition, your cat's age, whether they've had other procedures using anesthesia and if so, how those procedures went. Did she recover well afterwards, etc. And of course, do the benefits of the procedure outweigh any risks.

I do hope your kitty will be okay! If you have more questions, please feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer, I will do some research and try to help in any way that I can.

And if you have it done, I'd love to hear about your experiences so that anyone else needing to consider this would know how it went for you and your kitty!

Thanks for stopping by!

-- posted by ThatCrazyCatLady

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» ThatCrazyCatLady - Risks of feline dental procedures

In response to Risks of feline dental procedures posted by ThatCrazyCatLady:

I thought this link was helpful, too...

http://www.vetinfo.com/crenal.html

-- posted by ThatCrazyCatLady

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» ThatCrazyCatLady - Risks of feline dental procedures

In response to Risks of feline dental procedures posted by ThatCrazyCatLady:

Yes, still reading on this - here's some information from the website at the following link... I had to scroll forever to find it, so I'm going to copy and paste the highlights here but wanted to link for proper credit for the information...

http://www.felinecrf.org/related_disease...

Dental problems may seem to trigger CRF, in that often a cat with periodontal disease which undergoes dental treatment under anaesthesia may develop CRF shortly afterwards. It cannot be proven that the CRF has been triggered by the dental disease, and it is also possible that the anaesthetic played a role; but there does seem to be some kind of connection. Therefore it is worth taking some precautions in terms of your cat's dental health. If your CRF cat requires dental treatment of any kind, you should consider the following precautions:

If you are in the UK or the USA, you may wish to have a veterinary dental specialist perform the dental work. The British Veterinary Dental Association has a list of its members with contact details. In the USA, you can find a specialist at the American Veterinary Dental College (search under List of Diplomates), or at the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry. Unfortunately, there are not many of these specialists around.

If your cat requires tooth removal or other dental work under anaesthesia, antibiotics should be given to the cat for several days in advance, and continued for 5-7 days afterwards. My PKD cat's veterinary dentist and nephrologist both recommended clindamycin (Antirobe) prior to my cat's dental because this is particularly good at killing anaerobic bacteria which are often found in the mouth.

Ask the vet to use an anaesthetic agent called isoflurane or another called sevoflurane - these are both gases, which put less strain on the cat's body than other types of anaesthetic, and they also enable the vet to stop the procedure and bring your cat round immediately if there are any problems in surgery. This does not reduce the risk of anaesthesia completely, since another type of anaesthetic may be needed in order to induce unconsciousness (ask your vet about this if you can), but it may minimise it. DVM Magazine has an article about a trial using sevoflurane. Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia Support Group recommends a particular protocol for anaesthesia in renal patients.

It is advisable to place any cat on IV fluids during and after any dental procedures in order to avoid falls in blood pressure during the procedure; such falls in blood pressure can reduce blood flow to the kidneys, which may lead to the kidneys failing a few days later. CRF cats should be placed on IV fluids before any dental procedures, as well as during and after them.

I hope some of this helps!

-- posted by ThatCrazyCatLady

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» furrball9 - phlem after dental procedure with anesthia

My 7 year old Siamese had his teeth cleaning Saturday but afterward was coughing up phelm (spelling?) for the next several hours. I am sure it was coming from his lungs as he was eating like a mad man and none of the food has been come back up. I could also hear his breathing was a little phlemmy when he was sleeping too. On day 2 he only coughed once but it sounded really phlemmy although it didn't "produce" anything. The problem SEEMS to have passed but i suspect that there might still be some phlem in his lungs becuase his puuurrrring sounds a little suspect. I am giving him antiobotics 2 times a day for 7 days for the post dental needs. Will antibotics eliminate any phlem that may be in his lungs or can it only be removed by coughing it up? I will take him back to the vet to have them listen to his lungs if needed, but he has been in the car several times lately (all trips to the vet) and don't really want to stress him additionally unless necessary.

-- posted by furrball9

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» ThatCrazyCatLady - phlem after dental procedure with anesthia

In response to phlem after dental procedure with anesthia posted by furrball9:

Hi Caron! Nice to hear from you and glad to hear that the teeth cleaning went okay!

I would imagine that the antibiotics will help the problem, but I would probably give my vet a call and ask if he should be congested still.

If you have a vaporizer, you might put a little bit of menthol in it and let it run in the house for a couple of days. That should help him cough up any remaining funkiness from his lungs. You can also put some in a pot of water in the stove.

Good luck! I hope he feels back to his old self soon!

-- posted by ThatCrazyCatLady

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» furrball9 - phlem after dental procedure with anesthia

In response to phlem after dental procedure with anesthia posted by ThatCrazyCatLady:

Thanks for the suggestion and info on everything.....One other thing that i've noticed since the dental cleaning is that Neiman has been shaking his head (sideways, not up and down) real fast similar to what a dog would do after getting out of the ocean or pool. There appears to be a little 'sound' that it makes but it may be just his ears flapping! It sound like he has water in his ears but i know he couldn't. Have you ever heard of such a thing? He has been doing it a LOT....maybe 15 times a day as opposed to never prior to the dental visit!

-- posted by furrball9

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» ThatCrazyCatLady - Might be ear mites!

In response to phlem after dental procedure with anesthia posted by furrball9:

hmmmm that sure sounds like ear mites to me! Has he pawed at his ears or scratched at them at all??

You might check his ears for waxy build up, black sticky stuff... though he may not have buildup yet if he did pick the ear mites up at the vet's office. If he does have buildup, take some out with a qtip and smear that on a dark piece of paper and watch for any teensy eensy white specks that have movement.

You can take care of ear mites quickly at home if you catch them early on!

I love his name, too! Very cute

-- posted by ThatCrazyCatLady

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» furrball9 - Might be ear mites!

In response to Might be ear mites! posted by ThatCrazyCatLady:

I thought the same thing but i haven't seem him rub or scratch his ears at all. I will definetly be monitoring both the congestion and ear issue very closely. If not cleared up by the time the antiobotic are done i will take him in for a quick looksy!

Love this service you provide...do you have t-shirts for sale?

-- posted by furrball9

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» ThatCrazyCatLady - Might be ear mites!

In response to Might be ear mites! posted by furrball9:
As attentive as you are, you'll catch things early and get them taken care of quickly and easily - you're a good kitty mommy
And thank you very much! I don't have t-shirts myself, but it looks like there are some in the links!
Hope you and Neiman have a wonderful day!

-- posted by ThatCrazyCatLady

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