Recovery from anaesthetic/dental

[PaquitaVariation]

Our cat, he’s 11, had a big dental done 10 days ago, seemed to recover initially quite well. Then a few days ago began acting very strangely, less active, reduced appetite, just sitting and staring at nothing in particular. Took him back to the vets who ran all the blood tests etc, nothing abnormal seems to be going on, so she’s taken him off the antibiotics and painkillers to see if his system is just a bit overloaded, and she gave him some fluids and a b12 injection. He’s been eating better in the last 24 hours but is still behaving oddly and just isn’t himself. It’s like he’s depressed.

Do you think he’s just still getting over the op? It’s like he’s had a personality transplant. He’s never had an operation before (not since he was a kitten anyway) so I’m not sure if I’m just expecting him to bounce back too quickly.

Is his mouth sore? Mine was pretty miserable after his first dental and the tooth was pressing on the newly exposed gum below it.

Another week on painkillers sorted him.

Did he have the pre op blood test to check his kidneys were up to a GA?.

He doesn’t seem to be in pain any more. He’ll let us touch his face and mouth, and he is eating better this last 24 hours. He was taking vetergesic and gabapentin (along with antibiotics for an infection in his mouth) but the vet said to stop everything to see if that made a difference. The odd behaviour did coincide with starting the antibiotics but odd behaviour doesn’t seem to be on the list of side effects!

@Fluffycloudland77

Did he have the pre op blood test to check his kidneys were up to a GA?.

Yes, he has early stages of kidney disease but his bloods showed that his figures were good and he was retested on Friday and they’re still good. No vomiting etc.

Nothing unusual in his urine either. Temp, heart rate, breathing all normal.

My cat was quite unwell after her dental. Just not her normal self and her breathing was laboured. They'd fluid overloaded her and her heart was struggling. She was fine by the next day. They suspected heart disease but had had no investigations at that point. The cardiologist was less than impressed that they'd given her an anaesthetic. Turns out her heart disease was very severe.

Our girl had a dental op a couple of years ago at a similar age. She came home afterwards walking like a drunkard staggering all over the place & walking into walls etc... we’ve had several cats over the years and done several post op looking afters, none of them ever came home in that state! She had a urine infection from the stress of it all immediately afterwards too. It took her months & months to get fully back to her usual self bless her. Now she needs another dental op 😬 I’m so worried!
Definitely keep an eye on him & keep up with the vets if need be. But they do seem to take a while to recover sometimes.

@ElleL

Our girl had a dental op a couple of years ago at a similar age. She came home afterwards walking like a drunkard staggering all over the place & walking into walls etc... we’ve had several cats over the years and done several post op looking afters, none of them ever came home in that state! She had a urine infection from the stress of it all immediately afterwards too. It took her months & months to get fully back to her usual self bless her. Now she needs another dental op 😬 I’m so worried! Definitely keep an eye on him & keep up with the vets if need be. But they do seem to take a while to recover sometimes.

I do wonder whether he’s just a bit stressed by it all. When he’s not asleep he seems like he’s on high alert the whole time, tiptoeing around cautiously, rather than running around like he usually does. He has been eating better this weekend, and is showing a bit more interest in things, so hopefully he’s just taking a while to get over it.