Cat dental recovery

[Judystilldreamsofhorses]

Poor Louie-Boo has had two canine teeth out and a scale and polish. He’s home now and very sorry for himself - wobbly, huge pupils, droolly. We’ve been told soft food (which he doesn’t like, he prefers dry) and no out for a fortnight, and he has both ABs and painkillers. How long is he likely to be spaced out from the GA, does anyone know? My poor little poppet 😭

He’s not camera ready at the moment so here’s a photo from last week.

My older lady (14) had teeth out recently. She was spaced out and wobbly on day 1 and still very quiet and sleepy on day 2.
By day 3 she was back to normal and waking me up to feed her.
We only kept her in on day 1 and she went back to normal use of cat flap after that.

Penelope recovered from her first dental when she had six teeth out, really quickly. She was straight back on the hard food. A bit spaced out the first night, but she slept it off. Think I only gave metacam for a couple of days as she just didn’t need it. The second dental where she had the rest of her teeth out was a nightmare that took much longer to recover from. As she got an infection and didn’t eat or drink for four days. She ended up with a feeding tube. But over she was over that, she’s never looked back and I wonder how much pain she was in.

Thanks for replying. These are two big upper canine teeth he had out which apparently are difficult to remove and he’s had stitches. I wonder if that’s why they said to keep him in? our last cat I’m sure we only kept in for 24 hours after hers but it was back teeth.

Since I started the thread he’s much brighter and jumping all over the kitchen sides, but not eaten much - a little bit of Untamed chicken and some biscuits I soaked in warm water. He did enthusiastically accept a Lik-e-lix though!

So today he’s 100% himself (good), desperate to go out (bad), and desperate to get his usual food out of his cupboard (bad). He’s not eaten as much as I would like, and I don’t blame him because who would want soggy biscuits? Antibiotics successfully disguised in a chicken yoghurt and lapped up. He needs to get his pain meds shortly and I am nervous about that in case they upset his tummy.

Why does he need to stay in for two weeks?

It'll be because of the stitches.

Is he wearing a cone?

Because it was two big upper canines and his gums had to be cut and stitched. Hopefully we can negotiate it down after his check on Monday 🙏

@30birthdaygirl no cone. The vet didn’t even mention that. He’s not bothering with his mouth actually.

I think it would still be prudent to keep him in for now. If he accidentally caught the stitches on something it would be awful.

They have to dig quite far into the gum/jaw to get the canines out. They form part of the structure of the jaw so he'll need to get used to that being different too.

I’d just let him
jave his usual dry food if that’s what he wants.

Oh don’t worry, he defo won’t be going anywhere until after the check on Monday at the very earliest. I’m hoping the vet might say he can go out under supervision then if things look okay. He doesn’t roam really. We will absolutely follow their instructions.

I hadn’t realised it was quite such invasive surgery until I asked my mate ChatGPT once we were home, and had just assumed it would be similar to our previous cat’s dental.

@InQuiresandplaceswheretheysing i think it probably would be uncomfortable and could disturb the healing. He’s had some biscuits soaked in hot water and mixed with Lick-E-Lux, and some Untamed chicken at breakfast, then Untamed tuna later on. He usually picks at his wet food and eats all the dry so it’s not ideal.

He’s sat with me happily now, he’s been tearing about a bit earlier having a mad half hour. His wee shaved arm 🧡

Here he is

Oh Louie! He looks so sad 🙁

Awww he's gorgeous! 😍

@RumNotRun honestly he’s not - I took photos of him just immediately after that one where he looks his usual happy self, and it says they’re too big to post, despite being a minute later on the same camera 🤷🏻‍♀️

So weird it won’t allow me to post those, but here he is this afternoon.

Give him scritches from me. He's so handsome, I love him.

He’s so handsome - but apparently may now have an underbite 🐈

Mine was fine for a few days, tbh we thought “wow”. But then he had a slump and refused to eat or drink for days. Things felt really bad 😭 we had to take him back the vet where they gave him some treatment

Our boy had all his teeth out, vet said 24-48 hours for anaesthetic to wear off so they aren't outside and still doppy/ slow to react. He was in a lot of pain 1st few days but we allowed him a supervised wander in the garden from day 3 and by 7 days you'd hardly know he'd had majorsurgery.

He still tries to pick fights with cats that enter our garden despite having no teeth to defend himself, so I do a lot of crazy cat lady shoo-ing away of invaders when I hear his battle cry... he then looks very pleased with himself, I think he thinks he scared them off himself, not the crazy woman in a nightie clapping her hands and flapping about!

Oh @BuzzLightyearToTheRescue i hope that doesn’t happen here. Is your cat okay now?

@AltitudeCheck that sounds really positive. I’m hoping after our checkup on Monday we can do supervised garden too.

I love it when Penelope tries to pretend bite me and I just get gummed. I’m so relieved all her teeth are out. My bank balance couldn’t afford costly dentals every couple of years. She’s literally a different cat with out her teeth.

Louie is relentlessly campaigning for better food/to go out, and overnight has broken into the green kitchen waste caddy in search of leftovers. He did this a lot when we first adopted him (he’d been a stray kitten) but not for a long time so he’s clearly hungry and just does NOT want soggy biscuits! I had an inkling this might happen and did not want this little Garfield in amongst the lasagne I made yesterday, so it was empty. He’d also hauled the (also empty) timed feeder down off a shelf.

He’s eaten some Untamed chicken this morning and been tossing around a toy mouse.

He’s due pain relief and ABs about 2.

This pic is from Monday. His little shaved arm is really triggering me because our last cat didn’t ever grow her little shaved arm back, she was pts a week later.

My Luna (now 13) had dental surgery when she was about 4, and also refused any of the nice soft recovery food - after 24 hours phoned the vet in despair who knows her well who said just give her what she'll eat, if she's a weirdo and wants biscuits that's better than not eating 🤷‍♀️

She currently has a front fang that's been making its way out for about two years but vet says not causing pain so let it come out naturally!

Hope Louie is back to his usual self soon!

Shouty Luna picture for tax!

@hilariousnamehere she’s lovely! I haven’t seen Louie’s mouth with no top fangs yet, but the vet said he might end up with an underbite.

Today’s update is he’s bouncing off the walls with boredom, and has eaten a bit more than yesterday but still not as much as I would like. I’ve ordered a food topper thing to try and tempt him with the wet food. He’s also not done a poo since the dental which is a slight concern - usually he only goes once a day but that was on Tuesday. He’s drinking and weeing as normal.