Feline Dental

[canadiangirl]

Feline dental. Anyone know the costs of having feline dental work done? IE extractions...cleaning etc. Also has anyone been to Apex animal hospital? Any suggestions would be great! And also any cat dental procedures would be great to hear about.

[brokenhearted]

All I know from very recent experiences is that when it comes to your feline's dental care, be sure you are dealing with veterinarians who are professionals at feline dental care. This means they should be able to tell you the health implications for any procedure or cleaning of your cat's teeth. They should also be documenting the cleaning just as any dental assistant would for a person. Do not allow them to simply scrape the calculus/plaque off your cats teeth!

My cat is 18 y.o. and had never had her teeth cleaned because I didn't know it had to be done and she has always been healthy. I took her to a vet clinic for a check up & they insisted she should have them cleaned. Of course I had them go ahead with their recommended procedure of scraping off the calculus/plaque built up. After they took it off, they told me she had one tiny cavity & to keep an eye on it.
Now 6 mths later she has stopped eating. I took her back to the first vet & they said, well she's old. I then took her for a 2nd opinion & found out that the 1st vet did not even document the tooth cleaning professionally. I also learned from the 2nd vet that because of her age, the calculus that was removed was likely protecting her teeth. Now they are in way worse condition and have caused extensive gum infections (gingivitis) and she is not eating due to the pain in her jaw. Only now her health is too fragile to undergo the dental surgery she could of had 6 mths ago if the vet had been professional at feline dental care. I now have a natural pain killer that I have to give her before she eats. If only I know what I now know about feline dental care, none of this would have happened.

[jwalla03]

I'm afraid you may have misunderstood... calculus absolutely does NOT 'protect' the teeth! It leads to progressive bacterial accumulation, gingivitis and periodontal disease, and you did the right thing by having a professional cleaning done. Were dental radiographs performed to check for any resorptive lesions, abscesses or root loss? How do you know that jaw pain is causing her current anorexia? Has bloodwork and a urinalysis been performed recently?
Also, what is this 'natural' pain killer you are giving? I would be very cautious about giving anything not approved for cats to a geriatric one, especially if bloodwork/urine has not been done recently to confirm her kidneys and liver are healthy.