Teeth Problems

Hello all,

I'm new here and just wanted to post and see if anyone had an experience like
I am currently having.

I have a 4 year old kitty with a history of mouth pain, extremely inflamed
gums. She has an autoimmune response to any amount of tartar, etc., on her
teeth and her mouth goes crazy. They treated her with steroids for a while,
but after the way her mouth looked last week we are going in to have most of
her teeth removed tomorrow. Has anyone had this done? What was the recovery
period like?

My second question is that her blood sugar was really high when they took her
blood at the vet. They said stress or the steroids can cause this, but
sometimes this will resolve itself on it's own once she can resume eating a
normal diet (she only eats baby food right now). Has anyone (hopefully) had
this happen?

I can't treat all her problems at once, so I figure I will deal with the
teeth, give her a couple of weeks and she how she is doing. It's hard to
discern symptoms when so much is going on at one time, but she doesn't have
the increased thirst or some of the other signs of diabetes.

Anyway, just fishing and hoping maybe someone has seen this before.

Take care all~! And wish me and Cleo luck for tomorrow~!

A real quick question have you got a second opinion before removing her
teeth that is a big decision

and how did they test her blood sugar did she eat before she went in, did
they do a curve

Not all animals show the signs of diabetes increased thirst is a common
sign but not every animals shows it

The reason I am asking is if the furball has diabetes it can be causing some
of those symptoms

IMO is if they had not done a curve I would have one done before and see
if it is the diabetes then you can aggressively treat what needs to be done

PS not all vets are experienced in feline diabetes

PSS good luck and I hope all goes well

http://www.felinediabetes.com/

How do we prepare for surgery or teeth cleaning?
Each vet will have their own preference for how they want you to prepare
your pet for a surgery or a procedure like teeth cleaning. Since a diabetic
pet must have it's food and insulin in regular amounts and at certain times,
you must discuss these factors with your vet when you schedule the
procedure. How the vet wants you to prepare your pet will depend on factors
such as your pet's food and insulin schedule, overall health, the procedure
being done, and the vet's personal preferences. You and the vet should
schedule the procedure so that it causes the least amount of disruption to
your pet's diabetes management routine. After the procedure, your pet may
need extra monitoring to determine if the diabetes is controlled. This may
be for just a day or two while your pet recovers from a simple procedure, or
for a longer period if the procedure was extensive or if it changed your
pet's overall health status. For example, teeth cleaning may leave the pet's
mouth tender for a day or two and it may not want to eat. So monitoring for
those days is important to be sure the pet does not become hypoglycemic.
But the teeth cleaning may have also eliminated some gum infections, which
may result in the pet requiring less insulin for the long term.


"jenwrenfer" u29044@uwe wrote in message news:693c83eadc672@uwe...
Hello all,

I'm new here and just wanted to post and see if anyone had an experience
like
I am currently having.

I have a 4 year old kitty with a history of mouth pain, extremely inflamed
gums. She has an autoimmune response to any amount of tartar, etc., on her
teeth and her mouth goes crazy. They treated her with steroids for a
while,
but after the way her mouth looked last week we are going in to have most
of
her teeth removed tomorrow. Has anyone had this done? What was the
recovery
period like?

My second question is that her blood sugar was really high when they took
her
blood at the vet. They said stress or the steroids can cause this, but
sometimes this will resolve itself on it's own once she can resume eating
a
normal diet (she only eats baby food right now). Has anyone (hopefully)
had
this happen?

I can't treat all her problems at once, so I figure I will deal with the
teeth, give her a couple of weeks and she how she is doing. It's hard to
discern symptoms when so much is going on at one time, but she doesn't
have
the increased thirst or some of the other signs of diabetes.

Anyway, just fishing and hoping maybe someone has seen this before.

Take care all~! And wish me and Cleo luck for tomorrow~!

on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 18:23:28 GMT, "Matthew"
wrote:

The reason I am asking is if the furball has diabetes it can be
causing some of those symptoms

That would be my concern, that the kitty has diabetes and the diabetes is
causing the mouth/gum symptoms.

To the OP: if you haven't gotten a second opinion, I'd do that prior to an
irreversible decision like extracting your kitty's teeth. I would find
someone very experienced in feline diabetes. Often an emergency hospital
will have a diabetes specialist on staff, or at the very least know who to
recommend.

--
Lynne

On Mon, 13 Nov 2006 18:03:40 GMT, "jenwrenfer" u29044@uwe wrote:

Hello all,

I'm new here and just wanted to post and see if anyone had an experience like
I am currently having.

I have a 4 year old kitty with a history of mouth pain, extremely inflamed
gums. She has an autoimmune response to any amount of tartar, etc., on her
teeth and her mouth goes crazy. They treated her with steroids for a while,
but after the way her mouth looked last week we are going in to have most of
her teeth removed tomorrow. Has anyone had this done? What was the recovery
period like?

My second question is that her blood sugar was really high when they took her
blood at the vet. They said stress or the steroids can cause this, but
sometimes this will resolve itself on it's own once she can resume eating a
normal diet (she only eats baby food right now). Has anyone (hopefully) had
this happen?

I can't treat all her problems at once, so I figure I will deal with the
teeth, give her a couple of weeks and she how she is doing. It's hard to
discern symptoms when so much is going on at one time, but she doesn't have
the increased thirst or some of the other signs of diabetes.

Anyway, just fishing and hoping maybe someone has seen this before.

Take care all~! And wish me and Cleo luck for tomorrow~!

As others said, get a second opinion. But I do have some info for you.

I adopted an old, sick cat named Jackie. The pet store I got her at
had no idea what was wrong with her but she weighed all of five pounds
and her lips were blue. She had the most miserable look that I have
ever seen on a cat. I figured that I could at least give her a decent
place to die.

My vet didn't know what was wrong but tests ruled out most things. No
diabetes, no thyroid problems; in fact, fairly good chems for an old
girl. The glance he was able to get into her mouth showed him that
there were ulcers all in her throat and her mouth was a flaming pit of
hell.

So we put her on antibiotics for a month or so but nothing helped and
he sent me off the the dental specialist at the specialty vet clinic.
They diagnosed her as having exactly what you describe, an allergic
reaction to her own teeth or bacteria or tarter. They said that the
only thing that would help her was having all of her teeth extracted
and we did it.

It wasn't cheap I should add. As I recall it was around $1000 and
would have been more but that only covered the hospital fees. The
dentist did his work for free since I had just adopted her. They
pulled all the teeth as well as quite a few that had broken off below
the gum line.

After a few days she came home. She started eating a ton more and even
gained some weight. That look of misery left her face. She was pretty
happy in fact. She developed chronic diarhea after another two months
or so which was a bit of a pain for the household. Still, she lived
another five or six months before a non-operable tumor in her ear
developed and we had to put her to sleep.

She was a tough old girl. Normally when I get a new cat I put them
into the Cat Introduction Room for a few days, and they promptly dive
under the bed and hide for a day or two as I try to coax them out.
When I went in for the first time after depositing Jackie, she was
sitting on the edge of the bed nearest the door waiting for me.

After a day she made it very clear that she wanted out of the room. I
was concerned because she was five pounds and my two boys are 11 and
16. She comes out, Espy comes up and hisses in her face. She hauled
off and belted him right in the mouth. Espy ran away. Nipsy, the 16
pounder, was clearly impressed as well. Espy never did warm to her but
Nipsy was her friend.

I say that your situation sounds pretty close except your girl is a
lot younger. I wish someone had done this for Jackie years before I
got her. I think that cat suffered unbelieveably because it wasn't
done. If diabetes is ruled out, I think the vet knows what they're
talking about.

"dgk" wrote

I adopted an old, sick cat named Jackie. The pet store I got her at
had no idea what was wrong with her but she weighed all of five pounds
and her lips were blue. She had the most miserable look that I have
ever seen on a cat. I figured that I could at least give her a decent
place to die.


I remember Jackie. I saved her picture to my "cats" file. You did a
wonderful thing for her. I am not sure anyone else would have done
what you did.

on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 20:10:46 GMT, dgk wrote:

I say that your situation sounds pretty close except your girl is a
lot younger. I wish someone had done this for Jackie years before I
got her. I think that cat suffered unbelieveably because it wasn't
done. If diabetes is ruled out, I think the vet knows what they're
talking about.

That is such a beautiful thing you did for Jackie! What a lucky kitty she
was to have found you.

--
Lynne

Well I really do have to get the teeth out. This is the second vet that has
said that. And this time they actually gave her some gas so they could really
get a good look at them, and called us back, and well, I just don't know how
she's doing as well as she is to be honest. It is horrible looking.

Anyway she just had her last meal and antibiotic, so we're all ready to go in
the morning. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the replies!

On Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:55:30 +0000, jenwrenfer wrote:

Well I really do have to get the teeth out. This is the second vet that has
said that. And this time they actually gave her some gas so they could really
get a good look at them, and called us back, and well, I just don't know how
she's doing as well as she is to be honest. It is horrible looking.

Anyway she just had her last meal and antibiotic, so we're all ready to go in
the morning. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the replies!


Purrs for a successful outcome. MLB

on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:55:30 GMT, "jenwrenfer" u29044@uwe wrote:

Well I really do have to get the teeth out. This is the second vet
that has said that. And this time they actually gave her some gas so
they could really get a good look at them, and called us back, and
well, I just don't know how she's doing as well as she is to be
honest. It is horrible looking.

with 2 vets saying the same thing, I would think you are safe in your
decision. I'll bet that once your kitty recovers from the surgery, she
will be VERY happy. She probably won't even notice she doesn't have teeth
because she'll be so happy to be out of pain! I hope so, anyway. Best of
luck to both of you tomorrow. Try not to worry too much.

--
Lynne


"Every once in a while, the tables are turned and we get to share our lives
with an animal who takes care of their human." - Tara, rpdb

Hi there, sorry your cat is having problems.

I think diabetes can cause more teeth issues than normal -- our cat had
to have 6 teeth planed or removed about 8 months after his diabetes
diagnosis.

Steroids can trigger diabetes, so who knows what came first for your cat.

I hope the sugar goes back down, how high was it? Our vet goes by a
benchmark of about 200 for kitties stressed by the trip to the vet
(normal is 100.) Bob's was 400 when diagnosed.

I'm glad you're getting those teeth fixed. That will make a huge
difference in how he feels. I hope it goes well for him tomorrow.

Let us know what happens with the sugar levels,

Rhonda

jenwrenfer wrote:
Hello all,

I'm new here and just wanted to post and see if anyone had an experience like
I am currently having.

I have a 4 year old kitty with a history of mouth pain, extremely inflamed
gums. She has an autoimmune response to any amount of tartar, etc., on her
teeth and her mouth goes crazy. They treated her with steroids for a while,
but after the way her mouth looked last week we are going in to have most of
her teeth removed tomorrow. Has anyone had this done? What was the recovery
period like?

My second question is that her blood sugar was really high when they took her
blood at the vet. They said stress or the steroids can cause this, but
sometimes this will resolve itself on it's own once she can resume eating a
normal diet (she only eats baby food right now). Has anyone (hopefully) had
this happen?

I can't treat all her problems at once, so I figure I will deal with the
teeth, give her a couple of weeks and she how she is doing. It's hard to
discern symptoms when so much is going on at one time, but she doesn't have
the increased thirst or some of the other signs of diabetes.

Anyway, just fishing and hoping maybe someone has seen this before.

Take care all~! And wish me and Cleo luck for tomorrow~!