My 18 yr old cat likely needs her teeth cleaned and perhaps an extraction. My concern is how and elderly cat copes with anesthesia. She’s in good health for an 18yr old except for a bit of arthritis. She eats and drinks fine. Does anyone have any experiences with old cats and anesthesia?
It’s a risk.
You just have to decide if the improvement to her quality of life from the extraction/cleaning is worth it. If her teeth are really bothering her and she’s having trouble eating, maybe the answer is yes.
I would have a hard conversation with the vet. I’m guessing that teeth cleaning and extraction is a lighter sedation than for other procedures.
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At the moment she’s eating fine and normally. After eating she does this thing where it looks like she’s trying to get food stuck from between her teeth. But eating itself doesn’t seem to be a problem.
As reference, here she is judging me for even asking the question as well as any answers that may come.
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ROFL,
That is a seriously judgmental cat!
She doesn’t look like an elderly cat, that’s for sure.
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My suggestion would be to have them do a full blood work up, plus an EKG to check her heart, before you decide.
It will be somewhat pricey, but you’ll have more data points to look at. If you learn that her organs and heart are working well, then she’s got a much better chance of coming through the surgery well.
I feel your pain. I’ve got a very timid, ex-feral 19-y-o kitty that probably needs one, but I’m afraid the fear and stress alone would kill her, so since she doesn’t appear to have mouth pain, I’m just going to leave her alone.
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We are facing this with our 17 year old ragdoll. He has a tooth with some resorption. Vet told us he has a heart murmur and is not a candidate for the level of sedation required to remove the tooth (also a very $$ procedure). We are going to get a second opinion. Cat currently does not appear distressed, but cats hide pain well. It’s a conundrum.
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My vet always does pre anesthesia blood work and if they thought she was healthy enough I’d have it done.
I had Sammy’s done when he was close to 17. He had ckd and the vet did fluids while they did the surgery and he came through fine.
I’d see what the vet recommends after blood work.
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I had a cat in her late teens who needed extractions. The vet did bloodwork first IIRC. She came through it OK but it was rough. The anesthesia really knocked her for a loop. We took her home that night and she could hardly walk for 24 hours, she very uncoordinated and falling over. If I had to do it again I would try to find a clinic that could keep the cat after surgery until they were more stable.
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The best person to ask about this is your vet. He or she will probably want to do basic lab tests to make sure the kidneys, liver, and heart can tolerate anesthesia.
Age alone is not a reason to forego anesthesia. What’s more important is the health of the cat, so if your cat has good kidney function and no heart issues she should tolerate a dental cleaning and extraction just fine. And if they do discover issues from lab tests they may take extra precautions with the anesthesia.
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Your cat is gorgeous, if a bit judgemental, lol!
I had a cat who at 17 had FORLs and had to have most of his teeth extracted or I could euthanize. He was relatively healthy otherwise so I opted for the surgery (an expensive one at a specialist). They did a bunch of blood work and preop testing. The part that made me feel better about it all was that they had an actual anesthesiologist for the procedure, which certainly contributed to the high cost but well worth it to me. He lived to be 19 1/2 yrs old after that and did great!
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I just had my elderly chi/terrier mix in for a dental and five extractions last week and since he came from our municipal shelter as a stray I have no idea how old he is. He could be 13 or he could be 20, but his bloodwork and heart exam came back fine, so I was pretty comfortable going forward with the surgery.
What knocked me for a bit of a loop was the fact that the clinic has taken on several new vets in the past year and they’re changing many of the procedures, including handing me a paper where I had to decide if I wanted him to be a DNR or if I wanted full resuscitation attempted with meds, chest compressions, etc. if needed. The paper warned me that the staring cost for this was $750 and could go up from there, with no guarantee, obviously.
It took me a few minutes of thinking about all the factors (including his unknown age and past medical history) to finally mark DNR with a huge amount of guilt and second guessing. Thankfully he came through the procedure fine and the issue was moot, but this was never something that they asked me before with previous surgeries, so I wasn’t prepared to think about it.
Now I know that with future pets’ surgeries, I’m going to have to make that hard decision each time…
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This is what the regional emergency vet clinic does, too, including the same expense. I had a conversation both times it’s come up as part of the standard intake paperwork – last time, staff was performing resuscitation on a dog in another room (should say “attempting to”) when we arrived. We had to wait, as all staff members were involved, except for the receptionist. I was told that it’s extremely tiring for the people doing it and they have to take turns continually.
When I had the opportunity to discuss this clause, I was informed that resuscitation is unlikely to be successful (my impression was that it’s highly unlikely). I don’t recollect the exact details, but apparently there are limited situations in which there is a chance of possible success. After deciding against it for my dog, vet and/or vet tech said that something along the lines of they wouldn’t choose it, either.
It was my decision to make (no pressure one way or the other), but I was certainly not encouraged to go for it.
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Our human hospital has started asking this even for routine admissions. My husband had cellulitis that required hospitalization and hoo boy I was NOT prepared for those questions right before they wheeled him away.
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It’s good to hear that from a reputable source. I’ve been told that even with humans and trained trauma teams, true CPR and other resuscitation attempts almost never have happy endings, despite what you see on tv.
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That was certainly my experience in EMS. Most of the time we did CPR it was on someone elderly and frail, with multiple co-morbidities, and all we did was deliver a pink, well perfused corpse to the ER. With broken ribs.
Anecdotal evidence for other medical professionals is that the big dramatic save with the person sitting up in bed the next day rarely, rarely happens. Sometimes you just buy someone a little more time.
I would not elect resuscitation for any of pets, no matter how beloved.
I do think drawing blood before sedating a senior cat is a great idea, and not terribly expensive.
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I think your vet would be the one to ask as he/ she knows your cat and their particular health issues.
Mine have always said with an elderly animal( as with people) there are very big risks.
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Yes that’s what I worry about. I will ask my vet but just wondered if anyone else had an elderly put under anesthesia and how it all went. The worst part of owning pets is them getting old!
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I was a vet tech for 20 years. I’ve had dental procedures done on several of my personal cats when they were 17-19. All had screening bloodwork and EKGs and were given extra support (IV fluids, warming protocols, longer monitoring post-anesthesia).
I also recall several client cats older than 20 --the oldest was 24-- who had dental procedures under anesthesia. Because “bad teeth” are painful, shed bacteria into the bloodstream, and contribute to inflammatory issues throughout the body the vast majority of these cats all felt better after the procedures. I clearly recall how happy the owners of that 24 year old kitty were that within a few days after the procedure, she was playing and more active than she had been in years. She lived another 6 months of “quality time” which is significant at that age.
So yes, there is an increased risk with anesthesia in aged animals (and people), but if their baseline screening doesn’t reveal any major issues (advanced cardiac disease, advanced kidney failure, etc.) then with appropriate anesthetic protocol, extra monitoring, and extra supportive care, the benefits usually outweigh the risk.
I’d ask your vet what their protocols are for managing elderly kitties during the anesthetic procedure and for the post-op recovery period.
Thank you for being such a conscientious caretaker of your beloved kitty.
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Our 19 year old cat did have surgery at Angell Memorial hospital. He came through it fine. Because he had kidney disease, they gave him extra fluids. He was otherwise healthy.
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We actually got an appointment today as they were super quiet. Turns out it’s not her teeth but she has a fleshy growth in her mouth. Not much we can really do. We can biopsy it to see what it is- but he said it’ll likely be a tumour. Then surgery would be in the $4-6k range to get it removed and would require a specialist. Which is fine but what we are going to do is give her some pain meds for 2 weeks and I’ll monitor everything. At the moment she’s eating fine and she even shared a sugar cookie with me as I ate my emotions… 
I’m ok with all this at the moment as I’m relived she’s not going for surgery any time soon. He sent me some info and mouth tumours (if it’s that) seem to be mostly slow growing. Apparently vet thinks she’s very strong as it it took both of us to hold her down for him to look in her mouth!
Thank you all for your comments and info! You helped me get the courage to get her appointment!
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