Cat left with one tooth after dental

[RedMare01]

My father in law took one of his kitties in for a routine dental week before last, and when he went to pick the poor boy up, he found out that they had to remove almost ALL of his teeth. Poor Buddy is left with only ONE canine tooth. :eek:

Now, we are all for removing nasty teeth, but the vet didn’t mention that his teeth were in that bad of shape before the dental, and they seem quite nonchalant about the fact that he now only has his one tooth.

Is this really not that big of a deal? He seems to be eating okay…he gets wet food and seems to swallow the dry whole. DH and I are taking care of FIL’s kitties this week while he’s out of town on a business trip, and I just feel so sorry for Buddy.

[Tegan]

I’m surprised that the vet didn’t call or make an attempt to contact you and say “By the way, we’re taking the teeth out!”. What was the final diagnosis that warranted extraction of the teeth?

Sometimes you really can’t tell how bad they are until you get the cat under anesthesia and take some x-rays. Cats very commonly get resorptive lesions which causes the root to start to dissolve, and can expose nerves and be very painful for the cat (even though they don’t show it).

Anyway, cats do very well without teeth, and since they aren’t going back in, I wouldn’t worry much. If you’ve ever had a cat eat and then puke, you can see they don’t chew their food. Wet food would probably be a good option though. I would, however, want to have a discussion with the veterinarian about the reasoning behind the extractions, and would want to see x-rays that validate it.

[Wayside]

The vet speculated that my cat Alvin might have some kind of disorder that might eventually require that we remove his teeth, but I can’t recall what it was called, unfortunately. We’ve been keeping an eye on him, and so far all he has is some level of chronic gum inflammation.

So I’m aware that in some cases that might be warranted, but personally I’d be livid if the vet didn’t discuss that possibility with me, and call to inform me of what they were doing when they figured out my cat needed multiple extractions.

Of course, part of the reason I have the small animal vet that I have is that they do make those mid-dental calls if anything out of the ordinary does come up. Not all of them do.

[Foxtrot_s]

Can’t speak for cats but my greyhound had a horrible mouth and had all her teeth out. She blossomed after that, coat got healthy, she put on weight and was not swallowing all that filthy bacteria. Only thing was her tongue would hang out as she had to teeth to hold the long floppy thing in. She ate her kibble perfectly easily and didn’t care one bit.

Lucky cat, is what I say, that it has owners that take such care of her. (or him)

[threedogpack]

is what not a big deal? Teeth removal or fewer teeth/eating?

I had a dog that had over 1/2 of his teeth removed for dental disease. He did fine, actually .better. than before they were removed. He felt better and acted much happier.

[Swale01]

When we adopted our cat Chloe, she looked half-starved and turned out to be anemic - but her adoption ‘info’ from the shelter said that she was a “picky eater” and wouldn’t eat dry food. When we took her to the vet, the vet took one look in her mouth and said “most of her teeth are rotten, and she is probably in a lot of pain, especially when she tries to eat anything that requires her to chew.” Suddenly it made sense - when we first tried to offer her some dry food after bringing her home, she tried to scarf it up like the starving kitty she appeared to be, but ran away from the dish after a couple bites, and then would come back after a few minutes and try again…wet food, she’d devour entirely.

After all of the extractions that needed to be made, she only has 3 teeth left, three of the 4 canines. She is so happy and healthy now and LOVES her dry food. The vet told us that about 25% have serious teeth issues and that completely toothless cats are common. She showed us the cat who lives at the vet office (he’s a big, fat dude!) and he has NO teeth. They chew just fine with their gums…

[Alagirl]

my mom had a cat that lost all but the canines. She was still bringing ‘breakfast’ to the house after.
but yeah, cats don’t seem to chew much anyhow…:lol:

[JanM]

Why did they leave the one tooth? It seems as if it would cause problems with gumming food properly and possibly hurt the opposing gums? Animals without teeth do well, and I’m sure the lack of pain and infection will be great for the cat.

[Shiaway]

Something sounds fishy. My cat has FORLs (feline oral re-absorptive lesions) and eventually all her teeth will need to be removed. She had 3 teeth removed when she went in for her first dental (which is when they found the FORLs) and the vet called me because they charge a certain amount per tooth pulled.

Was it explained in the bill how much the dental cost and what for? It would be more expensive than just a regular dental. And the vet didn’t say anything that they did it or why? Was the vet really a vet or just somebody with a home-dentistry kit?

[RedMare01]

Yes, this was a vet; not sure who else would be removing cat teeth! :eek: :lol:

I don’t know all the details, as it is FIL’s cat and vet. DH and I are taking care of him for the week. I just wanted to see if anyone else had similar experiences and if there was anything special that needed to be done for him, as the vet (per FIL) seems to think it’s not a big deal. From most of the responses, it doesn’t seem to be, so we’ll just keep an eye on him and make sure he’s eating well.

I did have the same reaction about the one tooth left…why would you leave just one? If you’ve removed ALL of the other teeth, wouldn’t you take that one too? Not like it’s doing him any good at this point! :lol:

[CarolinaGirl]

Did the cat have stomatitis? Stomatitis is a common disease causing chronic inflammation & ulceration of the soft tissues in the mouth. This often requires all the teeth behind the canines to be removed.
I am surprised the vet didn’t call after the cat had been put under anesthesia and initial oral exam and let you know the severity of the issues and what needed to happen.

I hope they had/have the cat on antibiotics if his mouth was bad enough that they had to remove all the teeth!

[mjmvet]

Well, truly the point is that you need to treat every individual tooth. If a tooth is beyond saving (rotten, painful, not functional, infected…) you have to remove it. It would be ridiculous to leave such a tooth in the pet’s mouth. If the tooth is healthy, you leave it alone. It would be similarly silly to remove a healthy tooth “just for the heck of it”. If the teeth needed to be removed, they were causing the cat pain, and she’ll be much happier without them. Likewise, the infection that was no doubt going on will have a chance to finally clear up. Cats can and do eat just fine without any teeth. Kudos to your family for biting the bullet and taking proper care of your kitty!

[Swale01]

I asked the same question about Chloe (why leave three ‘corners’ that aren’t for chewing if the rest are gone?) and the answer was - she might prefer to keep them if they are healthy because they help her keep her tongue in her mouth! Apparently it’s OK if their tongue hands out a little for lack of front teeth, but it can dry out, and make their grooming habits more challenging…

[classicsporthorses]

We had a cat we adopted who had a cleft palate and had three teeth. yes, three that’s all she was born with! She was a young adult cat when we got her.

She lived for years with us and our other cats eating DRY cat kibbles and man did she ever get fat. We could always tell when Jewel was eating b/c she would make this funny grinding noise with her jaws. She got the job done!

[Foxtrot_s]

I’m guessing, that once the cat is under, and the vet has decided to do the whole job, there is not a lot of time to phone and try to get hold of the owners to ask permission to do a very necessary procedure. Our vet would know that we would want the proper job done at that stage…he’s been our vet for over 20 years.

[Shiaway]

foxtrot,
My vet had no problem calling me when my cat was in for her dental. It’s not like a surgery where you have anything open.

I still think there is something funky about the story. I think maybe there is some missing information–perhaps the vet told the FIL they needed to remove most/all of the teeth before the dental and perhaps he forgot/misunderstood or something. Unless this is just a really crappy vet but I think most vets would inform the client.

I also can’t imagine that the bill for the dental wasn’t outrageously more money than just a regular dental. Depending on the tooth, my vet charged $75/tooth to pull. Of course different areas might be differently priced.

The cat will probably be fine. Feed it wet food but if you insist on feeding it dry then it can choke them back no problem. A lot of times cats don’t even bother chewing dry food anyway so it could probably eat dry if you wanted. But feeding wet is better for the health of the cat.

[Grataan]

[QUOTE=Shiaway;5738385]
foxtrot,
My vet had no problem calling me when my cat was in for her dental. It’s not like a surgery where you have anything open.[/QUOTE] The most dangerous part of surgery and anesthesia is not “having anything open” it is the anesthesia itself. Besides induction and recovery, the thing that adds danger to anesthesia is time under anesthesia. You would be surprised at the number of people that ask for calls if we find x, then we find x and try to call them…and they aren’t at any of the phone numbers.

I still think there is something funky about the story. I think maybe there is some missing information–perhaps the vet told the FIL they needed to remove most/all of the teeth before the dental and perhaps he forgot/misunderstood or something. Unless this is just a really crappy vet but I think most vets would inform the client.
Most vets would do what is best for the patient, which is minimize time under anesthesia.

[Hampton_Bay]

actually, my vet in FL charged the same for the dental with no extractions as he did for a dental with several extractions. I much preferred that for 2 reasons. One, I knew the cost going in. Yes it might be higher on first glance than the place down the street with the low rate but who then charges per extraction. It can end up cheaper in the long run, or not, but I knew going in how much to expect. Second, I knew they weren’t pulling teeth they didn’t need to pull just to make a little more money. I knew they weren’t charging for teeth that might have fallen out on their own once they started the dental.

But yeah, some vets don’t charge extra per extraction.

[Justmyluck]

[QUOTE=Grataan;5738718]
The most dangerous part of surgery and anesthesia is not “having anything open” it is the anesthesia itself. Besides induction and recovery, the thing that adds danger to anesthesia is time under anesthesia. You would be surprised at the number of people that ask for calls if we find x, then we find x and try to call them…and they aren’t at any of the phone numbers.

Most vets would do what is best for the patient, which is minimize time under anesthesia.[/QUOTE]

This so very much so if they called and waited to get in touch with you would have put the cat in danger. Also did you check the box where it says notify me if you need anything else and did they mention that they may need to do extractions? Most places do and when you say yes that means they will take what they have to.

Next cats don’t chew you may hear then crunch but they don’t willingly chew cats don’t need there teeth like we do.

[Marshfield]

It does happen that often the full extent of the damage isn’t evident until you start cleaning. I worked on a pug the other week. I had seen two loose teeth when I saw the pug for an upset belly. Scheduled the dental for once feeling better, ended up taking out 11 teeth. Had a lab that week lose 10 teeth. Other times, I clean up a tooth with a painful gumline anticipating that I’ll have to remove the tooth, only to find a solid tooth that will heal with some time.