Teeth cleaning and diabetic cat?

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Molly& Jimmy

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Hello,

My 17 year old needs to go in for a cleaning and some extractions. He's been diabetic for about a year and in all honesty, his diabetes have been in poor control, but I am working on it.

I am very worried about him going under for the cleaning as I have had a terrible time finding a good vet foe him and my hyper-T cat. I just started with this one, so I am hoping for good things, but want to be careful

Are there any questions that I should be asking before allowing this vet to do the cleaning an extractions? I have no problem vet shopping, but I don't even know what to ask.. any advice is welcomed
 
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Hi there,

what an important question! I have no experience with dental but I wanted to tell you that if you add a question mark as a prefix to your title line you'll get more attention. Go to your initial post, right hand upper corner click on thread Tool - Edit Title and then on the left of the Title line choose ? from the drop down box.

I'll tag some people who I know went thru dental procedures

Can you help guys?
@Bobbie And Bubba
@Tasha & Darwin
@Kris & Teasel
@Judy and Boomer

I'll watch with interests for the info as my cat might need dental too.
 
Hi there - Zulu is going in for his extractions a week from Tuesday so I'm in the same boat. One thing to ask is the types of medications your vet usually uses for extractions and post-surgical care, so you can review them and their risks before the surgery, and ask for alternatives if necessary. In my case, my vet originally suggested Convenia and Metacam, both of which are too risky IMO; we're going with bupe and Onsior instead.
Also I have heard that the anesthesia can cause a temporary lowering of BG levels, so that's something to be aware of in case you need to give a reduced dose of insulin or skip it entirely.
 
Hi. I would ask about what kind of monitoring they will do while he is under anesthesia. Also, if they have not given you very specific instructions regarding what to do about food and insulin prior to the visit, make sure you ask about that. Starting a round of antibiotics a few days before the procedure that continues until a few days after is recommended.

Here are a couple of related articles:
https://diabeticcatcare.com/DCCCOK/Preparingforsurgery.htm
https://www.adwdiabetes.com/articles/dental-cleaning-diabetic-pets-ask-dr-joi
 
Hi there Molly & Jimmy! Definitely make sure they will be monitoring during the procedure and recovery. Also ask about the anesthetic they use....some will make the BG go lower. I would also recommend that X-rays be done at the beginning because some problems cannot be seen during an examination.
 
Hi there. I trust they did pre blood work first to see how everything is functioning and to make sure that he would be a good candidate to go under general anesthesia. I do believe that with older cats the anesthesia is different than they would use on a younger kitty but not positive about that.

If he needs extractions, you are going to see that his numbers will come start to come down as infection and inflammation cause the numbers to stay elevated.

Many gave some good advice for questions and meds to stay away from and I second to not let them give him Metacam ( for pain) or Convenia ( an antibiotic).

Good luck with the procedure.
 
As a vet tech, I am very particular about what types of anesthetic protocols, etc that my veterinarians use when performing any procedure - especially a dental. I would make sure pre-anesthetic labwork is performed (this should be comprehensive labwork at 17 years of age). I'd be SURE they are performing full mouth dental radiographs - lots of problems can be missed without these! Darwin just had 5 extraction performed, and only would have been seen without dental radiographs! Then I'd just ask about their anesthetic protocols - they should not be "masking" or "boxing" cats under anesthesia - injectable anesthetics are much safer/reliable. Also, as others mentioned, make sure they have a designated technician monitoring anesthesia during the procedure. Finances permitting, you could always look into a dental specialists if there is one in your area - they are typically the GOLD standard for dental care, and will be the same with anesthesia, in my experience (but do tend to be more expensive as they are board certified dental specialists).
 
Merry had a dental in Sept & he`s not regulated either. He had full blood work done prior just like any cat or dog should have to make sure it`s safe for the anesthesia, the morning of his dental I was advised to give half of his insulin dose (since he could not eat that morning) and during the day while he was at the clinic my vet checked his BG several times & he never went too low. So the same precautions should be taken that are taken for any cat or dog going under anesthesia (blood work before, on IV fluids for the day of the procedure, monitoring blood pressure etc while under anesthesia) and for a Diabetic the need for the vet to check their BG several times in case the anesthesia makes them go too low. And giving half the insulin dose the morning of since they wont be eating until much later that day. Dental xrays are so important as well & in my opinion dentals should not be done without them but there`s still a lot of clinics that do not have dental xrays so they do the best they can. I take my cats to a board certified dental veterinarian who has all the technology & way more experience than a regular vet, people travel from all over to see him because he`s amazing but for Merry he went to my regular vet because the rescue group was paying for him & couldn`t afford to send him to the actual vet dentist. And in all honesty, I think Merry still has something going on in his mouth & because she did not have dental xrays could easily have left some roots in there which is why xrays are so important before & after the dental.
 
I don't have advice for the procedure itself, however, be aware that poor teeth can contribute to hard-to-regulate diabetes. Once the offending teeth are removed and plaque removed, the inflammatory processes quiet down and blood sugars could improve rapidly. In our situation, about 3 days after my cat's dental, his blood sugars took a nosedive and we had to monitor very closely. We ended up reducing the insulin pretty quickly. Make sure you are monitoring blood sugars closely the first week or so.
 
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