Dental treatment - update

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Georgiana & Perlutz

Georgiana & Perlutz

Member Since 2019
I’ve been hanging around the Prozinc forum only for the last couple of months but Decided to post here too as we’re going for the first dental soon and any opinions and advice are welcome.

I’ll post a picture of his gums taken a couple of days ago. We’ve been at the vet earlier today and found more redness on the other side of the mouth too. So he’s now booked for a dental on the 22nd.

I’m taking a urine sample on Tuesday but the vet will do the blood tests same time as the dental as Perlutz is very nervous at the vet, hisses and scratches so they want to do it while he is sedated. I didn’t question this while in the vet’s cabinet, but now I am wondering if it wouldn’t be better to have them done before putting him under general anesthesia? He hasn’t had any blood tests since mid January.

I’m gonna attach a picture of the recommendations we received about feeding/insulin before the procedure. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been through this with their diabetic cats, how did you prepare, how did it go etc.

@Diana&Tom @Djamila I posted a little update in the Prozinc forum but I hope you don’t mind me tagging you here too.

Georgiana
 

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Hi Georgiana
I've just seen your update on the Prozinc forum and was about to reply saying good progress when the tag notification came up here. Good idea to post about "general" issues such as dentals on the main health forum, as you usually get more eyes/replies, but no harm keeping the other thread up to date as well, as it contains some history and other people there might be following it.

I think you'll find that most dentals go pretty smoothly. Vets are often more experienced in dentals than they are FD! The sheet you've been given looks fine to me. Remember just the half dose of insulin on the morning of the procedure, and no food of course. It's good that the sheet says that diabetic patients would be seen early in the day, as it then of course gives them more time to recover and eat and have a dose of insulin. So make sure that bg will definitely be tested hourly post-op and ask for those numbers when you pick him up, and also ask for the vet's advice on dosing that evening. Most cats recover quickly and get their appetite back quite soon after a long "fast", but if Perlutz doesn't want to eat much, see what the vet suggests ref insulin. You may want to make sure you have his favourite foods in stock anyway, to tempt him if he is a little reluctant to eat much.

Hopefully when Perlutz has a nice clean mouth and any treatment, his bg will be better for it. There are no guarantees of course but teeth problems are common in diabetics so it can only be a good thing to get this done. Gum disease or infection in the mouth can also cause problems elsewhere, so again, regular dentals are important.

As far as blood tests being done before or during anaesthesia, I'm not sure that it matters too much. The vet presumably doesn't forsee any other issues pre-dental, and as 22 May isn't far off, you might as well wait to get bloods done then and save poor Perlutz any more discomfort!

Those are my thoughts but see what Djamila and anyone else may have to say.
 
Hi Diana :bighug:

We’ve arranged with his vet to take him early morning, around 10 which gives the vet and his team time to sterilize everything for the day and avoid keeping Perlutz in his carrier bag too long and also should give him time to recover before we’re due to collect him at 6 PM. I’ll book the day off and I’ll most likely be spending the day at a friend’s house closer to the vet than my own, just in case! I will make sure to take his favorite food and ask them to check him hourly. I’m so worried already!

I know that the dental doesn’t guarantee a change in his high numbers but I’m hoping it will. And if it doesn’t, oh well! at least we’ve improved his oral health and we continue to try to lower those numbers!
 
You sound very well prepared, Georgiana, good for you! I completely understand that you're worrying already but try to focus on the outcome, which is that Perlutz will have a lovely squeaky clean mouth - and hopefully other benefits.
Keep smiling!
 
Unless something in the blood test results say no to the dental procedure it will be less stressful to Perlutz to have blood taken while under anesthesia. I can't say for sure but if the anesthetic affected the blood results the vet would not proceed that way and unless he did his own blood work at the clinic the results wouldn't come back in time anyway to affect his decision.
I've had a lot of cats in my life so I know leaving them behind can be stressful. You wouldn't be worried if you didn't love him right? It's exactly as Diana said, he'll come home with nice clean gums and pearly white teeth.
One question, you said you were at the vet today meaning Sunday. Was this an emergency clinic and if so what made you go there?
 
Larry and Kitties said:
Looks like Perlutz has tooth resorption.
https://www.mypetsdentist.com/feline-tooth-resorption.pml
The half insulin in the morning (if morning BG is where it normally is) is what this specifies in the DIABETES MELLITUS section (about half way through).
https://view.officeapps.live.com/op...ocs/english/Anesthesia_Guide_VASG_12_4_04.doc
It also discusses dextrose in IV too.
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Oh wow that looks scary :(

I’m having trouble scrolling through the second link, but I’ll have a look later from my pc, maybe it will work better. Thanks for sending it!
 
Most likely the vet will also find he has an infection. After the dental and as the infection clears, you probably will see his numbers drop.
 
Just got back home from dropping off my lil poochie at the vets for his dental :arghh::arghh::arghh: The house is so empty without him and can’t wait to pick him up in aprox 7 hours!

We were seen by a different vet this morning and Perlutz seems to like him much better, no hissing and he quietly let him check his teeth and everything as if it was nothing so I guess at least there’s a tiny bit less stress for him...

I’ve spoken to this new vet when I got the result for his urine test (all good apart from a lot of glucose) and he was much more concerned than his usual vet with his very high numbers and he said he will have a chat with the usual vet and see what plan they could come up with for Perlutz to improve. And today he said he would like to do an ultrasound to rule out any pancreatic tumors and things like that. So now we’re waiting for a call from them. It’s gonna be a long day!
 
Georgiana & Perlutz said:
Just got back home from dropping off my lil poochie at the vets for his dental :arghh::arghh::arghh: The house is so empty without him and can’t wait to pick him up in aprox 7 hours!

We were seen by a different vet this morning and Perlutz seems to like him much better, no hissing and he quietly let him check his teeth and everything as if it was nothing so I guess at least there’s a tiny bit less stress for him...

I’ve spoken to this new vet when I got the result for his urine test (all good apart from a lot of glucose) and he was much more concerned than his usual vet with his very high numbers and he said he will have a chat with the usual vet and see what plan they could come up with for Perlutz to improve. And today he said he would like to do an ultrasound to rule out any pancreatic tumors and things like that. So now we’re waiting for a call from them. It’s gonna be a long day!
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Oh I feel for you, Georgiana! The house is definitely empty without our little furbabies and I know you'll be counting the minutes until you can go and bring him home.
It's good to hear that this other vet is taking the high bg more seriously. Knowledge is power so hopefully any tests will either rule out other conditions or will point to something that can be easily treated.
Paws crossed that all goes well... do let us know.
 
Bad news...

There’s a small tumor on his pancreas :arghh:
They said he might need 3 extractions but then they said it can wait, it’s not urgent. It was a bit confusing as I was speaking to the vet who did the ultrasound and the dental was done by a different one. The one in charge said we can wait for the dental entirely and save the money for whatever needs done with the tumor. I’ve asked them to go ahead with cleaning his teeth today as I feel it’s better since he was already under anesthesia.

Regarding tumor, we might be referred somewhere else not sure if for the removal or just more investigations. It’s all a bit confusing now and I’m hoping they’ll give me more in 1.5 hours when I go pick him up...

I’ll update again once we pick the lil guy and talk to someone.
 
Ohhh sorry to hear about the tumour, Georgiana. Hopefully the word "small" will mean that it will be treatable. It does sound as if you need more info about the next steps and until then it's hard to know what to say.

Think positive, though - the teeth-cleaning will only be for the good, and that in itself may help the bg to some extent. And it was a good decision to do the dental as otherwise you may not have had the ultrasound.

Let us know any more later.

Hugs...
 
The tumor is about 8mm they’ve said...

I’m very thankful to have met the new vet, he is the one who suggested the ultrasound. I couldn’t help myself so I came to the vet already, I asked for an appointment with him to get more details. I’m currently in the waiting room. Will update once I have more
 
We’re back home now...

There’s a round 8mm tumor in the middle of his pancreas. They will refer us to a clinic in Marlow where they will see if it’s operable.

They’ve extracted the 3 teeth in the end and cleaned the tartar build up I’ve been told. He’s obviously a bit stressed so I didn’t try to have a look in his mouth, don’t know if I could.

We were given some anti inflammatory to give him from tomorrow evening and we’re due a check up this Friday morning. The vet said he will call the referral clinic tomorrow and we should hear back this week maybe or beginning of next.
 
Well I'm glad to hear that the vets seem to know what they're doing and are acting promptly to hopefully resolve the issue. If Perlutz wasn't showing any outward symptoms before, there should be a good chance that the tumour isn't too advanced and can be removed. I don't know much about this though so you could if you wanted start a new thread and ask for experiences/advice?

So the teeth were extracted in the end - can't be a bad thing as there shouldn't be any inflammation now contributing to high bg. No, I wouldn't bother looking in his mouth, he won't like it and there's nothing to be gained really.

I hope Perlutz recovers from the dental soon - most cats perk up and start eating pretty quickly. And I hope you'll find a way to relax this evening - it's been a stressful day for you too.
 
Poor little thing has been starving all night and day so he ate the food we left there for him pretty much as soon as he woke up! We gave him another can when we came home as it was time for his insulin and he ate all of that too and he seemed comfortable eating. If he’s feeling better, I’m happy I’ve asked them to go ahead with it.

There were some symptoms, he has thrown up hairballs few times in the past 2 weeks and this is not normal for him. He has medium length hair but he’s been a lazy fatty for years and doesn’t even groom much so he rarely ever threw up hairballs before. And he lost his appetite for a couple of times too and I guess these both could be symptoms. But yea, hopefully it was discovered soon enough!

As for relaxing, we’re all quite far from that :confused: Perlutz is still a bit jumpy, understandably. And us humans we are trying to come to terms with everything and figure out how to come up with few thousands pounds in few days :woot:
 
Awwww... I don't under estimate how you must be feeling for a moment, Georgiana, just try to be positive and put your faith in the vets. I know costs are a worry too - maybe you can ask about paying in instalments or something like that? Worth a try perhaps.

I'll be thinking of you.
 
for what it's worth, I notice that Catcat is grooming himself a lot more lately - at diagnosis he had a lot of clumpy fur and the vet mentioned that he might be feeling too lousy to groom his nether regions

I did as much brushing and combing as he would put up with, he's never liked his belly touched at all, didn't like me touching flanks, base of tail, nor lower back; with the extra olive oil, sardines for treats, and (cross your fingers) improvement in BG, much of the ugly white dandruff is decreasing, his fur is silky as it used to be, and the clumps that stuck out (winter fur, our last frost date was just the first of this month) are gone

could be that now Perlutz is grooming more, the hairballs are a good sign, of course would be nicer if they went all the way through; because of things I've dealt with in the past, I always feel concerned about dehydration when I spot vomit
 
CandyH and Catcat said:
for what it's worth, I notice that Catcat is grooming himself a lot more lately - at diagnosis he had a lot of clumpy fur and the vet mentioned that he might be feeling too lousy to groom his nether regions

I did as much brushing and combing as he would put up with, he's never liked his belly touched at all, didn't like me touching flanks, base of tail, nor lower back; with the extra olive oil, sardines for treats, and (cross your fingers) improvement in BG, much of the ugly white dandruff is decreasing, his fur is silky as it used to be, and the clumps that stuck out (winter fur, our last frost date was just the first of this month) are gone

could be that now Perlutz is grooming more, the hairballs are a good sign, of course would be nicer if they went all the way through; because of things I've dealt with in the past, I always feel concerned about dehydration when I spot vomit
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Once we switched to only wet food, his fur became so shiny and soft! Like the unrealistic hair in shampoo commercials :D but every now and then, for few days, it becomes dull and gets that annoying “dandruff” so we try to brush him as much as possible since he loves it and it relaxes him. But since I hardly ever see him doing any grooming, I thought the hairballs were bit too many. Will see how it goes, hopefully no more vomiting hairballs!
 
Diana&Tom said:
How is Perlutz today, Georgiana? I hope he's recovering nicely?
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He is doing good! Doesn’t seem to be in any discomfort, has a very good appetite (maybe a bit too much) and he ate the food with his medicine mixed in without fuss.

I think I can see an improvement already re his teeth. Over the past 2-3 weeks there were gradually more and more tiny tiny pieces of food in his water bowl. Not sure if they were sticking to his teeth or what, but I’d sometimes have to change his bowl over 5 times or so a day. Since yesterday, although fed the same food, there aren’t any bits in his bowl.

PMPS was 18 so maybe there will be some improvement there as well although both vets seem to think it won’t change much.

Taking him for check up tomorrow morning and I might have more about the referral for removing the tumor.
 
Georgiana & Perlutz said:
He is doing good! Doesn’t seem to be in any discomfort, has a very good appetite (maybe a bit too much) and he ate the food with his medicine mixed in without fuss.

I think I can see an improvement already re his teeth. Over the past 2-3 weeks there were gradually more and more tiny tiny pieces of food in his water bowl. Not sure if they were sticking to his teeth or what, but I’d sometimes have to change his bowl over 5 times or so a day. Since yesterday, although fed the same food, there aren’t any bits in his bowl.

PMPS was 18 so maybe there will be some improvement there as well although both vets seem to think it won’t change much.

Taking him for check up tomorrow morning and I might have more about the referral for removing the tumor.
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That's encouraging, Georgiana! And 18 is better than it has been, isn't it, so who knows, the dental might be making a bit more difference than the vets think... let's hope it continues.
 
Diana&Tom said:
That's encouraging, Georgiana! And 18 is better than it has been, isn't it, so who knows, the dental might be making a bit more difference than the vets think... let's hope it continues.
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I’m gonna test him again later depending on how he is. He’s still a bit careful around us, understandably after all he’s been through yesterday, and I don’t want to stress him too much. He’ll be so unhappy going back to the vet tomorrow and I have to go straight to work after bringing him home :(
 
Georgiana & Perlutz said:
I’m gonna test him again later depending on how he is. He’s still a bit careful around us, understandably after all he’s been through yesterday, and I don’t want to stress him too much. He’ll be so unhappy going back to the vet tomorrow and I have to go straight to work after bringing him home :(
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Awww poor little guy... yes, give him a break from too much testing, he can do without more stress. Shame you have to go to work tomorrow but leave him in a nice cosy place with his favourite toys and a few treats, he might sleep all day and you can make a big fuss of him when you get home.
 
With those resorptions gone I think you will find he will eat more, numbers will be better and he in general is no longer in pain. My kitties did after a day or two after. They are quite painful, though they never show us that!

I hope that tumor is easily treatable. Good luck tomorrow.:bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
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