Mandarin is OTJ... and ready for a much needed dental

[Mandarin'sMom]

My shy little Mandarin is officially OFF THE JUICE!!! It’s been quite the journey since November, when Mandarin was first diagnosed. For those of you who don’t remember previous posts, Mandarin is a semi-social/borderline feral cat who hates to be held for anything. Luckily, he immediately loved his new low carb canned-food and let me do Insulin injections while he was eating. Testing him was a different story though and the only way I could test him was when I crated him first.

After lowering his dose twice and seeing his Glucose dip pretty low, the vet recommended taking him OTJ… probably earlier than the general ProZinc Protocol would have recommended. However, 19 days later, his numbers are looking pretty great!

We are still planning on doing a Fructosamine test and redoing his general blood work. If everything looks good, I will schedule his much needed dental. Unfortunately, one of his front teeth fell out/broke off last week and his mouth still looks pretty inflamed. Since there will be numerous extractions, I am sure he will need to be on pain meds and antibiotics.

Luckily, we won’t have to worry about the Insulin on the day of the surgery, but what are your recommendations for the best antibiotic and pain meds? A Depo and Convenia injection might have triggered his high Glucose back in November and there is no way I am touching those again. But he will need something that’s easy to administer and can hopefully be hidden in food. I just don’t know how I could possibly get a syringe into his mouth on a regular basis.

Thank you for everyone’s help over the last two months and for keeping me from freaking out completely. Even though Mandarin wasn’t exactly the easiest patient, I think we actually have a stronger bond after all of this and he happily slept cuddled up to me for the last 4 days while I was recovering from the flu - something that was unthinkable 3 months ago

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Yes, the Depo can cause diabetics. The Convenia does not but has other problems and should be avoid if yo can can. However, if you can't five daily or twice daily antibiotics then Convenia is the way to go.

Buprenex (generic buprenorphine ) is the pain med of choice. It it given orally in a cheek pocket but not down the throat is it is absorbed in the mucus membranes of the mouth. Placing it in food will not work. You can get injectible Buprenex in prefilled syringes from the vet. It is not cheap.
You want to avoid NSIADS like Metacam

 

[Deb & Wink]

Metacam has a black box warning from the FDA for use in cats. It's easy to overdose and should never be given more than 1 dose total. Cats are at high risk of acute kidney failure.

The insistence by the vet that did Wink's dental a year ago and wanted to use Metacam for 5-7 days, 2-3x a day, ignoring those black box warnings is why I no longer use that vet practice. It's also why Wink got adopted, since the shelter staff wouldn't stand up to the vet either and didn't care if he went into kidney failure or died.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

My Neko just had a dental this last week. We decided to go to a dental specialist and I'm glad I did. He did before surgery X-rays, and found a tooth that had a deep peridontal pocket and about to die, but wasn't visible to the eye. I do recommend a place that will do X-rays first. For post dental work, the common AB is Clindamycin (also called Antirobe). It comes in either drops or pills and is fine for a diabetic. Have you tried using Greenies pill pockets before for pills? They work great here. You might want to think about adding a probiotic to Mandarin's food before hand, as the antibiotic can be hard on the gut. As others have mentioned, buprenorphine (bupe or buprenex) is also the pain killer of choice. I got some compounded chicken flavor and Neko licks the syringe to get more of it once I've finished giving it to her.

A good post on Dental Procedures.