Teeth and FD, info pls

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Deb and Tiger

Deb and Tiger

Member Since 2023
The reason we found out Tiger was diabetic was because he needed teeth work. Before the procedure they did a standard blood test and dicovered it. Because of that the vet wouldn’t do the teeth until we had the diabetes under control

is this standard? I am afraid the teeth troubles are affecting or even causing the diabetes. Has anyone else run into this?
Why can’t they do the teeth now?
 
There are any number of vets that won't clean a cat's teeth until their diabetes is under control. How they define "control" is beyond me. It's particularly perplexing since the anesthesia can lower blood glucose. If they want your cat to be closer to normal range, that could take months and some cats never become well regulated.

Elise gave you the search directory for veterinary dentists. If your vet is uncomfortable doing a dental, I don't recall a veterinary dentist that ever refused to do a dental on a diabetic cat. It's certainly possible that your vet isn't set up to do the necessary monitoring but frankly, if that's the case, I'd be nervous having the vet do any surgical procedure.
 
Sorry I'm gonna jump on this thread.
Aside from brushing our sugar babies' teeth (which I already do), is there anything we can use/give them to help with tartar/plaque/gingivitis?

Has anyone tried those plaque off powders that you sprinkle on their food?

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My cat was also diagnosed originally the same way as yours! She went in for a dental, they did bloodwork, and found her elevated blood sugars. A few tests later and diabetes!

My vet also did not want to do the dental until her blood sugar was better under control. However, as I understood it from my vet, she simply wanted to make sure everything was safe for Snickers before putting her under anesthesia. It wasn't that she would never do the dental, and I don't think I'd have had to wait months or years. It was a while ago, and I'm not sure now how much we actually talked about it. But I had the perspective she just wanted to start Snickers on insulin, run some other tests, and make sure everything was going okay before going under the anesthesia.

I would just ask your vet for clarification on what this means. Like just ask flat out, "What do you mean by 'get it under control?'" or "What sort of BG range does Tiger need to safely do the dental?" Something like that. I'm sure they're just concerned about your kitty and are doing what they think is best for them.

My vet did eventually do the dental, by the way. I don't remember how long after the diagnosis though. A month, maybe? Perhaps two or three at the most. I don't quite recall. My vet does seem more reasonable than others I've read about though, and is always open to my ideas. So I guess I should add that, in case yours isn't.
 
Deb and Tiger said:
Anyone have had their FD kittys teeth cleaned? How did it go?
Click to expand...

5 times. Her last one was when she was almost 19. The first time she lost 8 teeth and was eating by the time we got home. She never had any negative effects from her dentals.

Anesthesia is a lot better than it used to be, so it's much safer too. Of course there is always a risk Anytime there's anesthesia, no matter how safe or how well educated the vet is, there's no 100% guarantee, but that's where you need to weigh the benefits versus the risk and as long as the rest of his bloodwork looks good (kidneys and liver values WNL), the risk is very small.

The risks of not doing it are the possibility of your cat being in severe pain, refusing to eat, infections set in that can cause bacteria to get into the bloodstream and cause sepsis as well as causing major heart problems.
 
Bella had her teeth cleaned under anesthesia twice. She had bad gingivitis, they had to extract several teeth. Now she has 2 teeth left only, plus the tiny incisors in front. She's eating fine.
The first one was before she was diagnosed. The second one was due around when she was diagnosed as well, but was pushed back because of COVID, all was longer. It was finbally done in March 2023, and she's doing so much better since. If you look at her SS, her BS decreased right after her bad teeth were extracted. She had pain and was hypersensitive, she would twitch when we touched her and was grooming a lot, even pulling hair. she stopped doing that, she started jumping and she is a lot less stressed since.
Our vet told us she preferred to wait when Bella was diagnosed, but just a few weeks to see how she was reacting to the insulin.
She needed more time to get back to normal after the second anesthesia (she was 11 then, 8 the first time), but not that much, less than 24 hours later she was back to normal. And she ate right when she woke up, both times.
 
Neko had three dentals done. The first one was her regular vet - her BG that morning was in the 400's. Neko was no where near regulated at the time. The second one was several years later and done by a dental vet. By that time, Neko had developed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and early kidney disease, and I wanted to go to the specialist who would ensure special anaesthesia monitoring. She had one tooth removed at that dental. Side note, the dental specialist took a look at her mouth before x-rays, and couldn't see anything wrong. It wasn't until he did the xrays that the bad tooth was found. Moral of that story, always get dental xrays done or something might be missed.

Second dental was the same year. She developed a sudden bump on her jaw line and her BG numbers had started to ramp up. Back to the dental specialist, and this time a osteochondroma was found on her jaw - a benign bony growth. Vet was 95% sure it would be cancerous and sent it out for biopsy. I was glad he was wrong that time! It was a result of Neko's secondary endocrine condition called acromegaly, that results in excess growth hormones being output.

Even though Neko's dental was a little more complicated, she also got a cleaning done at the same time.
 
I am so thankful to hear these stories. I will be looking into it here and doing research and the vet dentists we have here.
Ty all!
 
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