Aw why no teeth? My cat doesn’t have teeth either, she had a really rare allergy to the plaque her own teeth creates, so she was constantly in pain. Had to take em all out.
Would you mind telling me about your experience? My poor Meeka is likely going to have all of her teeth extracted soon. Her teeth are fine, but the gums get super inflamed to the point where they bleed if you touch them. We’ve been managing the symptoms with meds and have an appointment next week with another vet with better on-hand equipment to try and determine root cause. My vet assures me she will be happier if it does come to extraction, and the research I’ve done seems like she will more or less live her life like she normally does. I think the thought of the first few days/weeks post-op is what feels most daunting right now.
Absolutely. It was terrifying for me and not even the vets were able to give any real advice.
So first off, you may feel awful for “taking away all her teeth”. Don’t. Understand that right now she is in pain, and you are helping her. Second, She’s gonna have to wear a cone to prevent scratching at the gums, and she’s gonna have to eat all wet food at least until she heals. You may see some drool come out with some blood, don’t be alarmed. She will bleed a little bit until it’s fully healed. She’s gonna be drowsy and loopy for the first few days cause the pain killers they give them are very strong, plus you’ll have medicine you’ll have to administer as well but don’t worry, the pain killers they will have her on will allow you to give her the meds, even forcefully, without much pain at all.
After she’s a bit better you’ll notice she’s gonna be a lot happier, less lethargic. The other thing I observed but I don’t know if it’s common is my cat became very attached to me, very suddenly, I became her favorite thing in the world.
After the cone is off if you wanna take some dry food and crush it up just a little bit, slightly more manageable bits, and mix it with wet food, that helps transition back to dry food. Then you can move to mixing crushed up dry food with a bit of water to soften it up and make it easier to swallow, and then after a while if they wanna dry full dry food I would say just spray it with some water from a bottle to again make it easier to swallow. But wet food, if you don’t use it regularly, will become a regular thing. I feed my cat wet food still about 2-3 times per week, cans are about 75 cents. My cat, however, is a monster of some kind and not only prefers dry food, but she refuses to eat it if I spray it with water…she just eats it dry. So it is possible for cats to eat dry food without teeth, though id recommend trying to see if they’ll eat it with water sprayed on it first. Ultimately if you use wet food this isn’t an issue.
EDIT: ALMOST FORGOT: Especially if this cat is already used to you, get a blanket that you don’t mind a possible drop or two of blood to get on and make it smell like you before the cat gets home. Then grab a cat den, kennel, any sort of moderately tight enclosed but still comfortable space and place the blanket in there. They may be terrified after the surgery, and their senses are gonna be a bit out of whack, natural instincts are to find a dark place to hide. If they can find one that smells like you, they’ll probably be more comfortable there.
Edit 2: if you have any specific questions please feel free to ask and I’ll do the best I can to answer based on my experience, but keep in mind I am not a doctor or a vet.
Thank you so much for the thoughtful response! I am feeling a little more at ease, and this will help me narrow my questions for the vet this week.
Not sure actually! She has two upper fangs but no lower ones. Despite this she has brought us several rats haha. It’s an outdoor kitty I’m taking care of- we have a little food and water station and a couple of cat beds. I can’t bring her inside, but hope to give her affection and food/water to make her happy at the very least.
Well that is sweet of you. I’m sure the rats are a token of appreciation.
I can really feel her energy here
Wow that looks a lot like my cat, who only has one tooth!
