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Dental Care for your Cat
Your veterinarian has examined your cats' mouth and recommended a
"dental". Why? After all, you may have had cats as a child, and no one
ever suggested that you clean their teeth then. Well, very few people
ever really get to look at a cats' mouth very closely. Then in those
days, it was taken for granted that cats had bad breath (mouse breath)
and the dental disease wasn't considered an important feature of the
cats' life. Today we know that almost every cat (98%) has periodontal
disease by young adulthood. We know that the bacteria in the mouth are
a major cause of liver and kidney infections. The bacteria are spread
throughout the blood and can infect any organ. 95% of cats with
uncontrolled or untreated dental disease risk organ damage as a result!
If you know a kitty with bad teeth and kidney problems at the early age
of ten or eleven years, chances are the bugs in the mouth can be found
in the kidneys.
That
is the medical side of the story, but what about the discomfort to
extreme pain cats feel with cavities and inflamed gums? How do we know
the mouth is painful? After all, your cat may not have stopped eating
and doesn't cry out? Well, cats are pretty stoic and are very secretive
so you need to watch carefully - does your cat flinch if you or the
veterinarian touches that tooth? Does your cat eat using only one side
of the mouth? Or has started eating only dry or wet food? Lost weight
and is finicky about eating? Perhaps the biggest sign of chronic pain
is the change in behaviour - painful cats become crotchety, may sleep
more or just seem to go sit hunched somewhere. Many people, because the
behaviour change associated with the sore mouth has been happening for
a while, often tell us that their cat became a totally different
"personality" after the painful teeth were identified and removed -
became more loving and more playful. How painful can it be? Think about
if you had a hole in your tooth that went right into the root canal -
exposed the nerve - extreme pain, all the time.
A
"dental", to be properly done, needs to be done under anaesthetic. Hand
scaling a stressed and reluctant cat only makes matters worse in terms
of potentiating dental disease, and may cause serious damage to the cat
or the person attempting the scaling. Polishing is an essential step in
the dental cleaning and can be considered impossible to do without
causing injury in an awake cat. Nor can anyone achieve subgingival
cleaning, dental radiographs and proper dental evaluation in the awake
cat.
Because
the infection in the mouth can affect other parts of the body, your
veterinarian will have done a complete physical examination and
suggested preanaesthetic tests. These minimum blood tests usually
suggested are
- Feline leukaemia and FIV testing
-
Complete blood count to check for systemic infection and anaemia
- Chemistry screen to check liver, kidneys, other organ parameters, diabetes
- Thyroid hormone levels (T4) if your cat is middle-aged or older
-
Urinalysis to screen kidney function, bladder problems, diabetes
These
tests are often all lumped together, depending on the laboratory, so
you may just see one item on your invoice from your veterinarian - but
always ask your veterinarian for the details! Your veterinarian may
suggest other tests (coagulation screen, chest x-rays or chest
ultrasound) depending on the physical examination and history of your
cat.
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