Should cat have her teeth cleaned?

Dr. Marie replied:

Wow, this is a tough decision for you!

I won't be able to say for certain whether your girl should have her teeth cleaned without being able to examine her. But, I can give you my thoughts.

First, let's talk about the first scary incident with anesthetic. What happened to Nina is really not common at all. The most likely explanation I can think of for her symptoms is if she had a period of time under anesthesia with poor oxygen levels. Sometimes this can happen because of human error and sometimes it can just happen for reasons that are out of our control. The lack of oxygen can affect the brain and cause problems with mobility and sight. In 13 years of practice I have had one cat that had similar symptoms. This cat made a full recovery but it took a few weeks.

Another possibility for the symptoms is if your cat had had something we call a "vascular accident". This is similar to a stroke. A stroke happens when a blood clot lodges somewhere, usually the brain. However, if your cat was better within a few days this probably wasn't the case. Most cats who have stroke like incidents will have them because there is a serious problem with the heart. If this was the case then Nina really shouldn't be alive today! Cats with heart disease that causes problems like this don't tend to live very long.

Most likely what happened to Nina after her last anesthetic is something that won't happen again.

It sounds like your current vet is seeing something called a resorptive lesion. These lesions aren't cavities, but they are similar. They are painful for cats. I have many people tell me, "My cat can't be in pain because she is not showing me signs of pain and she is eating." However, often, cats don't show us when they are in pain. They will try to eat on the opposite side. However, sometimes they have lesions on both sides. They're going to keep eating because they know they have to eat to survive. I can't tell you how many times I have done dentistries on cats with resorptive lesions and afterwards the owners noticed that the cats were so much happier and active and acting "like kittens again".

If this were my case, here are some things that I would do:

• I would first try to get the records from your vet from 4 years ago. The vet will have documented exactly what happened and what the suspected cause was.


• I would be doing a blood screen first of all. If there are normal kidney and liver enzymes then I would feel very comfortable doing an anesthetic.


• I would do good anesthetic monitoring including blood pressure and oxygenation levels.


• I would start off by working on (most likely removing) the sore tooth before I did the rest of the dentistry. That way, if there was a problem during the anesthetic then I can wake her up immediately.

It is really common for cats to get sore teeth. If you think about it, we are supposed to have a full dental cleaning every 6 months and we brush our teeth twice a day. Imagine how our mouths would feel if we went years between dental cleanings with very little brushing!

I hope that helps and if you do go ahead I hope everything is ok!

Dr. Marie.


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