Squirrel Might Have Surgery Tomorrow

It’s been a little over a year with my cat, Squirrel.
cat gyrations

You can read about Squirrel and how I adopted her last year in this earlier post.

I started taking Squirrel to Kaka’ako Pet Hospital this year. Her first appointment with Dr. Kinoshita, was on March 9th, 2012. Squirrel’s canines were discolored and chipped. I was told this looked like a problem that may have been there before I even adopted her. I’d never noticed, and Squirrel’s previous vet and the Humane Society never mentioned it, so I’m really glad Dr. Kinoshita caught it.

Tomorrow, I’m dropping her off at the vet early in the morning and they’re going to sedate her, (using gas), they’ll keep her on an IV, take dental radiographs of all her teeth, perform a cleaning, and from the radiographs, they’ll determine whether or not she’s a good candidate for the tooth extractions. If she’s not a good candidate, I’ll get a call to pick her up around lunch time, and at least her teeth will have been cleaned and all the x-rays will have been taken. Squirrel seems to be OK for as far as not exhibiting any signs of pain or discomfort right now. If she is a good surgical candidate, they’ll commence with the surgical tooth extractions, and I’ll probably be picking her up in the late afternoon. In some cases the teeth are fused with the bone, and the vets at Kaka’ako Pet Hospital feel it’d become too risky to perform the extraction if that’s what they see in the radiographs.

In Squirrel’s case, the gums above her canines are swollen, though she’s not really showing signs of pain and eats both dry and soft cat food with no problems, but in the future we’re worried her teeth could bother her and affect her quality of life. Since she’s only 7 years old and in relatively good health, the vet seems to think this would be a good thing to take care of if her teeth look operable in the x-rays.

I’m worried about Squirrel since any surgery has risks. There’s also a chance of infection or complications with the tooth extractions since the upper canines have nerves that go up close to the nose, but it sounds like the positives of having it done successfully now, outweigh the negatives of having to do it later when she’s older and in visible pain. I really hope all goes well. Please wish Squirrel luck tomorrow!
instacat

This entry was posted in cats and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply