Cow’s back from his 2nd dental surgery!

Cow is back home now!!

I’ve been very anxious the whole day, worrying about Cow, but all’s well and he is home now.

I got up at 5.30am this morning to give Cow his breakfast so that he has enough hours of fasting before the surgery. But Cow did not eat much. However, he ate a lot last night.

We went in to the clinic at 11am this morning as the vet wanted to put Cow on drips before the surgery. It’s safer this way. The fluids would help expel the anaesthesia later on.

The surgery was done at 2pm.

We picked up Cow from the clinic at about 4.30pm, after he was fully awake.

Back home now, greeted by, of all people……Cleo!

So, how many teeth were extracted this time?

Two.

Here’s the story: Both are teeth on the lower jaw on the right where Cow used to constantly paw. It’s been going on for months now. We would alleviate the problem with antibiotics and painkillers but these were only temporary measures. Now, the bad tooth was covered with plague, so the vet suspected that the nerve was exposed, hence, causing the severe pain.

Cow has an extremely high pain threshold, so if it’s painful for him, believe me, it must be VERY painful. He started pawing violently and letting out a cry last week, so that’s when I decided it’s time to seek a more permanent solution to this problem.

Cow had a dental done last year in March, but this problem wasn’t detected then. He had two teeth extracted at that time, both in the upper jaw on the right also.

If you look at the photo above, you will see the tooth on the right with only one root. The other root is all gone – how this happened was that, according to the vet, there must have been infection in the area (Cow is FIV+, so his body isn’t so good at fighting off infections). The infection went deep and the body’s immunity took over and attacked the root of the tooth until it’s all decayed.

Luckily the vet suspected that the adjacent tooth might be affected too (this is the tooth on the left in the photo) so even though this tooth is still very strong, the vet decided to extract it as well. True enough, the same thing is also happening with this adjacent tooth. As you can see, the root is also half gone now. Exactly the same thing was happening with this adjacent tooth. Luckily the vet extracted it as well, or else, we would have to go through another dental later on!! (No, no, no….not again, please.)

So, what should we do from now on. The vet suggested that Cow might be better off on kibble because wet food is sticky and would form plague. Alternatively, we could also continue with the use of Orozyme to help reduce plague but it would be best is we could find a way to BRUSH Cow’s teeth.

Hmm…brushing Cow’s teeth is a near impossible task.

But one day at a time now. We will let him recover from this dental extraction first and see what we can do, moving forward. Cow was given a Convenia antibiotic injection last week and it will last for two weeks, so there is no need for any oral medication. He is on transdermal Tramadol as a painkiller (applied on the inside of the ear). After the extraction of these two teeth, Cow has no more back teeth on his right jaw. He still has back teeth on his left jaw. (Well, Heidi says not to worry, she barely has any teeth since 8 years ago and she eats just fine! ANY food – she can eat.)

For now, I’m just SO relieved that Cow went through the dental surgery successfully. He is, after all, fourteen years old, plus. I get very worried whenever any cat has to go through general anaesthesia.

Cow with me last night, when I was explaining to him about today’s dental procedure.

Cow Mau aka IronCat aka The Armoured Truck….is back home!

He even tried to eat a bit just now, but his legs aren’t steady yet. We will let him rest.

For the record, how many times has Cow Mau gone through general anaesthesia? Well, let’s see, what I can remember is: 3 times when he was a kitten and had a 50 sen gaping wound on his thigh (3 times because in the first 2 times he bit off the stitches, hence it had to be redone).  2 eye surgeries due to a scratch by Indy in a fight (the first surgery failed so a second had to be done).  I think he also had a lancing done to remove pus from a wound (I think Bunny had one done too!).  And now, 2 dental extractions.  So, that’s easily, a confirmed total of EIGHT times!

No more, right, Cow?

Get well soon, Cow!!