Every year Dora the Clinic Cat has her yearly dental check with one of our Vet Nurses. This is to check the health of her teeth and gums, and to see if she requires a professional scale and polish under anaesthetic. Just like with any anaesthetic procedure, Dora had to be fasted for 12 hours prior. She was not happy!

 

 

It was during her dental check that our nurses discovered that Dora had recently snapped off her upper canine tooth! This doesn’t always mean the tooth needs to be removed, but with Dora’s case it did. The tooth had snapped off close to the gumline, meaning the pulp of the tooth had been exposed. This made the tooth sensitive to touch and definitely caused some discomfort when eating.

 

 

Just like any visiting patient, an anaesthesia consent form needed to be signed. You’ll notice our nurses will now be carrying around iPads-we promise they’re not watching NetFlix! We do our bit for the environment by using our paperless system Smart Flow, which allows you to sign on screen using your finger!

 

 

As Dora is now a senior lady, and has been on long-term medication, it was important for Dora to have a Pre-Anaesthetic Blood Test. This will test her organ function and make sure we can be aware of any underlying issues before proceeding with any surgery. Our Cat Advocates of Midwest Vets, Dr Tara and Casey used gentle restraint to obtain a blood sample from Dora’s jugular vein. Nurse Loni then processed the blood sample through our In-House laboratory. Our extensive In-House lab can give results from a variety of different tests within a very quick timeframe. Dora’s results came through all in the normal range so we were good to proceed as planned!

 

 

 

Dora was soon under anaesthetic, on IV fluid therapy to keep her blood pressure up, and ready for her procedure. Look at those dirty yellow chompers!

 

 

Using the dental drill, and some elbow grease, Dr Tara extracted the cracked tooth and sutured the gum deficit closed.  In the middle picture below, you can see the darkened centre of the tooth that is the exposed pulp cavity. This would have caused shooting nerve pain up the tooth every time that Dora tried to eat her favourite treats.

 

 

Dora’s remaining teeth were then cleaned and polished. She awoke from the anaesthetic nice and smoothly, and enjoyed some quiet time in her bed. Some yummy soft food for dinner and lots of bed rest. She was back to her normal sassy self by the next morning! With that painful tooth now gone, she’ll be able to enjoy dinner again!