Dental Surgery Advice?

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naturestee

naturestee

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Ok, so Luna is going in to get her molars done tomorrow. The vet wasn't sure how bad her teeth were since it's hard to get a good look during a normal physical, but there were definitely spurs on her bottom molars and they looked like they might be overgrown. I'm hoping the vet won't have to do *too* much to her.

Any tips would be appreciated! I'm going to introduce canned pumpkin to see if she likes it. I have Critical Care but she doesn't care for it. She will eat it if it's spread really thin on kale. I can grind up some regular pellets to make a slurry and see if she likes that more. I have NutriCal, apple Pedialyte, oral feeding syringes, and a rice sock I can heat up for her although I might run out and get a Snuggle Safe at Petsmart. She'll be at the vet's all day so I'm going to pack up her favorite foods just in case she wants them.

If anyone could share their experiences with dental surgeries it would be great!
 
The Metacam makes a world of difference, Pipp is usually in good shape when she comes home, butstarts to fade when the painkillerwears off.

The pain is more from the techs/vets stretching her widdle biddy mouth that the teeth themselves.

She was awful the first (or second?) time, for days, but I had a word with the tech and asked him to be a little gentler with the brace, and it's been much better since.

Grated carrot, appleand even celery will be the first things consumed here. (Pumpkin by then is usually too much likemedicine ;))

And as you know, they're cold after the anesthetic, so hopefully the warm sock will do the trick. (Never been able to getPipp to cuddle the thing :? but it helps even being close by).

Lessee... what else...

I did make a veggie slurry withkale, etc, in the blender, but it didn't work too well.

A sprig of dill oritalian parsley will usually be the first green digested post op.

Good luck! :goodluck



sas :clover:
 
PS: Not sure if Luna's already on Metacam, but just looked at Pipp's bottle... her first dose is .6, and the ones after that are .3. There's always a big 'kick start'.

She used to be .25, but they upped it. (Apparently it's either not an exact science, vets don't agree on the dose, or bunnies respond differently, wasn't exactly sure).

And it takes at least six hours to work, often longer.

Although they say it's a once every 24thing, the vet nurse told me I could split it up through outthe day, so she gets it in twodoses. Ifound it was wearing off too soon, never lasted 24 hours.

Guess there's no point in discussing the types of anesthetics at this stage, huh. ;)

sas :bunnydance:
 
Hi,

Sherry had major dental surgery about 2 months ago. The Metacam didn't seem to be enough so she took Buprenex (recommended by Randy) which made a world of difference. She also has arthritis in one of her back legs, but with the Buprenex she could jump sky high :) If I remember correctly, she took that for 3 days followed by a few days of Metacam.

She was in surgery for 4 hours (poor baby) so when she got home her mouth/jaw were very sore. I put out a big buffet of all her favorite things. The first day I don't think she ate anything but she did drink from her bowl. For the next two days the ONLY thing she would eat was pumpkin from a spoon...not from a dish...just from me holding the spoon for her :)I didn't do any syringe feeding because I didn't want to stick the syringe in her mouth because she struggles so hard against it. I didn't want to accidently jab her where her teeth had been pulled. She started eating pellets and greens not long after but it took quite a while before she could eat hay.

I also seem to remember taking her in for fluids and a GI cocktail a day or two afterwards because she wasn't pooping. That worked well.

Since then she's become such a picky little diva princess about her food! She got used to getting only what she wanted. Now, even when I set down something she likes, she'll wait a few minutes and stare at me as if to say "Is that all you've got??".

She goes in for follow up next week and I'm hoping she can just continue on every other day Bicillin injections and Baytril rather than another surgery.

Hope all goes well and there's not too much bad stuff going on in Luna's mouth :)


 
Video showing dental exam and x-rays.

Hope it helps.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtZovDkR18s[/ame]
 
I have had a few buns done and Alfie was the latest. I was expecting him to be a nightmare, but we got him back quickly with some pain meds already in him and by 10pm at night he had eaten his full days worth of pellets. No problems he was so happy he was binkying all over the place!!

I will cross my fingers that Luna does exactly what Alfie did :D
 
She's home! And flicking me off.:p

I only talked to a tech, and I was so glad to just get Luna back that I forgot to ask anything, like how bad it was or whether they found a spay scar. She is shaved down there so I can look later. I was charged for 15 minutes worth of isoflurane, which sounds decently fast to me so I'm guessing her molars weren't too terrible. They want a recheck in 8 weeks but will transfer the info if she gets adopted before then.

I'm gonna go give her a warm rice sock, then leave her alone. She's been mad at me lately because I'm the one that gives her the meds.
 
So I just gave her the sock... and the veggies have disappeared, the alfalfa has been rifled, and someone left some dark little pebbles in that oh-so-clean litterbox.:p
 
Hmm I swear I posted here last night :huh

Im glad shes home and everything went well.:thumbup Thats great shes eating already, she must be on some good pain meds.

Oh, and pumpkin and pellet slurry are a Max favorite for after dental surgery if she gets picky.

Keep us posted!
 
Actually, all she's on is Metacam. But she's a real trooper. She should give Pipp some pointers, I'm sure SAS would be happy!

And who knows how long poor Luna had molar spurs before she was surrendered to the shelter? I first saw her the day after she was surrendered, and already at that point she had difficulty moving from the tooth and GI pain (I had mistaken it for weak muscles and malnutrition). But she kept eating enough to at least keep herself alive. She didn't start getting pain meds till 9 days after she was initially surrendered.

Oh, and I let her out in case she wanted to run around, and she did! She binkied a little too, before she settled down to sleep under her favorite chair. Then I shooed her back into the cage and gave her more veggies. Bad (foster) mommy!
 
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