cat tooth pulled? Please help

[goosegoose]

Hey everyone

My cat just got back from the vet, she had her tooth pulled and I can't figure out
what to feed her. She only likes dry food, and I don't know what wet food she would ever like? I've tried several already. She seems to have energy and wants to play. But she's been whining for food, except all I have is her dry food. Right now I put her dry food in water and I am waiting for it to get soggy so it's soft enough for her to eat, hopefully she'll eat the soggy dry food. If she doesn't, I wont know what to do. She Keeps eying her food bowl on top of my book shelf and is trying to get to it.

Any suggestions on what she could eat? I don't want her to starve for 10 days.
What can I give her?

 

[stephanietx]

Try meat baby food, turkey and gravy or chicken and gravy. That might pique her interest, even if she doesn't like wet food.

 

[bastetservant]

Oh, my goodness, she has to eat! But maybe she isn't feeling up to it yet. They can have nausea for a while after the anesthesia.

However, going more than 24 hours without eating is bad.

My Lily just had 3 teeth pulled a couple of weeks ago. After I brought her home, about 3-4 hours after the surgery, the instructions were to feed her in 2-3 hours. They said to feed her soaked dry food, or better yet, canned food. My cats all do eat canned food as one meal a day is canned, thinned with water, because I want them to get the extra moisture to help ensure their kidney health (Chronic Renal Disease and eventual failure - CRD and CRF - are one of the main age related conditions that bring about the death of cats.)

Anyway, if you want to try to still feed her dry, get it pretty wet. Or try some really smelly kitty junk food like Fancy Feast. Or try human baby food - beef or chicken (with no onion or garlic in it). Cats can't go more than 24-48 hours without eating or they can have major health problems that can't be reversed.

Didn't your vet give you instructions on how to feed her? My Lily had to be on wet "dry" food or canned for 14 days, according to their instructions. That didn't happen as she got into the other cats' dry food right away. But I did isolate her during meals (3 X a day at my house) and she had canned food then for 9 or 10 days.

I hope you have pain meds and antibiotics to give your cat while she heals.

Robin

 

[goosegoose]

Originally Posted by bastetservant

Oh, my goodness, she has to eat! But maybe she isn't feeling up to it yet. They can have nausea for a while after the anesthesia.

However, going more than 24 hours without eating is bad.

My Lily just had 3 teeth pulled a couple of weeks ago. After I brought her home, about 3-4 hours after the surgery, the instructions were to feed her in 2-3 hours. They said to feed her soaked dry food, or better yet, canned food. My cats all do eat canned food as one meal a day is canned, thinned with water, because I want them to get the extra moisture to help ensure their kidney health (Chronic Renal Disease and eventual failure - CRD and CRF - are one of the main age related conditions that bring about the death of cats.)

Anyway, if you want to try to still feed her dry, get it pretty wet. Or try some really smelly kitty junk food like Fancy Feast. Or try human baby food - beef or chicken (with no onion or garlic in it). Cats can't go more than 24-48 hours without eating or they can have major health problems that can't be reversed.

Didn't your vet give you instructions on how to feed her? My Lily had to be on wet "dry" food or canned for 14 days, according to their instructions. That didn't happen as she got into the other cats' dry food right away. But I did isolate her during meals (3 X a day at my house) and she had canned food then for 9 or 10 days.

I hope you have pain meds and antibiotics to give your cat while she heals.

Robin

She just got back today, and has been home for a couple of hours already. She seemed hungry right away. I usually give my other cats fancy feast. but she does not like it. I've also tried Iams. She doesn't like that either.
The vet said she had to eat wet food for 10 days at least. But they did not really give me many options if she does not eat wet food. I actually never heard of feeding cats baby food, so maybe I'll try that if it's safe for them to eat? My vet also suggested soaked dry food.
She's also been given medication that I have to give her every 8 hours. So she does have that to help her. But she's getting really hungry. It's only been two hours and she's sniffing everywhere for food. The dry food is taking forever to get soggy, I really hope she'll eat it. She does not even like tuna.

She now seems to be meowing a lot more. Especially if I have the door closed. Her meow sounds different, but I guess it will go back to normal after a few days go by.

But I really might consider the baby food? So just beef or chicken and no onion or garlic? Is there a certain brand that is better for cats? I really don't know anything about it.

 

[my4llma]

She doesn't like wet food, but have you tried adding a little water to it, then warming a little in the micro? Luna and Midnight love that. It might make a difference. If not you could try gerber baby food, just make sure there's no onions in it. We tried that for

Lynxx

.

 

[goosegoose]

Originally Posted by My4LLMA

She doesn't like wet food, but have you tried adding a little water to it, then warming a little in the micro? Luna and Midnight love that. It might make a difference. If not you could try gerber baby food, just make sure there's no onions in it. We tried that for

Lynxx

.

Maybe I will try that. She seemed to eat the soggy wet food and is happy now.
Do you have any suggestions on what kind of wet food to feed her? Maybe
there's a kind I can still try?

 

[rad65]

My cats don't like much of the available wet foods, but they will both inhale soulistic brand wet, which has shredded meat instead of pate. Its the only brand that never has any left on the plate after meals

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by GooseGoose

Maybe I will try that. She seemed to eat the soggy wet food and is happy now.
Do you have any suggestions on what kind of wet food to feed her? Maybe
there's a kind I can still try?

So glad to hear she's eating the moistened kibble. The meowing is probably because she still feels funny from the anesthesia. What is the pain medicine? Is it in prefilled syringes?

If it is buprenex (buprenorphine), remember it gets squirted into the mouth, but not down her throat, it is mean to be absorbed by the gums or membranes in the mouth.

She'll be feeling much better tomorrow, keep us posted.

There are so many brands of wet food, and styles. (chunks in gravy, pate, shredded, flaked) What styles have you tried?

 

[danewillow]

Our cat Ned had to have a tooth removed. When we asked the vet if we needed to feed him all canned or soft food he said it was fine to keep feeding him kibble. That's what we did and he didn't have any problems eating.

 

[goosegoose]

Originally Posted by otto

So glad to hear she's eating the moistened kibble. The meowing is probably because she still feels funny from the anesthesia. What is the pain medicine? Is it in prefilled syringes?

If it is buprenex (buprenorphine), remember it gets squirted into the mouth, but not down her throat, it is mean to be absorbed by the gums or membranes in the mouth.

She'll be feeling much better tomorrow, keep us posted.

There are so many brands of wet food, and styles. (chunks in gravy, pate, shredded, flaked) What styles have you tried?

I checked and it's buprenex (buprenorphine). I'm not looking forward to giving her the stuff, she's a very timid cat. I usually need another person to help me give oral medication to my cats, and Betty only seems to like me and no one else.
I also caught her scratching her mouth and I tried to stop her. I guess it's itching her? But I try to keep my eye on her because I don't want her to damage the stitches.
She eats the kibble but not enough, and she still seems hungry for more food. She wants what the other cats are eating. I take away the other cats dry food after they eat, and it sucks because she's always sitting there waiting for them to finish. But I always have to push her away. Wish I could give her food she likes.
Other than that, she seems fine and is no longer groggy. She was just a little bit groggy when she got home. But she got back to normal pretty quickly. So she seems okay for the most part.

 

[otto]

Buprenex: It's not like giving a pill or liquid med that has to go down the throat. You just shoot it into her mouth. It works very fast.

She's pawing at her mouth because it hurts. Keep up with the pain meds as prescribed, no reason for her to have pain at all.

 

[goosegoose]

Originally Posted by otto

Buprenex: It's not like giving a pill or liquid med that has to go down the throat. You just shoot it into her mouth. It works very fast.

She's pawing at her mouth because it hurts. Keep up with the pain meds as prescribed, no reason for her to have pain at all.

I finally gave her the medicine and we had no problems getting it into her mouth. So that's one less thing to worry about

But, now she's not really eating. She won't eat the wet kibble, and I even tried crushing it. She'll take a few bites but that is it. I don't know if it's because she does not like the way it's prepared, or if it's because her tooth hurts her?
So I called my vet and left them a message and I am now waiting for my vet to call me back and see what she says about the food.
She's also still scratching her mouth, so her tooth is bothering her? I am worried that she might damage her stitches or something?
I also decided I will go to petsmart later today and try and buy a few different flavors of wet food, see what she will eat? She's gotta like something I hope. And maybe even try warming the wet food up, and see if she likes it that way?
Anyways, she's still playful and cuddles, so that's good. And, she's also drinking normal, so I don't have that to worry about that. It's just the food that's really making me worried.

 

[otto]

Offer her some dry kibble. Most cats just swallow it whole, so I think she should be able to eat it okay.

She may have a stitch bothering her. I'd bring her in and let the vet have a look, they can snip it shorter if it is rubbing against something. My Tolly had to have a stitch snipped after his last extraction.

 

[goosegoose]

Originally Posted by otto

Offer her some dry kibble. Most cats just swallow it whole, so I think she should be able to eat it okay.

She may have a stitch bothering her. I'd bring her in and let the vet have a look, they can snip it shorter if it is rubbing against something. My Tolly had to have a stitch snipped after his last extraction.

I talked to my vet and she said if my cat wont eat any wet food that she can
eat the dry food. She only had her one front tooth pulled, so hopefully she'll be okay.
I also just came back from petsmart and I bought some more wet food. Fancy Feast, Meow Mix, and 'Authority'.(Authority is petsmart cat food brand) Was not sure about the other kinds of cat food they had there. But does anyone know anything about 'Authority'? If they tried it and if it's good?

 

[bastetservant]

All the foods you named are not ones I feed my cats. I try to go mostly grain free and feed them, for their canned meal: Wellness, Blue Wilderness, Taste of the Wild, BG, Avoderm, Science Diet (I know some think this is a no-no, but my cats like it, and I've had cats live on it healthily for many, many years), Natural Balance, Soulistic (pouches) and Solid Gold. They get all these in a rotation, some more often (Wellness, TOTW, and Blue Wilderness) than the others.

One thing I did with Lily when she had her teeth extraction was to put her in a room alone during feeding time with her canned meals. This was not unusual anyway at my house as there are lots of issues with cats getting different meals (one's on diet food), eating too fas (then vomiting), eating each others' food, etc. After about 20 minutes I would go in the room (my office) and bring the bowl of unfinished food to where she was - which is on the big computer desk where I am typing now. I would tell her (in my most chirpy, kitty liked voice) that she was such a good girl to eat so much. "But would you eat some for me? I really want to see you eat?" And she would do it. She really liked this attention and my coaxing her to eat. She liked it so much that we have continued it, even though now she is back to only one canned meal, as all my cats get in the early evening. She needs to be separated for this meal because she bolts her food if the others are near, and then she vomits.

So, you might try that. Give your little invalid a lot of personal attention when feeding and remove her and her meal from the others. She may just eat it to please you.



Robin

 

[bastetservant]

If you ate considering dry foods, the ones I feed my cats are: Wellness Healthy Weight, Science Diet Light, Natural Balance, and Taste of the Wild.

You may get other recommendations, but I thought I'd let you know my choices, since you seem to be wanting to do something different from what you have been doing.

Robin

 

[goosegoose]

Originally Posted by bastetservant

If you ate considering dry foods, the ones I feed my cats are: Wellness Healthy Weight, Science Diet Light, Natural Balance, and Taste of the Wild.

You may get other recommendations, but I thought I'd let you know my choices, since you seem to be wanting to do something different from what you have been doing.

Robin

Thanks, I will give some of them a try.

Oh, Betty managed to grab a toy mouse that the other cats were playing with. I think she put it in her mouth, but not for long because I managed to catch her doing it. I took the toy away and hid it. But I am worried that it could maybe had damaged her stitches?

 

[my4llma]

Originally Posted by GooseGoose

Do you have any suggestions on what kind of wet food to feed her? Maybe
there's a kind I can still try?

How old is your cat? I have 2 kittens and the can food I give them is kitten. My 2 like beef, turkey, and chicken food. If your cat likes tuna, and likes fish. Try getting her can foods with seafood in it. The kitten brands I buy are: Fancy Feast, Iam's Proactive Kitten, Natural Choice Kitten, and Max Cat kitten.

 

[my4llma]

Originally Posted by GooseGoose

I am worried that it could maybe had damaged her stitches?

Will she let you check her mouth to make sure that everything is still ok?

 

[stephanietx]

How is she doing today? Did she ever eat?