Post Anesthesia For Dental Surgery - Lost Sense Of Smell?

dawnie42

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My 16 year old Remy had dental surgery yesterday. I haven't been able to get her to eat anything yet. I tried all sorts of flavors of wet food last night and one this morning. She is hungry and meows as I'm preparing it. Then she moves her head around the plate, even getting some food on her nose but won't eat it. I watched her in the litter box this morning and she did the same thing. Sniffed all around and got litter on her nose. She did have a small bowel movement but didn't bury it. I had to come in to work for a while but am getting ready to go back home to see if I can't get her to eat something. The vet told me to give her pain medication this morning but I haven't yet. I wanted to see if it was the pain med from yesterday that was affecting her eating last night but apparently not. I'll give it to her when I get home. Anyone have any experience with this?
 

LokiLo

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If your cat had dental surgery that had involved extractions then your cat may want to eat but is in too much pain to want to do so. Think of it like a human having that sort of surgery done, you would feel uncomfortable and not want to eat even if your stomach was telling you otherwise. Try hand feeling her some wet food and see if you can get her to eat that way. Make sure she is staying hydrated and is drinking.
If this continues to go on for more than 48 hours I'd call the vet and let them know and they may want to see her again to follow up and see if anything is wrong.
 
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dawnie42

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I'm home now and tried again to feed her. I gave her some tuna water and she lapped a bit of that. But she was still moving her head around the plate like she didn't know where the food was. I gave her some of the tuna and and she took a couple small bites. I tried some Fancy Feast chicken but she reacted the same way. She IS hungry. She meows and rubs my legs as I'm preparing it and then looks at me like I'm not doing it right when she can't seem to smell it. That look breaks my heart.

I gave her the pain med after that - about an hour ago. I just tried some Gerbers chicken baby food. I rubbed some on her lips and tried to get her to eat if off my finger and still no luck. Could I liquify some of that and try to feed her with a syringe? Her surgery was at 1:00 yesterday so it hasn't quite been 24 hours but she hasn't eaten since the night before that. The vet said he would call in an appetite stimulator if she needed it but I don't want to do that. I don't want her more hungry and not able to eat.
 

LokiLo

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Hmm maybe call your vet and let them know that she wants to eat but isn't? Maybe bring her back to the vet and see what they can do and check her vitals just to make sure all is well?
 
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dawnie42

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I just talked to the vet tech and she is going to call in the Mirtazapine. I gave this to Remy once last year when she first started having eating issues and it made her agitated and didn't really seem to help but I'm desperate to get her to eat so I'm going to give it another try.

If it doesn't work, I'm going to ask if I can take her to our regular vet tomorrow to see what she thinks. The vet who did the surgery is a pet dentist and his clinic is 25 minutes away. Remy really, really hates being in the car and I don't want to stress her out more than necessary. Our vet is 3 minutes away. But hopefully, it won't come to that.
 

Zohra013

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Hello. I am having this same issue with my cat now. I am so worried and have been to the vet a few times. Did this get resolved? I know it was a while ago. Hope you see this. Thank you
 

babiesmom5

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My 19 year old cat had major cleaning including extraction on March 5 by a Vet dentist. She was sent home with instructions to give a syringe of Buprenex (pain medication) every 12 hours for 3 days. She ate like a horse, (better than she did previously) and continued this way throughout. By the way she ate you could never tell she had any dental work.

In my opinion, the keep to keeping them eating is maintaining a "therapeutic dose of painkiller". If the cat at anytime feels any sort of pain, they hesitate to eat for fear they will feel pain again. My cat never at any time felt any pain, thus she never associated eating with pain.

I would talk with your vet about administering a pain killer. Get the pain under control and you may not need an appetite stimulant.
 
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