senior cats and anesthesia

thisplaceisstupid

hi. i have a 17 year old cat who is going to the vet today. his teeth are jacked and a few probably need to be extracted. i have read that senior cats dont do well when being put under. anyone been through this with?
tyia!

ive posted on the pets board but they are dead over there.

BeachBum73

My 11 year old cat just had two teeth extracted because of extreme plaque and she did really well. She had no issue during the procedure or after but 6 years is a big difference in cat years so I'm not sure how helpful that is.

thisplaceisstupid

BeachBum73, thanks! i guess i'll see what the vet has say today.

thisplaceisstupid

ScarlettPanda. thanks!
i am reading more scenarios like yours than ones that turned out ok i wonder if they can locally numb cats teeth/gums? it seems like a very precarious situation if the cat isnt super sedated!

wesleycrusher

Does your at have any kidney issues?  My 10 year old cat had dental work (teeth cleaning/extraction) done under anesthesia- she had blood work done beforehand, vet said it was fine.  After the anesthesia she went into renal failure and passed away a few months later.  Looking back, she was probably in the very early stages of kidney disease (had constipation issues) and the anesthesia exacerbated it.   I didn't know this was a risk until afterwards doing research trying to figure out what happened. 

cagoldi

My 11 year-old cat also had teeth extracted recently due to abscess, but he needed 4 removed. His labs were excellent though, and he was a little disoriented most of the night following the procedure. The next morning he was perfectly fine and even acting more spry than usual so I could tell the teeth had really bothered him.

What did the vet say?

thisplaceisstupid

petdocd thanks for the info. his labs all came back fine so we will have his dental next week. hes been eating normally so hopefully the gross teeth arent bothering him too badly. however, the vet said the little volcano looking thing on his gums was a mass, possible squamous cell cancer. my question to you, if you don't mind:  they will remove the mass during the dental. is it worth getting it biopsied given his age and relatively good health since these tumors are common in older cats, tend to reoccur, and you cant do much for them anyways except keep them comfy?

cagoldi see above

cagoldi

@thisplaceisstupid‌ FWIW we did have the mass biopsied. We figured may as well since he's going under and they're taking all those teeth, and it's not an additional procedure as far as what the cat has to endure. To us it was worth it, even though we are probably not ones to do chemo on a pet if it had been cancerous.