How to care for Cat after tooth extraction

Tooth extraction causes severe pain to the cat so being owner you should have the knowledge of how to care for Cat after tooth extraction. Cat disease often arises from oral problems. Cats’ oral condition should be perfect for a cat to live happily, eat happily, and enjoy life. If your cat develops some oral disease, only 25% of cats’ teeth can be seen by a physical examination, so to do a complete teeth checkup of a cat, you will need to visit your vet.

Reasons for cat tooth extraction

Following are some reasons that may cause the removal of a cat’s teeth;

• Removing any infected or diseased teeth
• Removing teeth to remove any tumour
• Cleaning the teeth or scaling them
• For medical testing, like taking X-rays.

Here are the things you need to know to take care of cats after the teeth extraction surgery.

Feeding your cat after tooth extraction

After the tooth extraction surgery, your cat will not be able to consume solid food for several days until complete recovery. So you should offer your cat some moist or soft food. Your vet will also recommend the food you should offer to your cat and the instructions to feed your cat. Giving your cat the right food in the correct manner will help your cat to recover soon from the pain.

Caring for pain for your cat after tooth extraction

When your cat’s tooth extraction surgery is done, the vet will inject some of the pain killer injections into your cat’s mouth, and they will last anywhere between 7-24 hours after being injected. After that, your cat will probably have to face pain, and your vet will also recommend you oral pain killer medicines to give to your cat at home. Here are some common signs that tell you that your cat is in pain;

• Stopped eating
• Meowing or vocalizing
• Pawing or scratching their mouth
• Refusing to come out in front of everyone

Your cat may also show these signs because of the effect of anaesthesia as showing less or no appetite, and those effects will fade away after approximately 24 hours. Continue giving your cat the painkillers until your vet recommends you not to.

Recovery of cat from tooth extraction

Cats will take almost a month for full recovery from the surgery, but the signs of recovery can be seen early; not all cats take a complete month to recover; adult cats can only take 14-24 days to recover. Your vet will ask you for a checkup after 7-14 days after the surgery to check the recovery. After the surgery, at the site where the tooth is extracted, a suture can be seen; this suture is placed there to cover the empty gum tissue where the tooth is removed. Many cat owner thinks that their cat will have to face another dose of anaesthesia to remove these sutures, but there is no need to go through another anaesthesia round; these sutures will dissolve by themselves. Sometimes these sutures are not even used to heal the gum tissue on its own.

Preventing cat from tooth extraction

Here is how you can prevent tooth extraction, or if you already had a tooth extraction, here’s how you can prevent future tooth extraction,

Tooth extraction can be prevented completely if you observe the disease early and contact the vet; they will ask you for a checkup and will tell you what to do; also, brushing your cat’s teeth if your cat has periodontal disease can help prevent teeth loss. If a cat’s teeth are broken, and you don’t want your cat to go through surgery to remove them, you can contact your vet, and they will guide you on what to do.

Suppose your cat had a tooth extraction surgery, and you don’t want your cat to go through that again. In that case, you should keep an eye on the already extracted tooth as well as other tooth. Your vet will also recommend different activities and steps for you to take in order to keep your cat safe from another tooth extraction surgery. Here are some of the steps you can take to prevent tooth loss for cats;

• Regular brushing
• Dental treatments
• Dental-friendly diets
• Water additive products
• Mouth rinsing of your cats