It’s that time again! Time for us to announce our Cat of the Month! This month our special feline patient is Mikey!
Mikey is a very handsome and sweet 17 year old tuxedo cat. He was brought to us in December when his human Mom noticed that he was not acting himself and had bad breath. Mikey was having difficulty chewing and as a result was eating less. Upon examination by Dr. Hannigan, it was discovered that Mikey had dental disease. He advised Mikey to come back and have a dental cleaning and likely extractions.
When Mikey came in for his dental with Dr. Bolton, we were able to fully assess the condition of his teeth. We were able to do this by cleaning the teeth and probing just as our dentist does. The only difference for Mikey (and all our feline patients) was the use of anesthesia since they just won’t listen when we ask them to keep their mouths open! We also took x-rays of his teeth, both the crowns and roots. It was discovered that Mikey required a number of extractions due to a common problem found in cats called tooth resorption.
Tooth resorption is a type of bone loss where the body starts to cause the tooth to disintegrate. This process exposes the nerves of the tooth and can be quite painful. No wonder Mikey was having problems chewing! Two weeks after Mikey’s dental his owner has reported Mikey to be enjoying his kibble again as well as acting a lot more like his younger self. He seems happier and is playing more. Mikey is a wonderful, gentle senior cat and we were very happy to help improve his life.
