dental issues/is regulated diabetes possible?

Hi Furball lovers,
I'm having a difficult time regulating Chinker's diabetes. He does need his teeth cleaned & also my need to have a tooth removed, no problems eating so far.

The vet is saying Chinker needs to be regulated before any work can be done on his teeth but then says that his B.G. numbers are effected by his bad teeth. It's like a tug of war, can't improved either.

Anyone else been thru this, any suggestions?

 

Dental issues are a common problem. Unfortunately if they're causing regulation problems the tooth issues need to be addressed before BG numbers will improve.

 

Has he specified what exactly he means by regulated? Chinker definitely needs more insulin than he's getting right now. He is unlikely to get to our definition of regulated until the dental issues are addressed since bad teeth cause high blood glucose. However, I'm thinking we can probably get him at least some improvement with dosing that better meets his needs.

Is there a reason you dropped the dose after 1.5u? It looked to me like he needed an increase at that point, so I'm wondering if something happened that made the decrease necessary?

 

I’d ask the vet more...it doesn’t really make sense that a dental isn’t scheduled when we know it will help regulation. I wonder if something else is going on.

Just a side note that a lot of vets offer discounts on dentals in February too. I think it’s dental health month.

 

Chinker was boucing really bad every 3-4 days during the night hrs while I was sleeping. He would be fine before I called it a night, and then the next morn would eat very little (tsp) & be very spacey, like day dreaming, very nerve wrecking to give an am-shot. So, the vet lowered the insulin dose thinking it was to much. Have an appt. next wk for Chinker's check up, & vet is considering switching to glargine.

 

I also feel it would greatly improve the situation but, the vet is against dental work until Chinker gains more weight & is regulated, suggesting that its not a good idea to knock him at this point. I do have an appt. set in May for dental work, I think its should be done sooner. What happens if a cat isn't regulated, is there a increase risk of not waking up?

 

Hmmm...I don't really know what would happen if the cat wasn't regulated. My guess is it doesn't really make the dental any more dangerous...we've had tons of cats here go through dentals while not regulated and all it did was help to regulate them afterwards...maybe ask your vet at your check up next week WHY they won't do the dental earlier. Explain that you think it will help lower Chinker's numbers and you'd really like to give it a try sooner if possible.

 

Mia had a dental cleaning and extractions while she was running in the mid 200s up to 400s. I took her to a dental specialist at the same specialist clinic where her internal medicine doctor was, and they both agreed that the dental should be done. They did pre-procedure blood work and confirmed that she was otherwise fine - elevated BG was the only issue present. They monitored her BG during the procedure and were prepared to intervene if her BG started getting too low (apparently it can drop when they are under anesthesia), but it did not. The reason her mouth was checked in the first place was because her numbers had been staying unusually high, and no other issues were found. They never suggested waiting to get her numbers down more before doing the dental - the opposite was true. They wanted the dental done in case it was a factor in her higher numbers.

 

I don't think I quite understand this. Which data looks like he was bouncing during the night? And what was nerve wracking about giving the shot?

 

Is going to a vet dental specialist an option for you? If there is one in your area and cost is not an issue, you may want to consider this. They may be better equipped to perform the procedure and do the appropriate monitoring.

Here is an older thread you might want to review for questions you can ask the vet, etc: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/teeth-cleaning-and-diabetic-cat.186827/#post-2074387