Civie Cali needs a root canal

Cali had her first ever dental cleaning today, and the vet tech found that her right upper canine is broken. Discharge paper says it's "cracked off at tip," while her chart notes that it's "cracked at base with vital pulp exposed." Sounds like tip and base are different ends? Dr S thinks it must be a fairly new break, less than a week old, because it was still bleeding a little - and he hadn't seen it when she was in for her annual at the end of May.

Anyway, he called me before waking her to ask if I wanted to extract or do a root canal. Thanks to Jess, who'd made it very clear that extractions without rads would be a deal breaker for her, I told Dr S no extraction (our hospital doesn't offer dental x-rays) . So, we're going for a root canal, to be done by a veterinary dentist. I'm calling the vet dentist tomorrow.

Does anyone have any feline root canal stories/experience to share? I'm not even sure what I'm looking for; prior to noon today, I didn't even know that root canals are even done on kitties. (But sure enough, I found it on the AVDC site, and the veterinary dentist's site as well, along with pictures).

Thanks.

wcf
(who's now going to postpone her own dental crown appointment, since her tooth doesn't hurt that much, while Cali's may).

 

Sorry to hear poor Cali broke a tooth. So it was just coincidental that you had taken her in for the cleaning, or had you noticed some sort of mouth tenderness? I had no idea they could get root canals either. I wonder if they are going to be able to mend the tip of the fang. Cali could look pretty gangster with a gold cap. :lol:

I'd like to review Jess' tips since I have several cat dentals coming up - do you have a link?

 

Wow thats a new one on me too. No advice to share but sending prayers all goes well.

 

That's so sweet of wcf to postpone crown appt for cali; can you use the same appt or is it done by different person?

 

I have heard the root canals are expensive. I am not aware of any cats getting them but some dogs do. When you find the cost please post it for reference.

 

Hi Laur,

Gold crown like this? :Þ

Yes, the finding was coincidental. This dental cleaning was planned a year ago at her annual exam; I'd asked if she needed her teeth cleaned then and Dr S had said not then, but it would probably be a good idea in a year's time. So we brought her back in May for this year's annual, got her rabies booster (Merial 1-yr, except we stretched it out three and do titres for the in-between years), did bloodwork to get a baseline since she's just turned 5, and scheduled the cleaning six weeks out. There was no sign of a broken tooth when Dr S looked at her in May, and the break is pretty obvious now I know to compare - the sharp pointy bit of the fang isn't there anymore.

So, to answer your question, nope, didn't notice any mouth tenderness six weeks ago when we scheduled the cleaning. Didn't even notice any mouth tenderness the night before the dental. ohmygod_smile Or this morning; either she's hiding it well, or my powers of observation leave much to be desired, or both. She'd been a little picky with her food, but we'd chalked it down to her not liking Merricks because it's lower-fat - she seemed to eat other brands fine, and not eating her raw gizzards because they were freezer-burned (bad DH, that's another story!). She did eat a fresh batch of raw gizzards all week except Sunday, when she left it out to dry. We wonder if she just broke the tooth Saturday night; I did hear a crash late that night but came out to find toys strewn all over and no kitty. And she hid in her bed most of Sunday but we thought it was because I did a thorough vacuuming of the apartment, and she really fears Dyson.

There were some pretty extensive discussions on dental cleanings/extractions in Hillary/Maui and Kathy/Kitty's and Mocha's threads sometime back to which Jess and Dr Lisa contributed to - I saved some but probably not all of them. Topics included antibiotics, nerve blocks, radiographs etc :

Maui's pre-dental visit - update to the update

Dental discussion, including Dr. Lisa link

1/26 Kitty AMPS 80

dental questions

mochas dental

 

*giggle* Not sure what you meant, but Cali and I see different dentists - our dentists specialize in different species ;-) My crown appt is with the bean dentist. It may or may not include a root canal; bean dentist is going to try just crown first and see if I still hurt. Whereas Cali's root canal will be with the veterinary dentist. And I haven't told my bean dentist yet, but if I need a root canal, I'm planning to go to a bean endodontist, even though regular bean dentist claims he can do it.

Actually my appointment was only tentative and I was going to call them back and re-confirm. Now it's probably are going to be pushed back while I have another discussion with my piggy bank LOL; I'm sure piggy will say let's see what Cali's bill is first.

Yikes I got so distracted with questions for the dentist and trying to figure out how to work the appointment into next week that that I forgot to get a cost estimate. ohmygod_smile Cali has a VPI policy which should cover part of the cost, but I guess it would be good to find out I'll post if I can get a quote.