One Cat tells the tale of his own Dentistry

Hi, allow me to introduce myself....my name is Nosey. 

Like you, my owner takes me to the Royal City Animal Hospital in Guelph for my annual check-ups.  Despite all my squawking, I really don't mind going.  I just make it sound like I don't want to be there. What other way do we have to communicate with our owners?  Oh, I have a few tricks and my favourite one is drooling.  Now, truth be told, that one got me an extra visit to see Dr.Drewry.  Drooling is taken very seriously as it could signal a variety of problems that need to be properly assessed.  OK, I wasn't feeling the greatest but for me, I was lucky.  My owner took me to the hospital right away.  I'm just glad that she was so observant for she admits that my earlier sneezing would not have elicited the same quick response.  Tests were conducted and they all came back clear, so I'm healthy, except when they inspected my teeth.  We cats have a unique situation that occurs with our teeth, which needs to be monitored regularly.  I can't explain it to you but the staff at Royal City will be most happy to provide the information.  Just ask them.  They spoke at length with my owner, explaining the procedure and potential costs, for nothing is certain until they can view our whole mouth.  Like our owners, we should have a regular dental check-up.  

So what happened to me?  I was booked in for an extensive dental appointment, where they put me to sleep.  That was great for I didn't hear or feel anything.  Once the plaque was removed, the team were able to discover the "root" (excuse the pun but it's my attempt at humour) of my problems and dealt with it quickly and efficiently.  I was lucky; it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  While I was sleeping, they also gave me my annual shots, which was very thoughtful of them.  When my owner collected me, later that day, she was advised that I might be a bit groggy and not ready to eat just yet.  Boy, were they wrong!  I got home and immediately devoured my dinner, and then raced around the apartment for good measure.  I haven't looked back!  So my fellow cats, don't be a scaredy-cat (like my owner) and go get that annual dental check-up done now.  

Life is just purrrrfect for me.  

If you would like to know more about your pet's oral health, Call my friends at Royal City Animal Hospital in Guelph and they would be happy to help you just like they did me (and my mom).
                                                                                           Nosey B. 

A Veterinarian's Confession

 Giving advice to clients on how to watch for dental pain is one thing but having it happen in your own home is another. I too fell victim to the common myth that if an animal is still eating, they aren't in any pain.

A few months ago, my wife had mentioned to me that our dog's mouth smelled bad and wanted me to have a look. I knew that he had a small amount of dental tartar but I was shocked to find out that he had completely fractured his largest tooth in half and it was starting to rot!! I felt awful! How could a veterinarian have missed something so obvious and so painful on his own dog? Where and how could he have possibly done this under my watchful (or so I thought) eye?

I will sadly admit that I didn't think anything was wrong because he was still eating and acting normally. Once I made the diagnosis I began to watch him carefully and noted that he was in fact chewing to one side of his mouth and didn't seem to be playing with his toys as much.

After 3 hours of surgery to carefully remove the broken and infected tooth, I noticed a huge difference in his overall attitude. He began to play with toys much more and seemed to have this unusual spurt of energy I haven't seen since he was a puppy. As upsetting as this was to me, I learned a big lesson in how well animals can hide their pain.....even to a veterinarian in his own home!

Dr. Jonathan Uyede



Bronson - showing off his tough guy mohawk!