Wednesday evening when Jonathan arrived home from work we decided to entertain Jackson with a little game of fetch in the backyard. The weather was in the high 70s if not low 80s, and the spring blossoms made the air pleasantly sweet. From beneath the shade of Maurice’s diagonal trunk Toby approached where we were sitting via his kitty crab run next to Jackson as he returned the ball for another toss. While crouched in greeting to Toby Jonathan noticed a little bit of blood on his lip. I didn’t think too much of it since Toby is an avid hunter and/or scavenger, consistently bringing home dead animals and the occasional random wing. However, upon closer inspection Jonathan noticed a broken tooth!
Unlike with most kitty tooth breaks Toby had managed to break a rear tooth, instead of the more commonly chipped or broken front fang. To make matters worse it appeared that he managed to break it pretty close to the gum line. The cha-chings of feline dental procedures echoed softly in my head while I continued my internet research. Of course I was concerned with Mr. Toby’s health and comfort but he appeared somewhat unaffected by the broken tooth since he had enough energy to mess with Jackson as well as gobble down his dinner.
The next morning I managed to get Toby into one of the carriers and loaded him into the Cooper. Despite making a 3 day near cross country trip without so much as a peep, he is alsway quick to protest the anticipated trip to the vet. He was surprisingly calm and relatively loving when I let him out of the carrier in the exam room, but this euphoria didn’t last long. As if in anticipation of the vet’s arrival a switch flipped and Toby went into crazy stress mode. I attempted to lift him from the floor to the table and not only lost that battle but also a little skin and blood in the tussle.
After covering him with some thick towels and lifting him to the table the vet was eventually able to sooth him enough to check out his teeth. Turns out our little Mr. Toby had a wicked cavity which likely caused a weakness in the tooth resulting in a break from whatever random bone Toby gnawed on that evening. The dreaded tooth extraction was scheduled for the next morning. Poor Toby was going to have to go under for his dental routine, and we would be providing painkillers and antibiotics for the days to follow. I dropped a very annoyed cat back home before heading back to work for the remainder of the afternoon. As to be expected, he was none too happy to see me return later that evening and managed to avoid all petting and eye contact attempts until after he finished his dinner.
The following morning Jonathan dropped Toby off at the vet on his way to work. The vet would be performing an extraction of the broken tooth, an additional dental inspection and dental cleaning, as well as some blood work to be sure Toby was in good health. Around 4 PM I got the call that Toby was safely out of surgery. Very groggy but ok. He was apparently pretty cooperative and even allowed for blood to be drawn before being put under but started to get a little feisty shortly thereafter. During the exam the vet found a second tooth, (same tooth, but on the right side) that had a nasty little cavity and also had to be extracted. The remainder of his teeth cleaned up well and his blood work showed a very healthy kitty. They noted that his blood pressure was consistently little low and that he had a slightly slower pulse than expected, but again very healthy overall. Seeing that Toby can be quite a crate fighter they ended up placing him back in his carrier with some blankets before the anesthesia wore off. He was still a bit groggy when I picked him up at 6 and after I let him out in the house, he remained noticeably shaken. He roamed from hiding place to hiding place, not wanting to be bothered and clearly not feeling well.
As soon as allowed I gave Toby his first dose of pain killers. I hadn’t expected immediate results but literally within minutes he perked up. He stopped hiding, was content to hang out with us in the living room as well as hop up into the cat stand, and felt good enough to attend to some much needed self grooming as well as Jackson harassment. The following morning he proved to be on the road to recovery with some early Saturday morning “feed me” harassment including some voice altered meows, most likely the result of not opening his mouth fully. After breakfast and some painkillers Toby seemed to enjoy a pretty normal Saturday inside including a little play time and Sydney harassing.
Despite a costly vet bill I’m glad Jonathan noticed the broken tooth and that we were able to get the situation resolved and Toby back in good health. He appears to be making a speedy recovery and will likely be off the pain meds as of Sunday night.
** Toby update as of Tuesday... all is well and he back to his usual fiesty self, minus a few teeth.
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