Sunday, April 10, 2022

Duo Dentals and the Tooth Fairy

ELLIE:  So Mr, Waffles? What's this I hear about the tooth fairy? How does it work? 


WAFFLES:  The tooth fairy is supposed to leave monies and stuff when you put a tooth under your pillow. Like when you lose a tooth. 

ELLIE:  So do you get more monies for more tooths?

WAFFLES:  Well I don't know if there's a special formula or sliding scale or anything. Why? 



ELLIE:  I'm just trying to figure out how many monies the fairy will leave for OUR teeths. 

WAFFLES:  That would take a lot of math to figure out I think.

ELLIE:  I hope the tooth fairy is better at math than you, Mr. Waffles.



WAFFLES:  What's that supposed to mean?


Duo Dentals

Ellie and Waffles each had dental cleanings last Friday. Waffles is an old pro at these, and because of chronic periodontitis he's had a number of extractions over the years. You might even remember when we discovered he had a condition called supernumerary, which is a fancy name for an unusual condition of double teeth. Where there should be one tooth, there is actually two. Crazy. But that's Waffles. 

Waffles had a tremendous amount of inflammation around his gums and sadly had to lose another 11 teeth.  Nine tiny teeth and two molars.

We're very fortunate to have one of the best, if not THE best, feline vets in the country, Dr. Fern Slack of Uniquely Cats Veterinary Center in Boulder, CO. She performed the cleaning and the surgery in her state of the art kitty hospital.

Dr. Fern discovered that things were far worse for little Ellie. She described her condition as if Ellie's body was allergic to her teeth. Though her initial visual exam indicated only some minor tarter build up, a completely different story was discovered during the cleaning and X-rays. Simply put, her teeth were decayed, dying, with severe areas of resorption and abscesses. It's very likely she's been experiencing pain her whole life. We had no idea. As Dr. Fern put it, "It's an important reminder of how very inaccurate visual evaluation of feline oral health can be."

The best course of action for Ellie was a total tooth extraction. All 30 of her teeth were removed. Some literally popped out on their own.

Both Waffles and Ellie are doing super well, please don't worry. We're giving them lots of TLC and monitoring them closely. Cats are incredibly resilient and do absolutely fine without their teeth. In fact as soon as we got home late Friday, Ellie started to eat and even groom herself. 

Right now the biggest hurdle is Waffles' overcoming a little bit of displacement aggression. After such a major procedure under general anesthetic, both Waffles and Ellie don't smell like themselves. And for Waffles, that's very confusing. It's just temporary though and is already starting to smooth out. But we've been keeping everyone separated at night and maintaining a very close eye on them during the day. We know it won't be long and they'll both be back to their sweet selves. 

Ellie and Waffles will be going in for a dental recheck in about a week, just to make sure everything is healing nicely. Thank you so much for keeping us in your thoughts. We'll keep you posted.


WAFFLES:  Still handsome!


23 comments:

  1. Oh poor kitties. We hope they feel better soon. Do you need to wrap miss ellie up in a nice sweaty tshirt so that she smells like home to Waffles?

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  2. Yikes, that makes my mouth feel bad, too...Hope they heal up well, and without complications.
    Poor Ellie. Well, at least there won't be an issue of sore mouth from those bad teeth anymore.
    Waffles! We hope you relearn that Ellie is your sister:)

    I read somewhere to rub a wee bit of vanilla on the back of the neck of the kitty who was being hissed at...I never did that but I would take an old blanket/towel that they had lain on a lot and rub it over both of them...that helped a lot.

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  3. I'm so sorry Ellie had to go through a full mouth extraction, but it's remarkable how quickly they bounce back from that and what a difference it makes. I hope the remnants of the non-recognition aggression settle quickly, that always adds to the stress of the whole experience. We're sending love and good energy your way!

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  4. Oh poor Ellie! Even Chey got to keep five of her teeth!

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  5. Wow, poor Waffles and poor Ellie. We're glad things are okay now and we hope they become best buddies again quickly.

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  6. Awww, poor kitties. But we know they are getting the best care.
    All of our cats over the years have been rescues who either spent time on the streets or had uncertain nutrition as kittens. All of them have had dental issues.
    I wonder if cats who had a healthier history have better teeth?
    xxoo
    Maggie

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  7. Poor Ellie and Waffles. Let them know The Tooth Fairy will gets some gifts mailed out to them soon. XO

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  8. Thanks for the update! I was thinking about them. Big hugs to Ellie & Waffles!

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  9. Ellie! Wow! We know other kitties who have had similar situations and in no time, all is soooo much better for them! We hope that you and Waffles are back to playing, investigating and snoopervising together real soon! We will put a word in with the Tooth Fairy to give you a big pay out! Sending healing purrs!! The Girls from Squeedunk (Coco, Manhattan and Lulu)

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  10. Stomatitis; poor Ellie!
    But, she'll be better now, and cats don't really chew their food anyhow.
    Sweetie only has four teeth left, and she only uses them to bite me when I pet her for too long...hahaha!
    And Waffles; we are betting that having those icky teeth gone will make you feel better too, once your world spins back into it's normal orbit.
    Hugs and purrs to you both, and the Glogirly and Gloman's thinner wallets.

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  11. Poor kitties....but we get you both feel much better

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  12. Sending purrayers for both of them. We've had two of our kitties lose a lot of their teeth, one with stomatitis. You are right that they seem to get along just fine - and can even eat crunchy food.

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  13. Healing purrz to Ellie and an attitude adjustment for Waffles. MOL!

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  14. Poor Ellie! Stomatitis stinks! I'm glad it was caught and dealt with. You'll be feeling SO MUCH better now. Waffles, though, has no excuses for his lousy dental health. He needs to work on being more diligent about brushing his teeth regularly! Shape up, mancat! ;D

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  15. Wow! Miss Ellie losted all her teeths? I thought it was bad when I lost four last year. Healing purrs to both Ellie and Waffles.

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  16. Maybe Waffles is jealous because Ellie is going to get more monies than him..lol..I'm sure they will both be fine..they do have a most wonderful Mom and Dad!..Healing hugs to both of them!

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  17. I'm sorry. That must be difficult. Especially for Elle. My cat Chris lost eight of his teeth and it didn't seem to affect his eating, although I imagine it would be more difficult for Elle now.

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  18. Sending healing purrs your way Waffles and Ellie.

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  19. Poor Ellie, you remember us our Angel Isis. But don't worry, you'll be able to eat almost anything with your healthy gums ! We send you and Waffles tons of healing purrs. Get better soon ! Purrs

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  20. oh my poor Ellie that is just awful...sending purrs and prayers that all will be ok!!!

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  21. Oh my, that's a lot of teeth to lose. We sure hope that the tooth fairy is very generous with you both! Here's to feeling pain free soon.

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