Sorry mods if this is the wrong forum — I am all freaked out. My precious cat, the prince of my world, has a broken upper canine tooth. It is laying across the top of his mouth and preventing it from closing. His lower canines are poking into the top of his mouth.
My two best friends are both vet techs and we are making phone calls trying to arrange something I can afford.
In the meantime, I want to give him some kind of pain meds, but here’s the problem:
We live on the second storey of a big house. He goes out my window and jumps to a garage roof and then to the ground to poop and to hunt at night. This may well be how he broke his tooth in the first place. (my friend says there is no sign of having been hit by a car, and he is terrified of the street, thank God!)
If I give him pain meds, will it be way more dangerous for him to jump down? Does anybody have any anecdotal experience?
I know the rules about cat pictures; I’ll post one, but I’m pretty upset just now. Heh.
If you have two friends who are vet techs, they can surely tell you that many OTC human pain meds are a big nono for cats. Many are outright toxic while others require close watch to avoid overdosage.
Even if you do find a cat-approved pain med that can be administed to your cat, wouldn’t you be able, at least for one night, keep him inside. What you’re talking about, even if he doesn’t have any pain, would increase the risks for re-injury and infection.
Ask one of your vet tech friends if you can give your pal something like aspirin rather than a sedating pain medication. The amount would be pretty small; my vet once put my 5-pound dog on a quarter of an 81-mg aspirin tablet. I’ve never had to give aspirin to a cat, though, so verify either through your friends or your vet/the local emergency vet (by phone).
Is there any chance you can keep the cat in the house until the dental problem is taken care of?
I would NOT dose with aspirin unless you are an expert. My understanding is that virtually all classes of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are problematic with cats. Please consult a vet even if just over the phone to get advice on what is safe first.
I once had a cat who somehow broke a couple teeth. I took a Vicodin tablet and shaved a little Vicodin dust into his food. I also put a little in his mouth. He was in obvious pain and it was either late Sunday or a holiday, that’s why he was’nt taken to the vet right away.
15 minutes he stopped that horrific meow cry.
I know it was stupid and unbelievable, but we did that. The next morning we took him in and they pulled 2 and filed one down.
I just hope you get a little chuckle out of this, your cat will be ok. Use some “Oragel” of a benzocane product.
That cat started faking toothaches all the time. He was out of control
There’s nothing you can give your cat for pain that’s not prescribed by a vet. A non-toxic dose of aspirin would be negligible in analgesic properties for this purpose, all you would accomplish would be thinning his blood for a few days and possibly giving him an ulcer. I’m betting your friends already told you this.
If the tooth is really basically sideways, I’m a little surprised one of your vet tech friends hasn’t at least tried to pluck it out with a pair of forceps. Depending on whether it’s from trauma, I guess it could still be rooted enough to make a quick pluck difficult, but if it’s from disease it should come out fairly easily. It could be worth a shot, and provide relief until you get him to a vet. You have a fairly urgent situation, if his mouth is really in the condition you describe, he can’t eat. He really should be seen tonight by an ER vet, but at the very least first thing tomorrow.
Get a litter box and keep him inside until this is resolved, pain meds or not.
I did indeed. I was adding to your post by noting that aspirin and NSAIDs are especially tricky with cats ( much more so than with dogs ) and reenforcing your advice to ask an expert first.
Sorry if you interpreted me as correcting or scolding you.
What Karl and SeaDragon said. No over-the-counter pain meds as they are either useless or outright toxic. Keep him inside until you can get him evaluated at the vet. And, yes, he does need to be checked out as soon as possible.
Care credit is your friend. You can almost always get the deal where you get the first 6 months with no interest.
Oh not at all. No hurt feelings here. Just making sure it was understood by all that the aspirin possibility was presented in conjunction with the advice to ask a veterinary professional.
I’m still haunted by the idea of a narcotized cat leaping out into the darkness and dropping 2 stories to the ground just to take a crap in the backyard…
Most of the effective cat pain medications are narcotic-based, and will leave your cat doped up and sleeping most of the day (even more than cats normally do). This is generally a good thing; vets usually want injured cats to rest and not move around.
So any feline pain medication is likely to leave your cat too sedated to jump down (or back up again). And too woozy to do so safely.
Keep him inside for this night. And it’s likely your vet will tell you to do so for several days. Litter boxes are easy to get, and pretty cheap. (Personally, I would suggest changing your practice, anyway. At least, give him a wood 4x4 to climb up & down on.)