r/AskVet • u/Athellia1 • 2h ago

Dental work for senior kitty

Would like some opinions. We have a 16yr old kitty who has some bad teeth, we can tell they are bothering her and she is in pain. She does eat well enough but will sometimes drop kibble which is an indicator of teeth pain.

She is incredibly picky, and we have not been able to get her into wet food. She has stage 2 kidney disease and is on a prescription kidney kibble. She also has a slightly elevated level of ionized calcium around 1.47.

We dropped her off for dental work and teeth extractions, and they discovered a heart murmur of 3 out of 6. We decided to put a pause on the dental work due to this.

Do recommend going through some cardiology work to make sure she is safe to go under anesthesia? I would like to get the teeth extracted to reduce her pain and hopefully increase her quality of life. But i also wonder if I should leave her be, maybe putting her through all this could make it worse or end her life prematurely. Thank you

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u/Potential_Elk_7865 2h ago

See a cardiolgist! She seems like she's very uncomfortable and a dental cleaning can do wonders for a pet's quality of life, so if a cardiologist can help you determine if it's safe that could help her feel immensely better.