Matty the Selkirk Rex's disastrous dental (August 20, 2009)
We discovered that Matty the little grey Selkirk Rex -only 4 years old- had several rotten teeth. This had come about because her breeder had fed poor food to her as a kitten along with the other cats in her cattery. When the breeder moved abroad we took on 3 as they were so poorly they were unhomeable. Matty was the smallest. We sent her to the vet to have a dental under anaesthetic and now very much wished we hadn't. She had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic and had a bleed in the brain which has resulted in her going blind, losing her balance and having excessively high blood pressure.
While not wanting to put her through any unecessary misery the vet has said that there is an outside chance that she could recover from it so we are anxiously waiting the outcome. We will know more tomorow as she has been on a drip at the vets for 2 days. If she is well enough she will be kept in one of Pip's old dog cages in the house to restrict her movement while we give her a chance to convalesce and hopefully recover. Selkirk Rexes are rather like Persians only with curly hair and the vet said there were more instances of anaesthetic problems in Persians than any other breed so as we take in many of them we will have to be very guarded about dental intervention in the future.
Thirty years ago there seemed to be far more problems with animals under anaesthetic but- on the whole- anaesthetics are more successful these days. The other area I am always cautious about is vaccinations as we had a young rescued cat die as a result of the vaccination. They must be in optimum health before vaccinating. Click here to return to the News page
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