The Road to Recovery: Monitoring Your Pet After a Dental Treatment
Worrying about your pet’s health is expected when considering putting them through major oral surgery. These fears stem from the unfamiliarity of the pet’s problem. Major surgical treatment is complicated to contemplate for seniors and their close companions. Your experiences with pets, or those of family members and friends, have raised additional concerns.
Everyone’s human-animal bond is one-of-a-kind but typically extremely strong. Sometimes, family and friends disagree on whether you need to proceed with major oral surgery for your pet. Guilt may emerge from discussions with others about major dental surgery for your pet.
Should I Worry About This Type of Procedure?
Pet dentists will provide dental and dental surgery examinations to aid you in working through these emotions by giving detailed answers to your concerns based on our clinical experiences. Knowledge of the fundamental nature of the problem and the likely result of any proposed treatments is essential for making the ideal choices.
The preliminary surgical consultation with the information provided below can be handy. It is your chance to collect the information required to make rational decisions. Taking your time is acceptable; however, treatment procrastination can fail.
Benefits
Many factors influence the answer; however, if an injury has occurred, a major surgical procedure may be life-saving. Patients with oral and maxillofacial lumps may also benefit from life-saving surgery. Before choosing significant surgery, it is critical to assess these patients thoroughly. Vets can perform CAT scans or MRI imaging, and radiologists and oncologists can determine the best treatment alternative. You and your vet dentist in Poway, CA can collaborate to make difficult decisions.
Post-Surgery Discomfort
Dental surgery for your pet needs careful pain management. To manage pain properly, continue reading. Numerous factors make pain recognition difficult. Pets naturally hide the pain from veterinarians. CUPS, feline stomatitis, jaw fracture, oral lumps, and TMJ fracture cause moderate to severe pain in the majority of pets requiring major dental surgery.
Dentigerous cysts, open-mouth jaw locking, and TMJ ankylosis require less painful oral surgery. Surgery anesthesia involves the selection of pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative pain medications based on the patient’s current pain status and the planned surgical procedure. Pain is avoided or reduced. Lots of pet owners are impressed that their pets appear to be less painful after major oral surgery. For more information about dental surgery for pets, click here.
Post-Surgery Diet
For major dental surgery, dissolvable stitches are typically used. After surgical operation, veterinarians highly recommend using canned food or moistened kibble for 10-14 days. It may take some time for your pet to get used to the changes caused by the surgery when it comes to eating.
It is usually beneficial to urge pets to eat from your hand to get through the adjustment period after major oral surgery. Some messes will be brought on by salivation, food, and water lapping. After major oral surgery, most pets can eat within 6-12 hours. For the first 24 hours after surgery, feeding small amounts of food every couple of hours is advised.
Appearance
After major oral surgery on the lower jaws, the pet still looks very normal, even after a mandibulectomy procedure. Where bone has been removed, the tongue may protrude from the mouth. This may become much less noticeable over time. There may also be an increase in saliva flow following major oral surgery.
Some pets might experience face swelling, which usually settles without treatment within a few weeks. Because the upper and lower teeth come occluded when closing the mouth, clicking is common after partial mandibulectomy procedures. After a few months, the clicking sound in most pets becomes significantly reduced or goes away.
Post-Surgery Care
After major oral surgery, most pets need no nursing care other than love, attention, and hand feeding. Some surgical procedures involve placing feeding tubes to ensure the pet gets the prescribed food, water, or medication. In these cases, written instructions for feeding tube administration will be given.
The owner or caretaker’s primary responsibility is to keep the feeding tube clean and to feed at appropriate intervals. Only some owners find handling feeding tubes difficult or inconvenient. If nursing care is required and the owner can not provide it, you may contact professional vets who can assist with problems or offer the necessary services.
