My husband and I live in the beautiful southern United States. While we wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, we sometimes get excruciatingly hot during the summer months. We aren’t the only ones that get hot at our home though. Our beautiful dog Lucy also gets hot. I’m constantly searching for effective ways to keep her cool while she’s outside. And during the winter, it can get oddly cold at times. Do you have loving pets at home? Consider purchasing a small plastic pool for your pets to splash around in. And when it's cold, make sure to monitor them very carefully while outside. On this blog, I hope you will discover ingenious tips to help you care for your pets during any extreme weather.
You may regularly take your cat to the vet for routine checkups and immunizations. However, in addition to the animal's overall health, the cat's dental health should also be maintained. Serious dental problems, such as a fractured tooth, may occur if your cat's head receives some type of trauma. Here are a few questions and answers about feline dental fractures:
How do feline dental fractures occur?
Most dental fractures in cats occur due to trauma. Your cat may break a tooth as the animal lands after jumping from a high surface. Although your cat is likely to land on its feet, its jaws or lower face may strike the ground as it lands. Since the tips of the canine teeth are generally exposed even when the animal's mouth is closed, these teeth may become fractured as they come in contact with the ground.
Are the teeth fractured if they are fully discolored?
If you notice that your cat's tooth is becoming discolored after blunt force trauma, the tooth may not necessarily have a fracture. Instead, the impact of the force may have damaged the pulp of the tooth, and the discoloration indicates that the tooth is dying. Nevertheless, once a tooth dies, it may become brittle and more susceptible to fracture.
Additionally, after a feline tooth dies, it may cause a dental infection or an abscess to form. You may notice that your cat's face or jaws appear swollen. Treatment for a dead or dying tooth should be received as soon as possible so the bacteria of the mouth do not spread throughout the cat's body.
How can you tell that your cat has a broken tooth?
If your cat's canine teeth are uneven in length when compared to one another, the shorter tooth is likely fractured. Also, if one of the teeth is discolored only on the tip, a fracture may be present.
What will the cat dentist do to evaluate the possible fracture?
The cat's dentist will likely take x-rays after placing the animal under anesthesia. The x-rays should indicate whether or not a fracture has occurred.
What treatment options are available for a cat's fractured tooth?
A cat's dental options to treat a fractured tooth are similar to those of a human. The tooth can be extracted, receive a root canal, or incur a pulpotomy.
An extraction may be the least favorable option because the root of the tooth will not be present to transfer bite pressure that helps prevent the atrophy of the animal's jawbone.
To learn more about feline dental fractures and how to treat them, schedule a consultation with a cat dentist in your area.
Share9 September 2016
