Sudden deafness after dental anaesthetic

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Thank you 

[lindac]

Hi Gill, poor Franta  
I dont know wether it is normal practise for vets to give abs after dentals and I cant remember if Winnie was given them. At first I thought it might be the abs that had caused Suki to go deaf but I dont think so now because of the distress she showed when I brought her home after the first dental. Maybe it wasnt the tooth that was troubling her like I thought but the ear problem, she might have been in pain with her ears and not her tooth, yet they did corrective surgery on her! Its all still a mystery.

Yes Suki  is insured and your advice of an ear specialist is well worth looking into, I shall certainly have a word with the vet regarding that. Suki's insurance doesnt cover dentals but it might cover her for this deafness. I just cannot rest until I know that I have done all I can for her.  Though there is a reluctance on my part to put her through any more trauma and pain. Luckily she is eating and acting fairly normal apart from shaking her head. I have noticed that she is finding it difficult to eat her dried food which makes me think that there is a problem inside her mouth, she is eating wet food ok.

Thankyou again for the advice and Good Luck with Franta, I hope he pulls through and you have many more years with him. 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Franta certainly wasnt on abs in tablet form so if he had any it was by injection but he was so ill after and wouldnt eat, he then had loads of stuff, including valium to get him to eat.

He was so stressed and upset and nothing would get him to eat. He even had xrays and that was when it was found he only had one kidney and various stones, Advice was taken from Bristol University on that.

But he trashed his cage and I could hear him howling.......its a birman thing............when I went to the vets to bring him home and he gradually started eating again but the seizures started a couple of months later.

If your cat is insured, you could get your vet to refer her to an ear specialist or for her to ask for specialist advice...............she would have to be open an honest for this and any lketter written and the reply should be copied to you.

[lindac]

To Cazzer, thank you so much for your thoughts and best wishes for Suki. I live in hope that her hearing will come back.

[lindac]

Many thanks for the quick replies I have received.
To Gill,
Im so sorry to hear about your Birman and so hope that he recovers from this latest seizure and bladder problem.  It must be a very traumatic time for you and my heart goes out to you. Was he put on antibiotics after his dental?
I agree with you that they probably should have removed it instead of filing it down, I think when I go back I will ask more questions regarding this and ask what exactly did they do the second time around.
Like you say it is hard to have faith in any vets after a bad experience and Im wondering wether to 'stick with the devil you know' so to speak especially as I have had no problems in my past dealings with them. The vet I have faith in told me that I could ask for her each time in the future if it made me feel better. Since this has happened I do ask to see only her because she is a lovely vet and I have total faith in her, I will have to insist in future that I will only be happy if she treats my cats. Pity I didnt do that for Suki because I have a feeling that all would be well now if I had.

Suki was given 2 weeks of antibiotics [Clavaseptin 50mg twice a day]after the initial dental so I would have thought that they would have dealt with any potential tooth infection, also I am thinking that because she was distressed when I first brought her home that the damage had been done during the operation. When the ear infection was discovered after a matter of a few days she was put on different antibiotics [Baytril]to clear that up.

Unfortunately she is definately deaf in both ears, Ive done extensive testing on her and she cant hear a thing, she is a cat that is on 'high alert' at the best of times, now she is deaf she is obviously  feeling more vulnerable.

I dont blame you for not wanting a dental done on your semi feral after what you have been through with your Birmans! I will definately be thinking long and hard before I ever agree to any other treatment on my cats in the future. Suki has paid a big price for having 3 teeth out! Thankfully she has always been a healthy cat and I have never had to take her to the vet for anything in the past unlike her
big sister and protector, Lulu, who sadly passed away last year after suffering with cardiomyopathy.

If I get the chance I will ask the vet if Suki had been put on a drip during the op, I have already asked lots of questions so much so that the vet is now, understandably I suppose, defensive and I can tell she feels that Im trying to blame them even though I have said that I am not trying to point the finger of blame but I just need to understand why this has happened and can anything more be done for Suki.
I feel the more questions I ask the more I alienate myself from them, if that makes sense!
Thank you for the reply Gill and the advice and best wishes for Suki, also the 
I hope your poor Birman wins the fight and is soon out of hospital 


To Angie,
Thank you for your quick reply and advice.
No, the vet hasnt suggested ear drops, I was thinking there might be a blockage but the vet checked her ears and said they looked clear, do you think there could be a blockage that she couldnt see through her instrument [dont know what it is called]? When I asked could it be an inner ear infection she said she didnt know but doubted it because Suki is not losing her balance and tilting her head which would indicate an inner ear infection. She then said she could give another weeks worth of antibiotics just in case it was and if I wanted to try!! This made me feel that she was just prescribing them to keep me happy. Despite this I accepted the antibiotics and Suki has two more days to go on them.

I dont think it can be coincidental because she was perfectly healthy and her hearing was perfect before this. Being a nervy cat she would react to a pin dropping. If she hadnt come home showing signs of distress and this had happened days or weeks later then I may have said it could be coincidence. I cant help but ask the question, if they were capable of not doing the first dental properly then the chances are that they may have got the anaesthetic wrong or not given her the right amount of care that she needed, so many questions and Im afraid I will never get the answers to any of them.
If she has reacted badly to the anaesthetic then surely I need to know so that I dont risk her life in the future. I surely need to know for certain what has caused her to go deaf.

I spoke to the head vet last Monday and she said her ears looked clear, I spoke to her of my concerns regarding the op, she said it would have been on the records if there had been any problems at the time of the op and there was nothing on the record to say there had been any problems. There was obviously a problem when I got her home that day because she was pawing at her mouth and violently shaking her head. My other cat Winnie has had 3 dentals in the past [she has no teeth left now ] she never showed any signs of distress after these treatments. I know for sure that Suki's deafness is not 'coincidence', she is not only deaf but still shaking her head as if something is troubling her. Something has caused that to happen! Having said that Im not really here to point the finger I only want to know what has caused it because I feel that if I can find that out then maybe I can find out if there is any hope of her hearing coming back.

I shall certainly ask about ear drops maybe there is crud still left in there from the infection that the vet couldnt see. Though I cannot help but think if the vet had thought that then she would be advising ear drops or whatever else.
Thank you for your reply and advice Angie it is so much appreciated

[Angiew]

Have you been given some cleaning drops for her?

If she's still shaking her ear then there may just be a blockage due to stuff still in their. Have they had a good look?
I personally had a blocked ear last December and eventually needed my ear syringed out after a course in antibiotics - magic when it happened can hear wonderfully, instantly from being almost totally deaf (no so good re my post about neighbour noise today  ).

At 12 blood test may have been a good idea, but what has happened has happened and it may of course be coincidental. Its very natural to want to link the two events together.

However, if you are not happy with the vet you should either try and find one you are happy with - speak to any local rescues and see who they may suggest.

If there is no better vet that you are happier with, then you must go and speak to the head vet and explain your concerns and get them to check her ears again. You can at least ask why you were not advised to have some preblood work and ask them if they have anyone with any geriatric experience (not that 12 is but obviously you will need to be confident that someone will be able to advise and look out for the thinks that come with old age - organ problems, thyroid, diabetes as well as deafness and the rest).
 They should let you book appointments with the vet you are happy to see at least.

 There is nothing worse than not trusting the vets you work with.

[cazzer]

what a sad story.     Poor little Suki.       Hope she recovers her hearing 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Hi Lindac I am so sorry to hear all about this and I find it very worrying.

First they should not have left a little bit of tooth in and if they did they should not have filed it down but totally removed it!

Most dentals seem to go OK but I have two birmans much older than your cat and had problems with both after a dental and it may not be the anesthetic but an infection from the tooth.

In your situation I would change vet but its so hard to have faith in any after a bad experience.

It does sound like there is a problem with your cats ear and wonder if she has lost hearing on one side only? Its very hard to tell if a cat is deaf cos one of the above birmans convinced the vet he was deaf....not dental related..........but he was just being a smart cat!

The same birman has been having seizures since the dental and is currently fighting for his life in hospital after having a seizure on Monday and his bladder blocked. He is at a different vet now and the current thinking on the seizures is that an infection from the tooth during the dental got into his blood stream and this caused a brain infection. This infection comes back every so often and he has a very powerful antibiotic and the seizures are very infrequent now and he is 18yrs in Aug.

There are many different types of anasthetics that can be used for ops, some are much safer than others for older cats, and being 12 your cat should have been put on a drip before the op. She is at the beginning of older but old enough for this too be done.

Some vets want to take too many teeth out unnecessarily and my first vet wants to take all the teeth out of my semi-feral cat but I have refused.

So I can only suggest that you try and find a good vet who will be open and honest with you and give better care............very hard I know 

I hope Suki will recover her hearing 


Its very hard for vets to be able to tell if there is an ear problem

[lindac]

Hi all, Im new to this forum and would like to know if anyone else has had the same devastating experience that I have recently had with my poor Suki. Four weeks ago I took her to the vets for her booster, on checking her mouth the vet advised a dental as she had one bad canine. This hadnt been giving her any trouble that I could see but I decided to book her in for a dental just in case she was in any pain from it. The vet extracted 3 teeth, the canine and two from the back of her mouth. When I brought her home she was showing signs of distress, shaking her head and pawing at her mouth. I left her for a couple of days and she seemed to settle down a bit but after 4 days she had stopped eating. I took her back to the vet who told me that she had a spickle of tooth left in there and she would take her in and file it down. Poor Suki had to go through another op and anaesthetic, the vet phoned to say she had sorted it out and that Suki should now be ok. She wasnt, after another day or two I noticed discharge in her ears.
I took her back to the vet who said she has an ear infection, she gave antibiotics and asked me to take her back in a week to make sure the infection had cleared up. Thankfully it had and the vet advised giving her the antibiotics for another week. I was finding it hard to accept that Suki, a perfectly healthy cat [12 years old] had  suddenly got this ear infection, it was obviously related to the operation and/or the anaesthetic. I started to search the internet for answers as to why this had happened, after reading loads of worrying stuff I thought I would test her hearing and found that she has gone deaf! I am absolutely devasted by this as she had no hearing or health problems before this dental, I so wish I could turn back the clock.
 
I took her back to the vet and informed her that Suki was now deaf. Her response was because Suki is an old cat, [I wouldnt have thought 12 was that old]  her immune system was probably not up to the dental work. When I asked if it was possible that Suki would get her hearing back she said she didnt know but there was a possibility. I asked if it could be an inner ear infection, the vet didnt think so because Suki's balance is ok and she isnt tilting her head. Suki is still not right, apart from being deaf she is still shaking her head quite a lot. So something is irritating her. Yesterday I went to see another vet at another practise, and he said that the shaking of the head could be part of a root left behind and might not be related to her hearing and that I should go back to my vet and ask them to xray her mouth. I am reluctant to take her back, apart from losing faith in the vet, if she has lost her hearing due to the anaesthetic how can I risk putting her through even more if it turns out they have left something behind. She has been through 2 operations so surely they would have made sure her teeth were ok especially after the second op.
 
I am convinced that she was probably deaf the day I brought her home from the dental because she was in distress then. I cannot accept the vets theory on it being her immune system not being able to handle the op. I think something must have gone wrong in the first operation but I obviously cannot prove it. The vet said that she had never known a cat go deaf after anaesthetic yet I have read so much on the internet about other peoples cats going deaf and/or blind after anaesthetic. Im also questioning, if the vet thought Suki was 'old' then why didnt she offer to do blood tests prior to the op to make sure she was up to it. If I had been made aware of the risks involved then I would certainly not have put her through it and risked her hearing. I have another cat the same age, Winnie, who has had 3 dentals over the years and she has never had any problems afterwards, she has also had her thryoid removed recently. In light of her experiences I didnt think twice about putting Suki in for a dental and having anaesthetic.

I trusted the vet, but there are a few vets and students who work at the practise and  unfortunately it wasnt my normal vet that carried out the dental on Suki. I have asked lots of questions but Im still not happy because rightly or wrongly I feel that she wasnt, cant have been in the best of care. It hasnt been helped by the fact that on the invoice it stated 'with student nurse' where it would normally state the vets name who carried out the op. I questioned this but the vet has tried to reassure me that a student nurse didnt carry out the op, I remain unconvinced especially in light of all the problems that Suki has had since. Part of the reason for me writing this is I think people should be made aware of the great risks they take when putting their cats through these non essential operations.

I will probably never know if it was the anaesthetic or if it was lack of care but I so wish that I hadnt decided to put poor Suki through it because she has sacrificed her hearing for the sake of having 3 teeth out that were not causing her any problems! I live in hope that by some miracle Suki will get her hearing back even though the vet hasnt given me any hope of this happening and seems to think that I should just accept it, I also hope that she wont have to suffer any more ops to put this right. I would be interested to know if anybody else has had a similar experience or have any suggestions as to where I should go from here. Im in a dilemma wether to change vets or stick with my present vet but I think I am going to have to take Suki soon because of the head shaking which she seems to be doing more. The vets last words to me were 'if she starts to shake her head more then bring her back'! 
Thank you all for letting me share this very sad event, after 4 weeks I still cannot come to terms with what has happened to my precious Suki