Case Study - Meet Speckle!

Meet Speckle! Speckle belongs to one of our vets Jodie and has just celebrated her 20^th birthday. She has osteoarthritis and chronic kidney disease, both of which are very common in older cats. She has daily medication for both of these conditions as well as regular K-laser treatment.

Recently Jodie noticed that Speckle had been dropping food when eating and seemed sore around her mouth, so booked her in for a dental with Nigel.

Because Speckle is an older lady, she had a blood test run before the anaesthetic to check that her liver, thyroid, and heart were working well, and that she had a normal number of red and white blood cells. Her kidney levels were checked and showed her treatment is working well.

She was on a drip throughout the procedure to help keep her blood pressure normal and give her a safer anaesthetic. As with all of our patients, her anaesthetic was monitored by a Registered Veterinary Nurse using hi-tech monitoring equipment which measures heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, blood pressure, temperature, and ECG (electrical activity in the heart).

Speckle benefitted from our dental x-ray machine, which allows us to see how healthy the roots of the teeth are. By assessing the teeth visually, using a probe on the gums, and looking at the x-rays, Nigel was able to quickly see which teeth needed extracting and which were healthy.

Within a day or two Speckle was back to eating easily and pain-free.