Latest / Back In The Closet - Two Crazy Cat Ladies / C.A.T.S. Series: “T” Is for Teeth with Dr. Randy Aronson

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C.A.T.S. Series: “T” Is for Teeth with Dr. Randy Aronson · Back In The Closet - Two Crazy Cat Ladies

• 0:00
  Before we start this awesome episode, we got to give a shout
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  Yeah, and honestly, it's really an important part of their
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  PSP and for our Canadian listeners at Pet Value too.
• 0:37
  OK, so now let's get to the podcast.
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  With wine, Always with wine. I'm Jay.
• 0:43
  I'm Adrian, and together we are. There's two crazy cat ladies I'm
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  going to cut. You.
• 0:50
  I think I just peed. Buckle up.
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  We're back in the closet. Welcome.
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  To another episode of Back in the Closet with the 2 Crazy Cat
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  Ladies. We are excited to be joined once
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  again by Doctor Randy the pet vet to discuss the third part of
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  our four part series of CATS. If you don't know what that
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  stands for, it's cats tea. Tea being teeth, which just so
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  happens to fall in two. We did not plan this.
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  It was really cool. We didn't plan it, but it falls
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  into dental health month for pets.
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  So thank you, Doctor Randy, for coming back and joining us.
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  Oh, I love it. I miss you guys.
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  And you know, we're we're not that far away from each other,
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  but yeah, it seems like miles. So this is great when we get to
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  catch up a little bit. And, and thank you for having me
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  back. No, I want to remind our
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  listeners that we have done 2 series so far and the tax
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  pneumonic stands for complete nutrition and microbiome and a
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  was for activity. And please go back and look at
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  those podcasts because they're a chock full of information for
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  all of our feline parents. And today we're going to talk
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  about a very important subject, which is tea for teeth.
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  And you're right, we didn't plan this, but it's so perfect for
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  this month. I just love it.
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  And I love that we can, we can be there to do that.
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  You know, one of the things I, I, I'd love to tell you that I
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  love this is, you know, basically, you know, what I tell
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  people is ignoring teeth is like not changing the oil in your car
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  and being surprised when the engine fails.
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  And that and it's and it's really good for our cat people
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  to understand that because it's so very important and sometimes
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  so overlooked. Yeah, it really is.
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  We've, we've, you know, learned that lesson the hard way.
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  I think, you know, it's, you hear so often that a huge
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  percentage of cats have periodonal disease by the age of
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  just three years old and yet we'll go three years without
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  even getting back in for a dental or you know what I mean?
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  So many of us cat people do that.
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  Do you know why that is? Are we all like?
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  Because, well, first of all, cats don't show us any problem
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  with their mouth. As you know, that's the the
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  great imposters. I say they hide their pain
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  incredibly well. And honestly, and I, and I
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  sometimes I hate to say this because I feel like it's kind of
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  self-serving, but it's really not unless really a veterinarian
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  is looking at that mouth. Sometimes we miss things that we
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  really should be seeing. And, and, and so I tell people
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  that, you know, I make it so much a part of my yearly
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  examination for a, for a cat because I don't want to miss
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  that. And as we're going to talk about
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  later, some of these things are even hiding from the
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  veterinarian, you know, when we start talking about resorptive
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  lesions and all that stuff. So, yeah, it, it's, you know,
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  it, you're right. It's, it's a, it's a real shame
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  that that happens. But we can, we can do better and
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  by making people aware and our cat pet parents aware with
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  series like this, this is really important.
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  It's really important. Yes, yeah.
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  When we've, we've talked to a a few people already.
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  We talked to Doctor Katie Kangas and then we talked to Doctor
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  Emily Stein from from Teeth last week.
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  And the, the, the amount, the percentage of cats that end up
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  with dental disease at a young age is so sad.
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  Really. Yeah.
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  Yeah, and you know, we've talked about this, but you know, where
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  does that come from? It comes from over vaccination.
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  It comes from the really crappy foods, you excuse my French,
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  that, you know, people are feeding in the kibbles that that
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  are over processed and what not. And you know, and and and like
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  Emily can tell you, and I'm a big proponent of the teeth
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  product. I'm keeping that Biome correct
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  in the oral area. Helps everything and we can do
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  better. We can do better.
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  That's what our, you know, our, all three of our jobs are is
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  let's educate people so that they do better.
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  We don't have to get to that place.
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  Yeah, exactly. So let's talk a little bit about
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  what you've seen in your practice and what I mean.
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  I think the statistic that you shared when we were at CMEL was
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  60% of cats will have gingivitis.
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  First of all, can you for all of us, for this is kind of new for
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  us, what's the difference between periodontal disease and
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  gingivitis? Or is gingivitis A periodontal
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  disease? There you go.
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  You know, that's, that's a great, it's a great point for us
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  to make. You know, you know, Perner and
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  plaque can build up very quickly on their mouth.
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  And, you know, their diet myths, you know, like if they eat dry
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  food, oh, they won't get these problems, which is, you know,
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  couldn't be further from the truth.
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  And you know, most cats don't really receive dental care early
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  on. So the difference between ginger
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  vitis, which is an inflammation of the gums and and leads to
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  things like stomatitis, which we'll talk about is very
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  different than periodontal disease.
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  And in fact, I mean, it leads to that periodontal is the disease
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  we don't see. It's underneath the gum line
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  that's affecting the teeth and sometimes has to be even
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  diagnosed through dental radiographs and feral X-rays
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  because we don't sometimes don't see it.
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  I pick it up a lot of times because I often do like my, I
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  call it my Q-tip test where I'm like touching the gums and the
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  teeth and I can pick up sensitivity even sometimes
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  better than using my finger with that.
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  And the cat, my, my, my cat client, the pet parent will see
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  it. I mean, and they go, Oh my God,
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  that that didn't come from, you know, that didn't come from
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  Batman, did it? And I go, yeah, did I mean, so,
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  you know, that's the difference. And you know, we want to get
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  that gingivitis settled so it doesn't go on to periodontal
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  disease like you asked. OK.
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  So periodontal is basically the progressed form of gingivitis.
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  Absolutely. OK.
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  And so like, what do you in your practice, what do you see?
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  And like, is this the percentage that you see in your practice of
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  cats that come in and you check their teeth?
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  I'm guessing you, you check their teeth every year or
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  anytime that you are seeing them.
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  You're, you just check to see what they, what they look like.
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  Is it is it more common than less that you see dental dental
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  issues of any sort in in your kiddies Kitty client?
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  Yeah, it really is. I mean, you know, we have to
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  remember that gingivitis is really an inflammation of the
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  gums. It's not infection, OK, but
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  it's. And it's caused by an immune
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  response to the bacteria that's on the gum line.
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  Now, I tell people, like my cat people, you know, if you didn't
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  brush your teeth for three years, you know, what would your
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  mouth look like? You know, just think about that.
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  And, you know, I can't. I do try to get my young cat
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  owners to really start working with their cat's mouth just as
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  simple as putting their finger and touching the gum tooth line
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  before we get into the paste or baking soda or, you know,
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  brushes. I like white gauze on the finger
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  as a real way to do this. But you know, I, I try to get
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  them doing that like really, really early on.
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  I mean, I mean, as soon as I see the cat for the first exam, even
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  if it's in eight weeks, I say, look, start doing this.
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  This is really important because your cat will not mind your
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  finger and then won't mind the going on to the flavored paste
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  or the baking soda or whatever. Start doing the teeth right
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  teeth product right away. Won't hurt, you know.
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  And of course we get them on the right diet, which really helps a
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  lot too. Yeah, that's a very good point.
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  I we're actually posting a cat tip this week about specifically
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  about kittens and the things that we need to do when they're
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  young to train them. And that's one of them is make
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  sure that you're so anybody that's listening, if you have a
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  kitten or a young cat, get them started like just on a regular
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  basis, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, whatever it is, spend time
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  touching their mouth, inside their mouth, touch their ears,
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  touch their paws. Do spend time touching those
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  areas because you're going to need it in the future and
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  you're, you'll set yourself up for success if you do it now
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  versus, you know, waiting until they're not used to their mouth
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  being touched, they're not used to their ears being touched or
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  their paws being touched. And then you have to do
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  something. It's going to be a much more
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  traumatic experience if we don't get them started early.
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  Now, obviously, you know, our beautiful community, so many
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  people adopt senior cats or, you know, find cats on the side of
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  the road. We understand that we're in that
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  boat too, or we've been in that boat.
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  But if you if you do happen to to have a kitten, it's really
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  important to start the start them early so we can get and.
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  It and it builds trust like across the board.
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  I mean, that's what's great about young and really, and so
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  you're building trust. So you're building a better bond
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  with your baby, but then you're also doing something that's very
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  proactive down the line. Yeah, and it's so important.
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  Doctor Randy, how how important would you say, you know, dental
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  health, as we, as we also heard from Doctor Katie Kangas and Dr.
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  Emily, is that, you know, everybody says health begins in
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  the gut and there's so much truth to that.
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  But really, when you think about it, health begins in the mouth
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  and everything that has to enter the mouth in order to get to the
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  gut. Really.
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  And yeah, so I mean, but Emily was saying that the that the
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  amount of disease that is directly linked to dental health
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  is outrageous, like heart disease, brain disease.
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  And she's talking humans, animals alike.
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  And it trickles down and it can it one one thing that's going on
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  in the mouth can actually cause issues that you might not ever
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  tie together in the future It but it absolutely will.
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  You agree? Oh, absolutely.
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  And you know, one thing I wanted to say because you mentioned our
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  fostered or adopted cats or older cats, it's never too late
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  to try to start doing this. And one of the things I tell
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  people to do when we started talking about the finger and the
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  mouse situation is make sure you have a really high value, you
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  know, treat, you know, whether it's churro or whatever, you
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  know, I don't even care if it's junk, quite honestly.
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  But if your cat loves it, that's the place to be doing that with
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  touching the feet, the ears, but also the mouth, you know, and
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  desensitizing the cat so that it's a reward every time you do
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  that. It's not a trauma.
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  You you can do it. It takes a lot longer in our
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  older cats that have not had that done, but it certainly can
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  be done. Yeah I agree.
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  I agree training training cats in any way is is possible.
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  It just like you said, takes longer the the older they get.
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  OK, so next question. And I love that one of our
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  YouTube community members is already asking other behavioral
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  changes we should be looking for regarding dental health.
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  And you had mentioned at the top that cats are so good at hiding
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  their pain. What are some of the things that
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  you suggest we cat parents keep an eye on to catch something
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  early? Great.
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  That's a great question. And you know, the things that
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  would be obvious would be sudden behavioral changes like
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  withdrawing, like irritability, less grooming.
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  That can even happen too, you know, watching your cat paw on
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  its mouth. You know, some people think
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  they're just washing their paws and whatnot, but it could, if
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  it's excessive, it could be their pain.
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  You know, there could be pain there and there are other red
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  flags other than just the behavioral stuff like, you know,
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  a really bad breath, strong, sour or even worsening, you
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  know, type smell there. Obviously any red or bleeding
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  gums. It's a, it's a red flag, you
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  know, and then sometimes we even see cats that will drop food or
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  they're chewing really slowly or I even had some, some of my best
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  parents say, you know, he's all eating on the right side of his
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  mouth. I, I don't understand why that
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  is. Well, there's a good reason for
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  that, obviously. So that's a great question.
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  Great question. Yeah.
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  OK, So I don't know how, how quick I can jump forward with
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  where where you want to go with this because but our our girl
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  Friday who has been fed a a specially appropriate raw diet
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  since she was 8 weeks old. When we when we got her, she was
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  chewing on one side of the mouth and we took her in, got a
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  dental. She had a resorptive lesion.
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  She had resorption, right TR that's what they call it him and
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  had to have a tooth removed. We have, and this is a question
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  that I've asked everyone that we've, including doctor Katie
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  Woodley that we did at Instagram live on dental health, everyone
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  that we're that we're talking to.
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  I'm asking the question because I get that there's no science
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  around it. What is your theory as to why
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  the, the tooth resorption is so prevalent in our cats?
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  We don't see this like in the same way in dogs or humans or
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  any, anything else. Like, it's not that it's, it
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  doesn't happen in dogs, as Doctor Katie Kanga said, but
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  that it is so prevalent in our in our cats, even our healthy
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  ones. Yeah.
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  You know, that's a, that's a really good question and I'm not
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  sure I got a very good answer honestly.
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  I do think that I think it's the somewhat of the genetics of our
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  feline breed that, you know, breeds that we're seeing that
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  that could be involved in this. I often think that it's, it's
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  the bottom line word, which, you know, I've mentioned many times,
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  which is inflammation when there's inflammation in their
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  body and they're not balanced. And that's why you, all of us
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  are pushing for, you know, microbiome tests to get these
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  guys as part of a Wellness part of the exam, not just because
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  the cats having diarrhea, obviously.
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  And, you know, and it's, it's again, it's, I think it's, I
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  think it's a combination of that.
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  I think it's a combination of over vaccination.
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  Again, I'll harp on that, but I don't know that we really have a
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  great answer. You know, the problem is it's
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  such a silent problem because it starts under the gum line.
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  We can't see it unless our kitties are really showing us
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  something that some of the things we talked about earlier.
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  Many times I don't find it until I do an examination and
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  sometimes I don't even find it until I do dental radiographs
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  because we can see it as part of the erosion of the the tooth and
• 15:59
  the bone in that situation, yes. Wow, so you just mentioned
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  dental radiographs and and we just had a question too about
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  which would be better to show a lesion or a problem with the
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  teeth and a cat, an X-ray or ACT scan?
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  Well, I mean, you know, CT scans are wonderful, but they're very
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  expensive and you can find these on on dental radiographs very,
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  very easily. It's very obvious on a good
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  digital, you know, X-ray. And you know, one of the things
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  that I want to comment on is you guys have been so good about
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  doing this, but you know, if our cat people are having dentals
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  done, you got to make sure they're doing digital X-rays of
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  that mouth. OK, There isn't a good dental
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  procedure that doesn't include that.
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  And just for the reasons we're talking about, because of these
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  resorptive lesions that are silent and quiet, we need to
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  find these and we need to find them early.
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  Because once you have erosion of that tooth and bone, you have a
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  direct conduit of that bacteria into the body.
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  For all the things that you talked about earlier, you know,
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  heart disease, kidney disease, you know, in, in, in Utis and
• 17:09
  urinary tract infections. Many, many times in the cat, if
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  we culture their mouth, meaning look at the bacteria that's in
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  there on a culture and we culture their urine, it's
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  exactly the same. Oh yeah, absolutely.
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  And so people what exactly what you know, that surprises the,
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  you know, what ought to be. But it is.
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  And, and again, you know, my, my ticket a lot of times is try
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  not, you know, trying not to use the antibiotics if I can help
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  it, trying to get it to heal other, you know, use things like
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  the ozone and some of the other things that I have in mind.
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  But many times we really have to, I mean, many times, you
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  know, we have to get that under control and then we can move on
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  from there. Yeah, wow, that is like that's
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  that's crazy. I.
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  Never heard it again because I've never heard that.
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  So the, so the just the trickle. Right, like how Doctor Emily and
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  Doctor Katie health trickles downstream.
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  Absolutely, Absolutely. So, so when we actually have
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  situations where we've actually, because my clients, you know,
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  sitting there, where is this coming from?
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  And what we've done in the past is we've done a bacterial
• 18:20
  culture of their mouth and we've done a bacterial culture of the
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  urinary tract infection of the of the obviously the bacteria
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  that's involved. And there's the same, they're
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  exactly the same. And you know, it's a little
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  scary. And we do know, like when you
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  mentioned heart disease, you know, the bacteria breaks loose
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  and attaches to the vial of leaflets.
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  They're paper thin. And so if you get a little build
• 18:45
  up on those leaflets, you start getting a murmur, heart murmur,
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  and then it gets into bigger and worse things as far as cardiac
• 18:52
  disease or heart disease. So yeah, it's it's it's pretty
• 18:56
  stunning when that happens. I don't often do it because I
• 18:59
  don't have to do it. And it's, you know, it's
• 19:00
  expensive to culture these things.
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  So, you know, if we do it culture, we may do it on the
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  urinary tract, but we don't often do the the mouth part of
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  that. But I have done that in the past
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  and that's been very consistent. Wow.
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  That is crazy. That is crazy.
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  So we, we also have some questions about give it like
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  when, when it's OK and when it's not OK to let our cats under
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  anesthesia for a dental procedure, right?
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  So there are some cases, I know, you know, if our cats already
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  have heart disease, which is why it's so important that we do
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  this preventatively, right? But if they have heart disease,
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  a lot of times we don't want to put them under, right?
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  So we don't want to do the, the full dental.
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  What about kidney? Kidney disease, liver disease,
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  IBSIVD, those type of things? Let me let me talk a little bit
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  about the myth of anesthesia too, because it's it's really,
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  it is a myth. Don't get me wrong, I love, I
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  would love the fact that I wouldn't have to do anesthetics
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  to do what we're talking about. But anybody that gets what's
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  called a gentle dentistry, it's anything but that.
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  OK. It is somebody holding your cat
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  down and scaling their teeth with a dental scaler with them
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  wide awake. And potentially hitting some of
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  these lesions that could be really, really painful.
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  You know, you cannot do a good, it's called COHAT, you know, a
• 20:25
  comprehensive oral health assessment and treatment.
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  You can't do a good COHAT without dental X-rays, but you
• 20:32
  have to have anesthesia. So the myth about anesthesia is,
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  I mean, we do in our practice a lot of critical animals that we
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  still have to do their mouth. I have cats that have incipient
• 20:45
  heart disease and you know, we do everything we need to to
• 20:48
  screen them. That means a pro BNP, which is a
• 20:52
  heart enzyme, excuse me, an EKG, a blood pressure, even if we
• 20:58
  have to do an echocardiogram before we get them on the table
• 21:01
  for the anesthesia. But the anesthetics these days
• 21:05
  are so good and they're so much safer.
• 21:09
  Excuse me? And I tell people, like in my
• 21:11
  practice, that Pat gets everything you and I would have
• 21:16
  in an anesthesia situation in the human hospital.
• 21:19
  They get blood pressure monitoring, they get IV fluids,
• 21:23
  they get an EKG running, they get CO2 monitoring.
• 21:29
  I mean, we do all of this stuff. I'm sorry.
• 21:32
  Let me take a little step here and we don't lose these guys
• 21:38
  under anesthesia and sometimes I am I have to do the chronic
• 21:42
  kidney disease cat or I have to do the heart disease cat because
• 21:46
  we're losing the battle. You know, the more bacteria that
• 21:49
  it keeps on shedding into the body and the more information,
• 21:51
  the more we get into trouble. We thank God and I'm going to
• 21:56
  knock wood don't lose cats in our practice under anesthesia.
• 22:00
  So, you know, I really think that if someone and you've done
• 22:03
  this really well, if someone really researches what their
• 22:08
  their veterinarian is using, how they're using the anesthetic,
• 22:12
  what monitoring they do, you can really assure that even in the
• 22:16
  critical situation, sometimes, most of the time it will not be
• 22:19
  an issue. Honestly.
• 22:21
  And, and the beauty and the beauty about the anesthetics we
• 22:24
  use these days is that we are on the Mihalan anesthesia.
• 22:29
  If the blood pressure drops, if the heart rate starts to fall,
• 22:34
  we just turn it off. I mean, if we can't complete the
• 22:36
  procedure, we don't, we're not going to risk that cat's life.
• 22:40
  But I will tell you, it's a lot safer than people think.
• 22:44
  And you know, a lot of people say, oh, you know, my extra
• 22:47
  neighbor had anaesthesia on her cat and they lost it for a
• 22:50
  routine procedure. Well, you know, what was used,
• 22:53
  what kind of monitoring was done?
• 22:55
  What kind of screening was done? Did they do enough of the pre
• 22:59
  screening to assure themselves they're not going to have an
• 23:01
  issue? And don't get me wrong, my my
• 23:04
  daughter is a CRNA for people, so she does anesthesia for
• 23:08
  humans. You could do all of that and you
• 23:11
  can still have something go wrong.
• 23:12
  I'm not going to tell you that it couldn't happen, but it's
• 23:15
  such a rarity, especially in our hands when we do all the right
• 23:18
  things. Would you say that that is,
• 23:22
  would you say that the way that you do practice is now more of
• 23:26
  the norm when it comes to these dental procedures?
• 23:30
  That that it's it's pretty common for for veterinarians to
• 23:35
  require pre blood work prior to anesthesia to do the Ivs during
• 23:42
  and the warming blanket and all the stuff and things that you
• 23:46
  would say. It's it's, it's more, more of
• 23:49
  the norm than not, no. I would, I would, but you know,
• 23:54
  there are variances and there are situations, you know, where
• 23:58
  we see people going, you know, I mean, you know, a good cohab
• 24:02
  procedure is expensive. I'm not going to lie it it, it
• 24:05
  can be costly and I see people that go to veterinarians that do
• 24:09
  low cost dentistries. Well, if they're doing a low
• 24:12
  cost dentistry, they're cutting something out, they're cutting
• 24:15
  corners. And all that does is risk your
• 24:18
  cat's life. And I don't care what the
• 24:21
  situation is, I'm not going to put a cat at risk, you know,
• 24:25
  just to get something done or not to get something done.
• 24:28
  And you know, it, it hurts me because I want to say something
• 24:32
  and I don't want to sound like the bad guy, you know, you know,
• 24:35
  like I wouldn't do that. You know, I would make sure that
• 24:37
  you look at that or I would make sure this is being done under
• 24:40
  monitoring. But it's really true if you, I,
• 24:44
  I do think it is becoming the norm to be a lot more
• 24:47
  sophisticated about this stuff. But you, like you have pointed
• 24:51
  out in the past, you got to ask the veterinarian, you got to do
• 24:54
  your research. That's really important because,
• 24:58
  you know, let's say they're offering a dentistry for $300
• 25:01
  and most really good collapse can be $800, let's say or $1000
• 25:06
  even. There is a difference, you know,
• 25:09
  that person isn't trying to RIP you off and cost more money.
• 25:13
  Veterinarians, you know, don't mean to do harm to animals.
• 25:16
  You know, we don't go into this to make a lot of money and and
• 25:19
  be world famous. We go into this because we love
• 25:22
  what we do, you know, So I, I don't think there's any malice
• 25:25
  involved. It's just that you know that's
• 25:27
  there are differences, so you just got to make sure.
• 25:31
  I love that, and I love that doctor Katie really spoke to
• 25:32
  that essentially gave us a checklist for all these things.
• 25:35
  And I think it really does tie into, you know, how you talk
• 25:38
  about how early detection equals less pain, less suffering for
• 25:43
  our cats, better outcomes and less invasive procedures that
• 25:48
  are also more expensive in your experience, You know, we we say,
• 25:53
  you know, annual Wellness exam's great, let your veterinarian
• 25:58
  look in the mouth, see, see how everything looks.
• 26:01
  But how fast do you see dental issues creep up?
• 26:05
  Do you recommend like best practices for cat moms with, you
• 26:11
  know, complete disposable income for dentals?
• 26:14
  Would you say, you know, that once a year is good for early
• 26:18
  detection or insurance? Yeah, for early detection.
• 26:22
  Right, right. Fast condemned, I think in the
• 26:27
  young cat and I'm saying probably up to like 5 or 6, I
• 26:33
  think once a year probably is very sufficient.
• 26:35
  You know, again, I know how hard it is to get the cat to the
• 26:39
  veterinarian many times And, and you know, we do everything we
• 26:42
  can to help our cat. People do that too.
• 26:46
  Certainly after that twice a year is really important because
• 26:49
  it comes a lot faster and it can creep up a lot faster.
• 26:53
  And you know, we, you know, I, what I tell people about doing
• 26:58
  lab work on cats, for example, is, you know, people don't
• 27:01
  realize I'm not really looking to diagnose kidney failure on
• 27:06
  the, the plain lab work. What I'm looking at is say your
• 27:10
  cats creatinine, which is its main kidney enzyme is 1 and then
• 27:14
  the next year it's one and then the next year it's 1.8 but
• 27:18
  normal is up to two. That's a red flag for me.
• 27:22
  It you know, I look at a trend and often we can we can turn
• 27:27
  that around. You know, if we know that before
• 27:29
  it gets to above 2 and now we're in Class 2 or class 3 renal
• 27:34
  failure, no iris stage two or three.
• 27:37
  So you know, it it some preventative is worth, you know,
• 27:40
  it's certainly it's amazing how how much benefit that solves for
• 27:44
  a lot of our cat people. Yeah.
• 27:46
  OK. So on that subject then, what
• 27:49
  would you be your top tips that you would give cat parents,
• 27:52
  every cat parent, every cat parent listening, watching this?
• 27:57
  What is the top tips that you would give them to be proactive
• 28:01
  or to or to just do with their cats to prevent or yeah to
• 28:07
  prevent dental health issues? No, no, that's a, that's a great
• 28:11
  question. So I think certainly safely,
• 28:13
  safely checking their cat's mouth whenever it's possible,
• 28:17
  you know, putting your finger in there and making sure there's no
• 28:20
  sensitivity, you know, make, making sure you look for
• 28:24
  bleeding gums or, or, or, you know, or, or bad breath and
• 28:29
  stuff like that. You know, you know, monitoring
• 28:31
  your chewing behavior just for eating behavior just sometimes
• 28:34
  can tell you a world of information, you know, and
• 28:38
  again, of course I'm advocating dental exams, you know, whether
• 28:42
  it's once a year or twice a year.
• 28:43
  And, and if and if X-rays are indicated, so be it.
• 28:47
  You can't get good X-rays on a cat.
• 28:49
  I will tell you without sedation or anesthesia, that just can't
• 28:52
  happen because of the positioning that you have to do
• 28:55
  before getting the plates in there and all that.
• 28:57
  It's just got to be done right, because if it's not done right,
• 29:00
  you're not going to see what you want to.
• 29:03
  So, you know, the nice thing is no news is good news when you,
• 29:05
  when you, you're looking at that, you're doing all that
• 29:08
  situation. But you know, just to understand
• 29:12
  the dental care is a normal, expected part of cat health.
• 29:15
  You know, that it's really what we have to expect and costs can
• 29:19
  vary And, you know, looking around is really important.
• 29:21
  And, and I tell people, you know, listen, I, I have a lot of
• 29:25
  times problems with insurance companies and they know it
• 29:28
  because, you know, I can say something like in my records,
• 29:33
  there was a little bit of halitosis and I'm looking at a 2
• 29:36
  year old cat. And then two years later the cat
• 29:39
  has dental disease or something that we need to do more on.
• 29:42
  And they're going to hit me with pre-existing condition.
• 29:45
  And you know, that's not a pre-existing condition, that's
• 29:47
  just a change, but they do it. And, and so you have to be
• 29:51
  really careful. I'm, you know, I'm a huge fan of
• 29:55
  health savings accounts for our cats.
• 29:57
  You know, I advocate, you know, you can put money away, you can
• 30:02
  collect, you can get interest on your money.
• 30:05
  And that way you can budget for down the road and you have stuff
• 30:08
  put away where you're not trust, you know, trusting the insurance
• 30:11
  companies going to cover or help you, You know, they, they do a
• 30:15
  perfectly good job for what they can, but remember, they're in
• 30:18
  the business of making money. You know, that's the important
• 30:22
  thing. Yeah, wow.
• 30:25
  Oh, that's true. OK, a quick question if you have
• 30:28
  a rapid answer for this, what question should we ask the vet
• 30:32
  or what are red flags to be aware of before leaving our pets
• 30:36
  with them? You.
• 30:38
  Know that that's great. So I think a lot of what we
• 30:41
  covered certainly asking, I guess they're talking about
• 30:45
  leaving the cat for a dental procedure, but I would first
• 30:49
  tell them let's before leaving, let's what are we doing as far
• 30:53
  as the preoperative workup? I mean, that's critical, you
• 30:57
  know, and I won't hesitate to do blood pressures on my cats.
• 31:00
  I won't hesitate to do that pro BNP enzyme for the heart enzyme
• 31:05
  EKG if I need to, you know, what are they going to do to to to
• 31:11
  preoperatively look at the situation?
• 31:13
  And then if they're talking about leaving their cats for a
• 31:15
  dental procedure, a cohab is what we call it, you know,
• 31:19
  asking all the things we talked about.
• 31:20
  What are what's tell me a little bit about the anesthesia.
• 31:23
  Tell me a little bit about your monitoring.
• 31:25
  Does my cat get IV fluids while it's under?
• 31:28
  Does it have the warming blanket that you mentioned?
• 31:30
  You know, their core temperature is so critical.
• 31:32
  You know, that's one thing that we monitor, you know, far we're
• 31:36
  monitoring, we're, we're monitoring your temperature the
• 31:38
  whole time, you know, because low temperature can be critical,
• 31:42
  but we see spikes to where they get what we call hypothermic,
• 31:46
  which can be an abnormal reaction to, you know, to
• 31:48
  something going on. And we want to know that.
• 31:50
  So those are the things I think that are really things to look
• 31:54
  for before, one, agreeing to a procedure, but two, if you're
• 31:59
  getting a procedure, what to ask the veterinarian for?
• 32:02
  Yes. And I, I shout out since I know
• 32:04
  we don't have time to go into all of that, but for those of
• 32:06
  you guys wondering about that checklist of things to ask that
• 32:09
  are best practices, Dr. Katie Kangas, I had an awesome
• 32:13
  interview where she really just listed out all the, all these
• 32:17
  things I think you're talking about two weeks ago and we got a
• 32:20
  block as well. It's great.
• 32:22
  And we created a tip, so if you don't have a long time to
• 32:27
  listen, then we actually put it all into a one minute tip on
• 32:31
  social media as well. If you guys are with all the
• 32:34
  questions that you need to ask, that's true so.
• 32:37
  OK, then as we wrap up then, what are some of your favorite
• 32:41
  proactive things that we can do? I feel like, you know, it is
• 32:44
  scary for a lot of us, especially with multiple cats,
• 32:46
  be like, wow, we're looking at about a grand for this kind of
• 32:49
  quality procedure that is so important.
• 32:52
  I, you know, I think that that more and more I, I feel like
• 32:56
  we're learning this deeper and better.
• 32:59
  So often how much dental health impacts the other, you know, the
• 33:04
  other kidney health, heart. Health, can I mention, can I
• 33:08
  mention one thing that we didn't talk about that I think I just
• 33:11
  want to mention really briefly. I know we're running out of
• 33:13
  time, but, and it's the stomatitis cat, OK, where the
• 33:17
  gingivitis has gotten so bad that now we're getting these
• 33:22
  terrible swollen gums and bleeding.
• 33:25
  And you know, many, many times in a young cat, we're told you
• 33:29
  got to have a full mouth extraction.
• 33:30
  And I don't know if Doctor Katie talked about this when you talk
• 33:33
  to her, but I will tell you that I've had three cats slayed for
• 33:37
  full mouth extraction that I've seen that we've done allergy
• 33:42
  testing on and we've done microbiome on.
• 33:45
  And once we get them balanced, guess what happens?
• 33:48
  All that information goes away and they have not had to have
• 33:53
  the extractions. OK, Now I'm not saying I'm not
• 33:56
  saying that it shouldn't happen. What I'm saying is, as you and I
• 34:01
  of all of us, all three of us have talked about so many times,
• 34:04
  there are options, OK? And I would certainly before I
• 34:08
  had my cat's mouth, all the teeth extracted, which is a very
• 34:12
  hard procedure on our cats. It's very successful because
• 34:17
  they're reacting to the dentin enamel that's in their teeth.
• 34:20
  But I'm telling you that that can often come from inflammation
• 34:24
  in their body that we've not addressed.
• 34:27
  So I wouldn't mention that because I didn't say anything
• 34:28
  about that. No, this is this is fascinating.
• 34:31
  I love this. So, so so you're saying that you
• 34:34
  have been able to do like FMT type treatment, OK, So fecal
• 34:39
  microbiome transplants and ozone therapy and that's what you're
• 34:43
  that is what you are. You're you've used on a cat with
• 34:47
  stomatitis and that it cleared itself up.
• 34:49
  So it's not one of those uncurable.
• 34:52
  Right with with I use VDI labs. I love them.
• 34:56
  I'm doing their animal, but their Biome microbiome test and
• 35:00
  I'm doing their their allergy test with the allergy test.
• 35:03
  And the reason why that's so critical is you could be feeding
• 35:06
  this wonderful raw diet. But guess what, if one of your
• 35:09
  kitties is allergic to Turkey, it shouldn't be in there.
• 35:13
  And it's creating inflammation in their mouth, you know?
• 35:16
  And so that combination of those two and I then apply that to the
• 35:21
  cat and I say, look, you can always have these teeth
• 35:25
  extracted. And I don't want your cat in
• 35:27
  pain, obviously. But give me like 60 or 90 days.
• 35:32
  Let's see what happens once we get those answers.
• 35:35
  OK, It takes a little time to get them back, but that was my.
• 35:38
  Question. We have to wait just to see.
• 35:41
  I don't think so. Oh, wow.
• 35:44
  Yeah, that was my question is what kind of timeline are you
• 35:46
  looking at because it is such a terrible sometimes it's so
• 35:49
  painful. So what kind of timeline are you
• 35:51
  looking at from being able to do the testing to being able to see
• 35:54
  that inflammation go over 60 to 90 days?
• 35:57
  Well, it it starts then I mean it takes longer obviously it
• 36:00
  didn't just start right away and it's not going to just go away
• 36:03
  right away. But it's certainly, we can
• 36:06
  definitely see progression of, of you know of them getting
• 36:09
  better and doing better. And you know, I'm using a lot
• 36:12
  more now ozonated glycerin on their gum and tooth lines and
• 36:17
  the ozone that's in glycerin will will last a lot longer.
• 36:22
  So you can rub this on their gum tooth line.
• 36:25
  And instead of me just flushing with ozone or doing rectal ozone
• 36:28
  or whatever, it's now more topical as far as as helping you
• 36:33
  know out on the scheme of things while I'm correcting the
• 36:37
  allergy, while I'm correcting the D3 levels which I get on
• 36:41
  that allergy test also and while I'm correcting the microbiome.
• 36:46
  Wow, see, I love this because it because that's what I wish every
• 36:49
  vet did is look at the whole. You know, that's why we're
• 36:52
  holistic, right? We're looking at the whole cat,
• 36:55
  the cat as a whole and looking at their overall health and
• 36:58
  you're digging deeper into something that many vets would
• 37:02
  just look in the mouth and they do.
• 37:04
  We get them every every day. It just seems and and it's in
• 37:07
  our world. I know because we deal with so
• 37:10
  many, you know, health issues and cats specifically, but that
• 37:13
  that people that reach out to us, but we here almost every
• 37:17
  day. My cat has stomatitis.
• 37:19
  My cat had to have all their teeth removed.
• 37:21
  It's not gone because the because they didn't remove the
• 37:25
  roots or they didn't go to a dental specialist or whatever it
• 37:28
  is, right. And so the cat's like toothless
• 37:30
  and living with stomatitis and we're like, Oh, we got to do
• 37:33
  everything we can to get the inflammation down.
• 37:35
  Like, but you know, I'm sorry, this.
• 37:38
  Is incredible. But this is amazing.
• 37:41
  Yeah, and I'll tell you when I, I'm not doing dentals anymore
• 37:45
  because my hands aren't so good anymore.
• 37:47
  But I have a lot of arthritis and I know when the when not to
• 37:49
  do something if I don't have that micro touch.
• 37:52
  But I will tell you that, you know, it's a, it's the worst
• 37:57
  procedure for a veterinarian to have to do.
• 37:59
  Honest to God, I would rather do I I'd rather do a leg amputation
• 38:02
  or something much, much worse sounding than pulling all your
• 38:07
  cat's teeth because getting all those roots, as you alluded to
• 38:10
  is so critical. You can leave one root and boy,
• 38:14
  that'll just set everything off on a, on a terrible down down
• 38:18
  swing, you know? So, yeah, it's, it's, it's,
• 38:21
  it's, it's scary, you know, but again, you know, all of the
• 38:25
  stuff we've talked about, you know, doing the teeth product,
• 38:28
  you know, making sure that they're on the right food and,
• 38:33
  and doing those kinds of things can really, it can definitely
• 38:35
  make a difference. I love it.
• 38:37
  Doctor Randy, you're the best. You're the best.
• 38:40
  One more quick question. I know.
• 38:41
  I'm sorry it's always me, but one more quick question.
• 38:44
  What do you think about raw meaty bones?
• 38:46
  No one has brought it up yet. Raw meaty bones?
• 38:48
  I know it's really big in the dog health world, but what about
• 38:52
  the cat? I can tell you that in the dog
• 38:55
  world, that saves more dental disease and more dentistries
• 38:59
  than you could possibly imagine. OK, Of course, the question is,
• 39:03
  can my dog or my cat break a tooth on these things?
• 39:06
  The answer is yes, it can happen.
• 39:08
  But the amount of broken teeth I see versus the amount of dental
• 39:11
  disease that it saves, I mean, I have dogs walking in here at 14
• 39:15
  that have been eating raw marrow bones.
• 39:17
  You know, they're frozen and they get them once or twice a
• 39:20
  week. They have no dental disease.
• 39:23
  I mean, there's nothing there. So if we can get our cats to do
• 39:26
  that one, I'm going to need you guys to tell me how to do that
• 39:30
  better because my cats won't feel it.
• 39:32
  But if we could get our cats to do that, it would be a godsend.
• 39:36
  It would be so great. Yeah, it's another one of those.
• 39:39
  I think that if we get them started early, we can we can
• 39:42
  really make a big difference and possibly not have to worry about
• 39:46
  like a day at everyday brushing with our with our kids.
• 39:51
  Too. Absolutely.
• 39:54
  OK, so I know we're wrapping up, but can you give everyone a
• 39:56
  little sneak peek on the 4th and final episode that's coming up
• 40:00
  next month? It's a biggie.
• 40:02
  It's a biggie. So we're talking about stress
• 40:05
  reduction. And then most people say, what
• 40:07
  do you mean? Like my house is not stressful?
• 40:09
  That's not what we're talking about.
• 40:11
  What we're talking about is all of the microplastics, all the
• 40:15
  PFAS, all of the formaldehyde coming from carpeting, all the
• 40:19
  abnormal lighting, all of this and how it affects our cats.
• 40:23
  And it is a big topic. I mean, I know every every one
• 40:28
  of our topics. I always say that because it's
• 40:30
  true. But stress reduction is really
• 40:33
  important. And we're going to talk about
• 40:35
  that together in March. So I'm really excited about
• 40:38
  being able to do that with you guys.
• 40:40
  And I'm really excited about picking your brain about that
• 40:41
  because, you know, we talk about stress a lot, but we talk more
• 40:44
  about just like environmental stressors that, you know that.
• 40:48
  We higher stress how. Our stress.
• 40:50
  It impacts our cats, right? But this?
• 40:52
  Is this is going to dive deep into what's really stressing out
• 40:56
  our cats. So thank you give you my.
• 40:58
  Little bro with this. So on that VDI allergy test, it
• 41:02
  does environmental stuff for our cats.
• 41:05
  I've had now five out of five cats that have come back on the
• 41:09
  environmental side sensitive to mold.
• 41:12
  And you know, like Tucson's, like the Vegas, it is so dry
• 41:15
  here. You think this is not going to
• 41:17
  be every one of those cat households.
• 41:20
  I've had a mold inspector go out and buy mold in their house.
• 41:25
  And so that's part of what we're going to talk about next month.
• 41:28
  Wow. OK, that's good.
• 41:30
  It's going to be a big one. It's going to be a good one.
• 41:32
  Doctor Randy, thank you so much for joining us.
• 41:34
  Thank you all who joined us such.
• 41:36
  A great job and thank you for all you do for our, our cats.
• 41:39
  Honest to God, it's, it's such a pleasure being able to be in, in
• 41:43
  working with you guys and, and doing this for your cat people.
• 41:46
  And and then there was a lot of really good questions that I'm
• 41:49
  sure we didn't get to, but hopefully we can do that later.