Canine tooth extractions.... keeping hole clear of food?

[Rosella moggy]

Hoping Bear recovers from his ordeal very quickly 

Spoke to friend today who says hole has closed up noticeably over last 48 hours and keeping fingers crossed no more cotton wool buds to be used ...

Bearing in mind one of her Persians is celebrating her 18th birthday on 2 May, she obviously looks after her crew very well 

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

My Bear aged 16 had 7 teeth removed yesterday.
I was not told anything about keeping the holes clear but he was given a course of AB's

[Rosella moggy]

Thanks for the replies.  She wasn't given ABs either.  From memory the op was around midweek and I heard about it on the Friday evening and expressed slight surprise that no ABs with so many teeth extracted as Freddie was prescribed ABs when he had alot of teeth out and I recall cats mouths are full of bacteria so thought best be safe than sorry. 

She rang vets on the Sat morning to query and they said ABs unnecessary unless there were signs of infection.

Will see what they say tomorrow.  I did however say to her that, like me, I'm sure she wouldn't expect there to be signs of blood 2 weeks later if she had a tooth extracted and can't see why a cat would be different.

[Gillian Harvey]

No, I've not heard of that before either. When BB had her extractions a few months back, she also had quite a big hole where one particular tooth was rotten and they'd had to clear some neighbouring tissue - but there was never any mention of poking around with a cotton bud! She had antibiotics to deal with any infection and although there was a bit of blood the next day, the mouth healed quite quickly, I think it was about a week later when we went back and the gums were nice and pink and the hole was healing nicely.

[Jiji]

Nothing was mentioned at all about cleaning Algies mouth when he had all his teeth out earlier this year and I would have thought cleaning with a cotton bud would hinder the healing process.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I have never heard of this before and by now it should have healed.

I would be worried that an infection is being caused by keep poking it and things could be pushed in, including fluff off the cottonwool bud.

It will if I remember rightly, heal from the inside out so any debris would be pushed our automatically if it wasnt being constantly disturbed.

[Rosella moggy]

A colleague of mine has 4 Persian cats one of whom has just had 5 teeth extracted including a canine. Not sure of his age but think about 8 or 9 years old.  Certainly not old.

She's been told to use a cotton bud to keep the hole created by canine removal clear of food and has been doing so but 2 weeks later still notices small amounts of blood on cotton bud.

He only went back to vet 5 days ago and vet very happy with his progress.

I've not come across this cotton bud suggestion before and my colleague really doesn't enjoy the distress this seems to cause her boy and she is increasingly concerned that there is still blood a couple of weeks after extraction.

She is going to ring vet in the morning and ask for advice but please....any experience of cotton bud use in this connection?  Both my colleague and I have had cats with canine extractions in the past but not come across this advice before.