tplongy Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 Can anyone help? My female cat (a very young healthy 13 year old) who adores her food (very porky) suddenly started yelping when eating about a month ago. long story short and several vet visits later - she has had blood tests (all OK), full scrape and clean, antibiotics and we thought her sore gums had cleared up. However just returned from hols and discovered she has lost loads of weight (family been looking after her and our other cat whilst away). She has plenty of appetite but now looks at food like it is the devil. We have been feeding her "cat soup" basically, pureeing all her food into a mush. She seems OK actually eating from my finger (!) and as I say her appetite is fine. Anyway, further visit to vets this morning. Basically he has said gingivitus can be caused by many things and to be honest he has seen cats with far worse be in little pain (basically he was inferring she was was a bit of a wuss!! amazing!). She is terrible taking tablets (especially now) so he gave her a strong steroid injection plus an anti-inflamatory injection and told us to come back in two days. He also mentioned about some worst case scenarios where cat had all teeth removed and was absolutely fine!! I have looked up the problem on internet and all seems to be very negative about cures for this problem and seems to re-iterate vets comments. Does anyone out there have any ideas/help/other solutions?? Will obviously stick with the vets but it is breaking my heart to see my big fat baby girl turning into a little waif, she does so adore her food. Don't even want to think about the worse case scenario! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemima Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 You can buy a product called Logic from most pet stores which is an anti bacterial paste. Put a pea sized amount on your cats front leg (your cat should immediately start to wash it off). Logic kills someof the bacteria in the mouth which helps to prevent problems such as tooth decay and gingivitus good luck;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tplongy Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 That is very helpful, never heard of this, you are a star. Will be off to the pet shop on way home. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARY POPPINS Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 I posted on here a few weeks back about my cat, who is 17 and he had realy severe gingivitus, the only thing for him was to take his teeth out, I was sick with worry, anyway he had them out, we think he's been left with about 4 teeth, but he's fine now, its took years off him,and he can still manage to crunch biscuits, and eat everything he did before. The pain from gingivitus is realy bad, I just wish I'd let him have them out when it first started. he's such a happy chappy now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittencapes Posted October 19, 2006 Share Posted October 19, 2006 Yes my cat also had her ginigivitus cured by removing her teeth! She also only had a few left but certainly managed to survive very happily. we used to mash her food up and heap in a tall pile in the middle of her bowl so she could get it down easily - the vets recommended cleaning her teeth daily which was a ridiculous idea, for starters it really hurt her and made her gums bleed, secondly she only had 3 teeth! that did not last long! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medusa Posted October 19, 2006 Share Posted October 19, 2006 We've had cats as young as a few months old with gingivitis, where the long term treatment options are a life of injections, painkillers and steroids (or a one off removal of the teeth, and the cat's going to be pain free after the initial postoperative healing). We used to spend months with cats in pain on treatment and unable to go to a new home while they were on treatment, but experience has shown us that in cases that don't get sorted out by a short course of treatment, removing the teeth actually increases the quality of life for the cat enormously. The gums harden up and they get used to eating crunchies again, and they don't need any more medication. If you've been through all of the short term solutions and they haven't worked I wouldn't hesitate to take a more long term solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tplongy Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 Thank you all very much for the input. As horrendous as it initially sounded its quite reassuring to know that they manage without their teeth. She seems much better now and is troffing for england (we are feeding her on demand now to fatten her up). However its only two days since she had her last anti-inflammatory injection - so not sure how soon it will wear off but I am convinced it will come back again. She has had: 2 lots of antibiotics and now on the more recent reoccurance - 1 big boost of steroid and 2 anti-inflam - am now fairly convinced that if this doesn't work we will get her teeth taken out. She is 13 and other than this in generally very good health - hopefully if Mary Poppins had her cats teeth out at 17 then it shouldn't be too much of a problem - it breaks my heart keep taking her to the vets as she mews like a baby - I get myself into a right old state about - which probably doesn't help her!! Thanks everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARY POPPINS Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 Glad to hear you're both feeling better, but i know with my cat i put it off for about 4 years, giving him anti biotics and anti inflammotory tablets,and then he finally got so bad one night he was howling in pain, and I felt terrible, and at at this stage there was nothing else than to to have his teeth out,and who knows how long he had been in pain before it got this bad, animals seem to put with pain until its realy bad, As I said he's wonderful now it took him a few days to get over the op, but hes never been better. So what ever you decide, my thouhts are with you and you'll get lots of support from people on here I know i did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venger Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 The local vet told me there is little you can do. Another suggested brushing their teeth regularly, thats a laugh I thought. Any feedback on how you get along would be appreciated. venger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tplongy Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 Its farcical isn't it? When they make that suggestion have they ever actually tried even getting to look in a cats mouth let alone cleans it teeth REGULARLY!! ha - I reckon thats half the reason why cats get problems with teeth - with dogs they pant and eat with their mouths open so quiet often you get a good look at their teeth. With cats, the only way you see em, is if you are shoving a tablet down their throats! I know its said that you should try cleaning their teeth from being kittens but it aint no point finding that out when they are 13!! If we ever get any more I shall be forewarned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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