Me and my girlfriend just adopted another cat,Tiger, from her sister. We took him in b/c the sister completely ignored the poor thing. Kept Tiger in her basemant hid whole life with no interaction to the rest of the family, no love or attention or care!!! My God she only took him to the vet when he was a kitten!!! Now he's nine. Seems to get along so far with our other three. But his one canine teeth is going bad but not so bad he's not eatting. But when I took him to the vet to update him, the vet said he had ginsivitis. His breath is pretty foul and I just don't think that a cleanning will do anything.
Does anyone out there have any good suggestions? PLease only answer if you know of something that may work. No silly answers please. Thanks to all that answer :).
2007-07-26 10:04:57 · 13 answers · asked by Gary M 1 in Pets ➔ Cats
ok ok. I know....... I spelled it wrong. My cat has GINGIVITIS!
2007-07-26 10:18:30 · update #1
Well, what did the vet recommend? Surely he or she had an opinion of what to do about it. If it's just gingivitis and none of his teeth are abcessed, rotted or loose, cleaning and a round of antibiotics may be all he needs. Get it done before it gets any worse, please. If that sister has any other neglected pets, anonymously report her to the ASPCA, which is what I would have done about Tiger about 8 years ago! Bless you for rescuing him, I only wish you'd done it sooner. The poor baby!
2007-07-26 10:15:03 · answer #1 · answered by baymast13 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It reads as if he really needs to see a vet. And it may not be as bad as you fear. The vet will take a dental pick, and often tartar will simply pop off. Until you get the tartar off, whatever you could do will not really be effective. That process is known as scaling and usually costs no more than a regular visit. If an extraction is necessary, then costs can get higher. Part of that is because of your cats age and the blood tests needed, since it will likely be under anaesthesia. If it is under anaesthesia, the vet will clean his teeth, and put on a sealant. But until a vet looks into his mouth, it is impossible to predict what would be needed.
If you get by with only scaling, there are things you can do at home that are rather simple. There are things like CET chews that will help, and you can even try brushing his teeth. At his age, that may not work too well, as cooperation may be lacking. But, swabbing his gums with a dilute peroxide gauze will help kill the bacteria causing gingivitis.
Neglecting his teeth will greatly shorten his life and give him many other problems. Cats are very stoic, so it could be bothering him, but you don't realize it. And even with no teeth, cats can eat dry food.
There are also cat foods that are formulated for tartar control, and they do work.
2007-07-26 17:41:38 · answer #2 · answered by cat lover 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's common in cats. A good cleaning will let the vet see if any teeth are loose or damaged and need to be removed (they'll do it right there), and they might prescribe antibiotics. That can make a cat's mouth smell wonderful.
He might want you to see if you can brush the cat's teeth if they'll let you (no not with toothpaste and a regular tooth brush). There's a pet toothpaste that's ok for them, it can be swallowed without making them sick (regular tooth paste will make any pet sick). You usually just have to wrap a piece of gauze around a finger and see if you can rub it along the side teeth on the outside. Don't worry about the little teeth in the front or the inside of the mouth, you only do the outside molars and canines. That will help keep the tartar off and reduce the gingivitis.
2007-07-26 20:01:21 · answer #3 · answered by Elaine M 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
a nine year old cat should be just fine for teeth cleaning - but the vet will do blood work to make sure the cat is healthy.
A teeth cleaning will make your cats breath smell a lot better. But my guess is that the vet will find that a lot of teeth will have to be pulled. When I first got my cat- he was two, with stinky breath and red gums. Took him to the vet, got his teeth clean - they ended up pulling 4. It made his breath smell a lot better!
A teeth cleaning won't cure the gingivitus, but it will pull off most of the tartar, and get rid of the bad breath. Even removing the bad teeth will help your cat. If your cat will let you, you should also brush his teeth. There are some products that are suppose to work (greenies) but most of these are formulated for dogs teeth, not cats so don't work as well.
2007-07-26 17:23:27 · answer #4 · answered by thedivineoomba 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This depends on how far advanced the gingivitis is. Early cases of gingivitis which haven't progressed far may possibly be treated at home with regular dental cleaning. Some treatments your vet may perform include:
Descaling to remove tartar build up
Plasmacytic-Lymphocytic Stomatitis:
Regular descaling by your veterinarian
Diligent home dental care in the form of regular brushing of your cat's teeth.
Anti-inflammatory drugs such as prednisone
Interferon and other immune modulators
Antibiotics
If these treatments don't work, the only option is to extract the affected teeth.
2007-07-26 17:09:39 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I went through this with a stray I took in 6 years ago. I don't know how old she is for sure because she was a young adult when I took her. Like your cat she had gingivitis and one bad tooth. The Vet cleaned her teeth and extracted the bad tooth. She recuperated very well and doing great. I would suggest you do the same. If you don't, he will continue to have that infection in his system which will cause more damage through out his body. He had a bad start in life. Help him to have a good one from here on out.
2007-07-26 17:17:29 · answer #6 · answered by Vida 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
my cat has gingivitis....basically the vet gave us these like brown chew toys for her to chew on and some stuf to clean her teeth...although this will help it will not solve the problem permanently. The only way would be surgery. this is necissary because gingivitis is in the gum so they would have to clean out the gums. my cat doesnt have any rotten teeth yet so were not going to do the surgery but i would suggest it for your cat. you dont want to get to a point where she'll stop eating because of it. AWW poor kitty....thats mean that they locked tiger in the basement.
2007-07-26 17:09:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
cleaning won't do anything? are you mad? professional teeth cleaning by your vet is the best thing you can do, he'll probably need some teeth pulled. my cat had very bad gingivitis and wasn't eating very much, he got his teeth cleaned and just seemed so much better! he started eating, he was more playful and just seemed to get a shine back in his eyes that wasn't there before. you definitely need to get his teeth cleaned immediatly! he has to be in so much pain T_T
2007-07-26 17:18:15 · answer #8 · answered by meatismurder90 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He may have to have his teeth pulled. I have several with no teeth except the front ones and they get along fine and have no problem eating. Some times that is the only thing you can do for them. Sometimes tho it will clear up with antibiotics too.
Bless you for taking in this poor cat and taking care of it.
2007-07-26 17:09:31 · answer #9 · answered by myassisdragon 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You know, i started looking on google about this, but HELL, you need to go to the Vet instead of wasting the time on yahoo.
No matter what i will say or other yahoo users won't make the poor thing feel better.
Go to the Vet asap, he will have to see this himself. She will probably get a good cleaning and some antibiotics....If the infection has reached the bones in the jaw she will probably have to have some teeth removed.
For every teeth your cat will have removed your gf sister should have 5 of hers taken out.
As for your gf sister, tell her that my Bengal cat has a message for her and intends to write it on her forehead with her claws, it reads:
"Dumb A*s"
2007-07-26 17:10:58 · answer #10 · answered by Maya_Phelina 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋