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Sorry this is so long...but it has truly been an interesting day!
Since the group on this forum seems to know a ton, and have tons of different personal experiences, I am hoping you can give your two cents...our foster failure, Alley who loves to test my balance whilst blocking her from exiting the house when I am entering it has Feline Stomatitis and I am trying everything within my power to avoid the removal of all her teeth that is for some reason such an accepted solution in the veterinary world.
We have participated in trials that were unsuccessful, traveled around the country to visit specialists, and tried nearly every antibiotic (most of which ironically had alcohol as the main ingredient when her mouth has open sores and inflammation!). Most have provided limited relief but haven't lasted more than a cycle or two. I found the Veterinary Biotene and it was working really great but our petsitter has extreme difficulty squirting the mouth rinse in her mouth, and putting the ointment on her gums (which to be honest it takes a lot of effort from me to do all this too).
I came home this afternoon and she had scratched her mouth causing her gums to bleed for the first time ever like crazy all over my white bedspread of course. I immediately gave her a bath to get all the blood off her coat, dremeled her nails so that she couldn't scratch at her mouth but then resorted to the inflatable e-collar as she still managed to scratch her mouth, and then gave her some pain liquid, and managed to somehow squirt the mouth rinse in her mouth without it getting all over me and for once she didn't flinch due to not having any alcohol, and then followed that by the ointment.
I then broke my number one food rule by getting Fancy Feast Kitten canned fish formula since it doesn't have any chunks but I hoped that the extra calories and the extra stinky characteristics plus the addition of fish oil would make her happy which they did. After all that, I repeated the Biotene mouth rinse and ointment and her mouth is looking a lot better tonight.
So, things have improved but I feel like there have to be some things out there that I am missing to help her through this. I have not found vets to be receptive to alternative treatments because they don't feel that removal of all her teeth is so harsh.
There are some promising trials out there with results that may open up the door for more experimental procedures but I am just hoping that some of you may have some ideas of what I may be missing...or what I should look into. TIA in advance for any insight you can provide!
If I were faced with this, I would just have her teeth out, as it will save kitty a lot of pain and stress. Cats do fine without any teeth, and the freedom from pain turns them into new cats.
I have read recently of possibly using atopica (cyclosporin) to treat stomatitis issues, but don't remember where or if it was a successful treatment. Atopica treats autoimmune diseases of the skin.
Alley, have you considered Homeopathy? If I were in your shoes, I would find a Naturalpath Vet. I work with Homeopathy, and I can tell you from personanal experience the Miracles that do unfold from using it.
Just to give you hope: My Max is a FLUTD. He has Cystitis and suffers from spasms. Due to inefficient nutrition in utero and while nursing, this disease has effected his nails, bones, and teeth. He is ONLY 4 years old. A few weeks ago his teeth were bleeding terribly and the bottom right incisor next to his fang literally broke right off! At that point, I contacted my vet who said it sounded like Stomatitis and to bring him in.
This was at the same time our tax bill was due and we were scraping. And I thank God for that, for that in turn forced me to turn to homeopathy and put my knowledge to the test. (My self confidence is still a wee shaky, even though I have had success after success.) I found a Cell Salt that I hoped would help him. I gave it to him consistently every day. Two weeks later, I brushed his teeth and I was SHOCKED! No blood. The left bottom tooth, same position as the one that fell out only on the other side of his mouth, was in fact going in the same direction, BUT it was healing. The tooth didn't wiggle. There was barely any inflammation around the tooth, and again NO bleeding. Homeopathy healed a death process! Stunned? Stunned doesn't even describe how I felt and still do!
I KNOW homeopathy works. There are some on here who say it is a lot of baloney, but, Alley, I am just passing on to you that there is hope other then surgery for you cat. If you have the funds to pay for a Naturalpath Vet (not cheap) please explore this option.
In the meantime, please please please call your vet and get your cat on pain meds ASAP. Your baby is in terrible pain. Or if you are knowledgeable about herbal pain tinctures give your baby that.
Here are some links that has oodles of remedies for your cat. Look for the ones that address pain.
If I were faced with this, I would just have her teeth out, as it will save kitty a lot of pain and stress. Cats do fine without any teeth, and the freedom from pain turns them into new cats.
I have read recently of possibly using atopica (cyclosporin) to treat stomatitis issues, but don't remember where or if it was a successful treatment. Atopica treats autoimmune diseases of the skin.
Ally, I was ON THIS PAGE not more then a few weeks ago. In fact, there is a thread here about my Max, and one of the things I was contemplating on doing was getting all his teeth out. Reasoning? If he is this young and exhibiting these problems all ready, would it be better for me to have all his teeth pulled?
But, I stepped back and dove off the cliff once again. I turned to homeopathy with hopes that my studies would pay off. They did.
What I am trying to say to you, seek further then mainstream medicine. You may find an answer for your cat's dilemma.
Alley, have you considered Homeopathy? If I were in your shoes, I would find a Naturalpath Vet. I work with Homeopathy, and I can tell you from personanal experience the Miracles that do unfold from using it.
Just to give you hope: My Max is a FLUTD. He has Cystitis and suffers from spasms. Due to inefficient nutrition in utero and while nursing, this disease has effected his nails, bones, and teeth. He is ONLY 4 years old. A few weeks ago his teeth were bleeding terribly and the bottom right incisor next to his fang literally broke right off! At that point, I contacted my vet who said it sounded like Stomatitis and to bring him in.
This was at the same time our tax bill was due and we were scraping. And I thank God for that, for that in turn forced me to turn to homeopathy and put my knowledge to the test. (My self confidence is still a wee shaky, even though I have had success after success.) I found a Cell Salt that I hoped would help him. I gave it to him consistently every day. Two weeks later, I brushed his teeth and I was SHOCKED! No blood. The left bottom tooth, same position as the one that fell out only on the other side of his mouth, was in fact going in the same direction, BUT it was healing. The tooth didn't wiggle. There was barely any inflammation around the tooth, and again NO bleeding. Homeopathy healed a death process! Stunned? Stunned doesn't even describe how I felt and still do!
I KNOW homeopathy works. There are some on here who say it is a lot of baloney, but, Alley, I am just passing on to you that there is hope other then surgery for you cat. If you have the funds to pay for a Naturalpath Vet (not cheap) please explore this option.
In the meantime, please please please call your vet and get your cat on pain meds ASAP. Your baby is in terrible pain. Or if you are knowledgeable about herbal pain tinctures give your baby that.
Here are some links that has oodles of remedies for your cat. Look for the ones that address pain.
I gave her pain meds yesterday before I gave her the bath, etc. (same stuff you get after a spay/neuter to manage the pain in liquid form) but she has been 100% better today. No bleeding, no fighting with her mouth and she didn't scream at all when I put the mouth rinse and antibiotic gel on this morning. Even though it has no alcohol in it, she was in pain yesterday. Kind of weird how such a big difference can occur overnight. No blood or anything and the redness was not really there. Believe me, we have worked with a vet and this is not about doing things myself.
We have tried a few homeopathic vets and their treatment choices actually made her worse. Most vets don't seem to understand the whole immune system disorder...you can't boost the immune system or it gets worse, and if you try to depress the immune system it gets worse too. We could never find a happy medium with the homeopathic vet. Most evidence is pointing to this being a disease of the bone and not the mouth. Our regular vet which we trust was at a loss and just went with prescribing antibiotics until they were ineffective. Not exactly the best approach because you really don't want animals or humans for that matter to stop reacting to antibiotics, but it worked to keep the inflammation down. The most promise is with the vets at Cornell and right now we are just at a standstill. She has an rare form of Feline Stomatitis that even the experts are perplexed about.
I am seriously thinking about trying a treatment that is successful in Europe - the drug isn't approved for use in animals by the FDA here but you can get an exemption waiver to allow the drugs to be shipped here - as long as a vet treats it as a trial. It is expensive of course but it seems to have the most promise. Believe me, we wouldn't have brought her to Virginia with us and adopted her from being our foster if we weren't willing to help her and do what is best...but for the few cases I have found that were like hers, removal of the teeth rarely solved the problem entirely.
If anything, hopefully our journey will help other cats in the future with her disorder because originally, we were just being told that euthanasia was her best option and so I am sure there have been others in our situation that didn't have the resources that we do or the will to get second opinions for our second opinions. It is just that I feel that someone out there must have had some odd ball type of solution that just happened to work and I hope that we find them!
That's true, that removal of the teeth does not always solve the problem entirely for some of these cases.
You can't go wrong with Cornell, anyway. I've had too many occasions to know that. Wonderful place
Keep us posted on the experimental treatment. I'm glad she's feeling better today.
I would opt to have the teeth out because I have seen how well cats do without teeth, and what lovely happy cats they turn into when the mouth pain is gone.
I've also seen what they suffer without the extractions. My mother (who spent years in cat rescue) had a rescued Russian Blue (who are prone to this) and her vet did not want to extract the teeth, it was never clear to me why. What that cat suffered, it still enrages me. The vet kept prescribing antibiotics and METACAM. The metacam is what killed him, he developed acute kidney failure.
They didn't know how old he was, but if my mother had gone to another vet like I begged her to do, perhaps he would have been spared so much pain, and lived a longer life.
Alley, my heart goes out to you. I hope that this new medicine works for your baby.
And about your comments about the homeopathy vets. I happen to agree. That is one of the main reasons why I study it myself to learn, really learn, to understand, really understand. I have some cats here who are immune compromised and it is extremely important to keep this in mind with everything you give.
Blessings to you for going to the extent you are with your baby. Many people would not. And as for the euthanasia option? I've had vets tell me that one, but you know what, determination and a lot of LOVE bring life to a cat with supposedly no other options.
Thanks for all the encouraging words. I will definitely keep everyone posted. If she wasn't happy, I would probably go for the drastic removal of the teeth, and honestly was ready to take her to the e-Vet yesterday and if my dh had been around, he would have gone for that too since it is the easiest thing to do, but my BIL who is a vet but far away unfortunately calmed me down and told me to stick to the basics. So, I will just be happy that she is currently sunbathing with one of my dogs. Still no more bleeding gums! In the end, so little makes them happy which is a good thing! So, hopefully she won't scare me again for a while!
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has Feline Stomatitis and I am trying everything within my power to avoid the removal of all her teeth that is for some reason such an accepted solution in the veterinary world.
I immediately gave her a bath to get all the blood off her coat, dremeled her nails so that she couldn't scratch at her mouth but then resorted to the inflatable e-collar as she still managed to scratch her mouth, and then gave her some pain liquid, and managed to somehow squirt the mouth rinse in her mouth without it getting all over me and for once she didn't flinch due to not having any alcohol, and then followed that by the ointment. 
TIA in advance for any insight you can provide! 
Our regular vet which we trust was at a loss and just went with prescribing antibiotics until they were ineffective. Not exactly the best approach because you really don't want animals or humans for that matter to stop reacting to antibiotics, but it worked to keep the inflammation down. The most promise is with the vets at Cornell and right now we are just at a standstill. She has an rare form of Feline Stomatitis that even the experts are perplexed about. 
