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Well, after almost 4 months of delay, trying a long, long course of antibiotics, doing a dental cleaning and seeing vets in 2 different practices for an opinion, we took Precious, our 9 months old foster kitten to our wonderful vet yesterday and more than 20 teeth, all side up and down, leaving only the front teeth, were removed for chronic and irreversible stomatitis.
The vets (3 involved) alll said the same thing: She would stop eating due to extreme pain in her gums if we didn't do it. And the bacterial infection (she had a biopsy and histopathy done last month) revealed bacteria that would only grow more severe, etc. etc.
Post-op, she is doing so well. The doctor said that the side teeth are the hardest to come out due to the deep roots, but hers came out well. Poor kitten! The surgery was fast for 20+ teeth: one hour and 20 minutes. She is on that great pain medication Buprenex and is so comfortable.
Poor baby... it is too bad you had to go through such extreme measures, but I am sure it was best for her! I hope she heals quickly.
The head of the medical clinic at a well regarded place was consulted by the vet who examined my cat - on more than one visit. She knew right away that this kitten was going to have to lose her teeth- her mouth was awful, and kittens should not have bright red, the brightest red you ever saw, gums, all filled with bacteria and stinking, and the head vet said to her, there is nothing that can be done to save her teeth. They would have fallen out slowly, with extreme pain in her gums,she would develop inflamed lymph glands (my Dirty Cat, my adult recent rescue, has this condition because no one helped him and he will never be normal and has lost lots of bone in his gums due to NOT having had the teeth removed - his teeth fell out slowly, over years, probably and he has only 3 left and had a bad infection in the gums).
So, then I went to another entire different practice, and I had my vet there see the cat for her opinion. She explained that there is NO known treatment for this condition. Some cats are literally allergic to their own teeth and a terrible "battle" erupts where the gums become so painful that the cat eventually can no longer eat. She said we will and should remove the teeth so as to stave off more infection and suffering.
I have rescue pals who know about this condition. There really is no other solution. It is far better to do it when the kitten is young,too. Otherwise, what you have is a cat with severe, chronic inflamation that will never go away and eventual infected lymph glands, chronically so (as with my poor older rescued boy cat).
And if you do it now, you save the gum bone. Later, you lose bone mass.
Your kitty is lucky to come across someone who cares so much about her. It sounds like a horrible condition and she is so much better off without those teeth.
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The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. ~Henry David Thoreau
Your kitty is lucky to come across someone who cares so much about her. It sounds like a horrible condition and she is so much better off without those teeth.
She IS going to be much better. All the vet techs even know about this condition, etc.
Doing colony work is, we have ruefully learned, no cheap date. When you do TNR and find kittens and tame cats, guess what, there is a lot of illness and injury, not just TNR. The TNR is the cheap part, actually!
I was warned by a senior, paid staffer in TNR that if I volunteer as a Feral Friend for Alley Cat Allies I am going to have to understand that few volunteers just sit there and give out advice. People need us to help them, hands on, and pretty soon we get attached.
Heck, as soon as I use the word "rescuer", all of these people ask me for my "services".
I do wish that more people would themselves get TNR certified so they will share in this work (if they have the time, of course).
(Here is the thing: I have had 2 or 3 people give me "advice" I really didn't know how to answer and I found it kind of upsetting: "Are you SURE you have to do this? Why don't you get another opinion? (I did!!) One lady told me no local vet can do this surgery. Like she knows all about it. She is wrong. A good vet does this surgery quite often." I am no good at knowing how to say to people, listen, I do know what I am doing and I am being very conscientious and I also might even know a thing or two more than YOU do LOL! (I got one pain in the neck lady who insisted that she of course knew I "need" a dentist. Well, what she doesn't even know, and I didn't mention it here, that I DID call a dentist vet and discussed the case with the assistant. I learned that this is done by a local vet just fine. And we even had a biopsy of the gums done, a month ago, to be so careful about the decision.
(Here is the thing: I have had 2 or 3 people give me "advice" I really didn't know how to answer and I found it kind of upsetting: "Are you SURE you have to do this........
You will learn to take people like those with a grain of salt, smile, thank them for their opinions and do what you know is best for the kitty.
I'm sure that kitty would rather be toothless and eat soft food the rest of it's life than live in constant pain and misery.
You will learn to take people like those with a grain of salt, smile, thank them for their opinions and do what you know is best for the kitty.
I'm sure that kitty would rather be toothless and eat soft food the rest of it's life than live in constant pain and misery.
Just as an update, Precious is squeezing her eyes and purring and seems so comfortable... and she eats her same food (I only used wet in the past) just as well. She seems so calm!
She does have a few very front teeth (I forget the names for them, sorry).
Well, I was all confident to have this done by my excellent local vet who said that without qualification they needed to come out and that she was well able to do the surgery, but then when no less than 3 people who work with cats questioned me I wanted to scream and say: "Are you telling me I don't do my due diligence?"
Then, because they questioned me I was not so calm on the day of surgery.
It's tough enough to do this, and I don't need people telling me I might not be getting the "best advice". I WAS getting the best advice. Grrrrrr
(And my vet, the one who did the surgery, is one of the most respected in our area. She is really good, and I have kissed a lot of toads, have used specialty hospitals a lot and was surprised at how good she was after having been disappointed with non-specialists quite a lot of the time. She is fabulous.)
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