Hair in teeth

countryman

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I have a 14 year old longhair Persian, and she is in perfect health. She gets a lot of exercise, eats both canned and dry food regularly, gets outside a lot.
I brush her not every day, but at least a couple times a week all her life, and she enjoys that. She rarely gets hairballs from her own grooming, maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
In the last couple months though, she gets mats of hair stuck on her lower canines, and I have to pull it off her teeth with my fingers. This happens a couple times a week. She's never had this problem before. Her teeth and gums are healthy, but I'm afraid that this constant buildup of hair on her teeth will damage her gums.
I've controlled the problem by manually cleaning it off the teeth, but I just wonder why this comes about? And is there anything that I can do to prevent this from occurring? Does anyone else have this problem?
 

strange_wings

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I had a persian mix that had this problem. Aside from cleaning her teeth and brushing her I not sure what you can do.
Is there anything that could be making your kitty groom herself more rigorously, fleas or itchy skin?
 
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countryman

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Thanks Strange Wings,
no, she hasn't been grooming particularly more, or have any skin problems.
I guess it's just something that I and she will have to live with. Maybe it has to do with her getting older, maybe not enough chewing on things to dislodge it.
Oh well, I appreciate the quick answer, I think I'll stick around here more, found a whole lot of neat things about cats I never knew before.
 

persi & alley

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Originally Posted by countryman

I have a 14 year old longhair Persian, and she is in perfect health. She gets a lot of exercise, eats both canned and dry food regularly, gets outside a lot.
I brush her not every day, but at least a couple times a week all her life, and she enjoys that. She rarely gets hairballs from her own grooming, maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
In the last couple months though, she gets mats of hair stuck on her lower canines, and I have to pull it off her teeth with my fingers. This happens a couple times a week. She's never had this problem before. Her teeth and gums are healthy, but I'm afraid that this constant buildup of hair on her teeth will damage her gums.
I've controlled the problem by manually cleaning it off the teeth, but I just wonder why this comes about? And is there anything that I can do to prevent this from occurring? Does anyone else have this problem?
Is there a reason you cannot brush her every day? The reason I ask is because Persi produces abundant hair but you can never find any hair around the house and he has never once had a hair ball and I attribute it to the fact that I brush him so much. At least try the brushing every day and see if that makes a difference. It is recommened that all Persians be brushed EVERY day.
 

lady_tiger61

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My 10-year-old Persian - Sneakers - has something similar happen to him. While grooming his chest, sometimes the fur on his chest gets caught between his teeth. Though I'm sure he doesn't like it, I laugh like crazy because he tries to dislodge the fur by bringing both his front paws up to his mouth to pull it out.
what's funnier is that he sometimes he gets so anxious to remove the fur that he begins to hop!! I'll have to take a photo or video of it sometime.

I could click the fur from his chest - but why give up the entertainment?!?

hope you got a chuckle out of this.
 

tails up

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I have a 14 year old longhair Persian, and she is in perfect health. She gets a lot of exercise, eats both canned and dry food regularly, gets outside a lot.
I brush her not every day, but at least a couple times a week all her life, and she enjoys that. She rarely gets hairballs from her own grooming, maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
In the last couple months though, she gets mats of hair stuck on her lower canines, and I have to pull it off her teeth with my fingers. This happens a couple times a week. She's never had this problem before. Her teeth and gums are healthy, but I'm afraid that this constant buildup of hair on her teeth will damage her gums.
I've controlled the problem by manually cleaning it off the teeth, but I just wonder why this comes about? And is there anything that I can do to prevent this from occurring? Does anyone else have this problem?
I am having a similar issue with my long haired, female cat named Florence. She's our only cat out of about a dozen who gets fur wrapped around her bottom teeth and cannot remove it herself. This morning I just found her with her. mouth slightly ajar and I thought something was wrong with her until I investigated and remedied the situation. She had a tangle in her chest fur that she caught on one of her bottom teeth and it was holding her jaw down. She couldn't get the hair off her tooth I suppose so she was just sitting on the end of my bed with her mouth slightly open. I didn't find much of anything online about it, except that her bottom incisors might possibly be misaligned. It seems like a rare phenomenon. I think I am going to try to remedy this by giving her a half inch or so hair cut on her chest area and see if this helps her at all.
 

FeebysOwner

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This thread you posted to is an old one, so I am not sure how many members will see it. Nonetheless, what you are describing does sound like an issue with Florence' teeth. While you can slightly trim the hair on her chest for now (be careful), your best bet is to have a vet take a look at her teeth. Other issues could crop up if whatever is going on with her teeth is not addressed.
 
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