Possible Toothache?

My cat, Kora, is almost 5. The past few months, she's done this weird little thing when she sits on my lap: If I rub the side of her bushy little cheek, she does this thing with her mouth that looks and feels to me like, she's kind of chewing on the back of her tongue. Like if you took the side of your tongue and pretended to bite down on it on one side.

I noticed as well, she tends to shy away from hard treats and dry food. When she does eat the dry food, bit's of it fall out of her mouth. She tends to just sit by herself after she eats too, which isn't really THAT out of the ordinary from her normal behavior.

On top of this, she tends to have runny stool, and the last one I saw seemed to have a clear liquid in it. It seemed to have almost a chemical scent to it. I have nothing out that she could get into. I have another cat and he is pretty normal.

I lost a cat to Lymphoma a few years ago and am terrified to go to the vet, but I have an appointment for her this Friday.

I'd also like to mention as far as her behavior, it's not too far off from the norm. She is bright eyed, somewhat still playful she doesn't moan when I rub her belly or anything but she has lost some weight. The area right in front of her hind legs is so thin. When I had my other cat that Lymphoma, he was pretty much completely withdrawn, hid all the time and wouldn't eat a thing. Kora is at least still eating, she ate a half can of tuna flavored food.

I'm hoping it's a tooth or maybe something anti biotics can take care of.

Has anyone had issues with the teeth where it effects their stool like this? Since it effects their eating habits, I'm wondering........

Ok, Kora just woke up from her after dinner nap and she walked to the litter box. I called her name, she let out a not so pleasant meow, and got in the litter box to do her thing.
It sounded very gassy. I checked it after she got out, it was runny, kind of light brownish, yellow and there wasn't much of it.

Anything? I'm starting to lean towards blockage maybe?

She definitely needs to see a vet pronto. An infection in the mouth is dangerous and cats cannot go long without eating. My Boo had a rotted canine tooth and it prevented him from eating hard food, and bits fell out of his mouth too, not to mention what kind of awful pain it must have caused him. Update us, but take her to a vet!

I'm really hoping that's all it is. Not that it's an easy thing, but there are worse ailments these little critters can get.

So if it is infected, that may be causing her bowel issues?

She is scheduled for a vet visit Friday at 8am, I'll see if I can get her in sooner.

Have you attempted to smell her breath? Boo's got horribly awful when his tooth was going.

Just like humans, a problem in the mouth can get into the bloodstream, and say with my cat who has kidney failure, the kidneys try to filter that toxin and build antibodies against it, but it leaves antibodies behind and can cause damage to the kidneys /(If I understood what I read correctly)

She could have a small infection and her body is possibly trying to get rid of it through her bowels. If you've changed food or anything recently that could also possible cause it.
A dental or tooth extraction (I am unclear if they do root canals and the like) is usually a simple procedure from what I understand, but be sure if she needs to be put under for it that you get blood work BEFOREHAND. This is soooo important. I used to think oh what silliness my cat is fine, and bam he has kidney failure. So get labwork done before any procedures so you can be aware of any issues ahead of time.

Just got home from the vet.

So far, so good! Poop came back negative, ears good, eyes, good, gums healthy, ear temp came up a little high she said, but butt temp was normal, a little tartar on some teeth but no rotting teeth. She said Kora looked pretty healthy.
The last time I had Kora there was almost 2 year ago (I know, but money's been tight.) and she weighed in at 13lbs, she's now 10lbs, so she did lose 3lbs. The vet said 1/4 to 1/2 lb loss is nothing major, but something is causing her to not eat like normal, which is causing the weight loss.
So I await a phone call tomorrow with the blood work results. I'm so nervous.

Things the vet did mention: heart rate was a bit high. This vet said that even with nerves of being at the vet, a cat would normally be around 220 beats per minute, Kora was at 280.

So the things she's concerned with are possible Hyper Thyroidism or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
SO now....I wait for the results and keep my fingers crossed.

Oh, I hope they're able to diagnose something specific that can be easily treated. I know how nerve-wracking it is waiting for the test results - and bless you for taking her in.

Well, the vet didn't call me, which I was thinking was a good thing. No news is good news right? Eh

Well, most of Kora's tests came back normal, but she said there were a few abnormalities. I'll probably sound confusing since she had a lot of information. The biggest thing she mentioned was a high globule count of something, which indicates there's an inflamation somewhere. The blood test isn't specific enough to pinpoint it. She mentioned the signs don't point to Hyperthyroidism and that it could be cancer or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. These were the options for the next step:

Xrays
Ultrasound
Diet change with Pretisone(sp?)
Scoping which involves putting Kora under. =(

I want to be as thourough as possible, but I hate to admit it, I don't know if I can afford it, and the thought of my little girl suffering because of money issues makes me sick to stomach.

The vet also informed me that the Pretisone is a steroid, that would try to calm her inside down, as to hopefully help her to be able to digest her food properly. The only thing is, if we go about this blindly, and there IS cancer, the use of Pretisone, may kill off polyps, but the cancer would come back even stronger later on and that chemo would probably not work. Also that there's a slim chance that it could cause Diabetes, all be it, a slim chance.

So I have to think about the next step. I get paid tomorrow but I'm not sure how much will be available. I am thinking about trying an Xray first though, to see if that can find something.

I lost her little brother Roscoe a few years ago to Lymphoma. He wasn't even 2 years old yet. I don't think I can handle a situation like that again. The only reason I think I made it through so well, was because of Kora.

I forgot to mention, the vet asked how long she'd been having diarhea and I said at least a few weeks. So, even though not 100% sure, she's leaning towards Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Has anyone had a cat with IBS? How were their eating habits?

BTW, I'm pretty sure that Kora and Roscoe were from 2 different litters. They had very few similarities, physically and personality wise. So if she has Lymphoma too, I'm curious how.

Xrays next week.

I have a pretty good feeling that it may really be the IBS. It seems that most of the time she is pretty normal with her behavior. She still lays on me when I watch tv, rolls over to get her belly rubbed when I walk by, she even played with her catnip toys a bit today.
It just seems that within an hour or 2 of eating, she goes potty or throws up and then she's normal again.
I actually bought some IAMS kitty dry food and she's eating it right now. I'm so excited!
I want to do the Xrays to rule out some other things before I get involved with that medication and the diet change.

I'll keep everyone posted. KORA

Hi! I'm just seeing this thread.

Did you tell your vet about this?:

If I rub the side of her bushy little cheek, she does this thing with her mouth that looks and feels to me like, she's kind of chewing on the back of her tongue. Like if you took the side of your tongue and pretended to bite down on it on one side.

Click to expand...

do you mean like a chattering kind of movement? If so, that is a classic sign of FORL-Feline odontoclastic resorptive lesions, which is a very painful dental condition.

If she is chattering, mention it to your vet. It could be why she's lost weight, too. Do you free feed? YOu want to keep close track of how much she is eating these days.

keep us posted.

I wouldn't call it a chattering. It's kind of hard to describe, but I did mention it and her mouth was the first thing the vet looked at.
I was hoping it would be something like that, so we could just yank the tooth or whatever, but no such luck.

This is so confusing to me. As I said, I had her brother come down with Lymphoma, I watched him deteriorate and remember the way he acted like it was yesterday.

Kora doesn't really have any symptoms like he did, besides a slight weight loss, so I'm praying to God, it's IBS, or something.

My mom's cat had some pancreatic virus a few years ago and her cat had almost the same symptoms, so I'm starting to wonder....

Just got back from the vet. The Xrays were clean! A little part of her right hip is a bit flat, so the vet says she may have a little arthritis in that hip, but nothing to worry about.
I pointed out that the last few days, Kora seemed a bit more normal, and she was actually eating the dry kitten food.
So now my choices were to try a hypo allergenic diet switch and/or try giving her some Metro... I forget how it's spelled. She says that will help to ease the diarrhea hopefully. So I opted to go with the Metro and try that.

I pick that up tomorrow since the pharmacy was closing in 10 minutes and I was well over an 30 minutes away. So, tomorrow, we shall see.

So far, so good, I guess.

I think IBS (in either humans or cats) can be hard to diagnose, and sometimes you really do end up treating the symptoms first before going into invasive testing. Sometimes you get lucky and a change of food, etc., can really turn things around. But I know how frustrating and scary it is when they have box issues and you can't get it sorted out right away.

I'd suggest keeping a diary of how Kora's days go - if there are patterns, it might be easier to see when you're looking at a few weeks' entries - or may help the vet out in her diagnosis.

My boy seems to have a sensitive tummy - I adopted him as an adult, and his poo was never a perfect 'tootsie roll', and sometimes he seemed to crouch a little funny after eating. I transitioned through several foods. When he had to go to Hills C/D for crystals, of course I got him both the fish and regular wet foods, since I didn't want him to get bored, and got the dry kibble because he really doesn't like wet food that much. Then he started pooping outside the box, fairly often, and it was pretty soft.

After looking at my notes, I realized that he seemed to have problems the day after I fed him the fish formula, and that he also seemed to do better when I reduced the amount of wet and increased the dry (yeah, I know - usually you'd like to feed more wet for a cat with crystals). The vet also gave me a mild antibiotic that's used for stomach issues. Knock wood, we've been accident free for five months, and his poo looks pretty good and he looks more relaxed after eating. Right now the vet doesn't want to do anything more invasive re a colonoscopy of anything, since his weight is good and his senior panel came back great. I hope you have similar luck with your girl.

But if it turns out your thrives on Iams, or any other brand of food, just keep it up - the best kitty food is the one that keeps the kitty healthy, not the one that looks 'best' to us human label readers.

Thanks for the update! Metronidazole (flagyl) is often prescribed for unexplained diarrhea. Please keep us posted on how she is doing.

Ok, Kora HATES when I give her the medicine. I feel so bad for forcing her to take it. I have to literally sit around her so she won't run away and when she does get away, I see her flinging her head around trying to get it out of her mouth.
Can't wait til this is over. I know it's for her own good but I still feel terrible.

I haven't noticed any change really in her stool, but her attitude seems a bit more peppy at least.

3 more doses of Metro to go and she seems to be pretty much the same. I was really hoping that this would do the trick. I've added some sensitive stomach dry food to her diet, along with some wet food that's smaller chunks but it doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

I guess the Irritable Bowel Disease may be the villain after all. Sigh. I just want her to feel normal again and eat. I know she's hungry. =(

Update*

Kora got her weeks worth of Metro and it didn't seem to do anything for her. However the past few days, she has acted pretty normal: Playful, affectionate, etc. However, her stool is still runny and she's still not eating much wet food.I bought some Science Diet: Sensitve Stomach dry food for her to try, which she does seem to eat a bit of.
When I put the wet food out, she will just sit and stare at it sometimes. To me it's like her saying, " I would really like some of that, but.....".
So I called the vet again and she said the fact that Kora was acting somewhat normal, that it's a good sign, but we're not out of the water yet. I'm going to try a hypo allergenic dry food for her now to see if that helps. I think it's venison and green pea flavored. * crosses fingers.
Kora absolutely will NOT eat pate wet food or I would try the hypo allergenic wet food as well.
We're running out of options here. She's only thrown up once in 2 weeks or so. I did find a little bit of poop yesterday that had some blood in it.

This is so scary that we can't nail this ailment down!