Teeth Grinding when eating

brillobee

brillobee

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My 8 year old cat Oscar grinds his teeth when eating. He is a stictly indoor cat. He also is reluctant to eat dry food and seems not his usual self. I took him to the vet who gave hime an oral exam. She says he has fantastic teeth. She also did bloodwork and everything came back normal. She is stumped. Anyone have any ideas? He lives with 9 other cats, but we recently added two adult cats to our household (now 11 cats). So maybe stress related? Everyone does seem to be getting along fine, tho.
 
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brillobee

brillobee

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We don't have a dentist near us. The vet looked in his mouth for about 15 minutes. She pushed on all his teeth and no reaction. Also he doesn't drool.
 
violet

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Did you look here?
http://www.avdc-dms.org/dms/list/dip...TOKEN=37937841

Also, all this info ( obviously, except rabies) has to be considered

The most common sources of oral pain in cats are dental pain, oral lesions, and jaw fracture. Tooth resorption, fractured teeth and dental abscesses are the most common causes of dental pain. Stomatitis is a severely painful oral inflammatory condition and tumors (squamous cell carcinoma) are the most common painful non-inflammatory oral lesions. We look carefully for oral burns and lacerations as potential causes of oral pain. Oral discomfort from temporomandibular joint problems (TMJ), malocclusion, foreign bodies or the ingestion of unpleasent substances (especially household chemicals and plants) must also be ruled out.

After oral pain has been ruled out, abdominal pain, nausea and neurologic diseases are considered as potential causes of teeth grinding and salivation. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), pancreatic disease, cholangiohepatitis, gastritis and hypokalemia (low potassium) are also ruled out. From a neurologic perspective we need to consider rabies, bartonella, brain tumors and peripheral nerve neuropathies.
Click to expand...
There are a lot of things to look for. Especially since you wrote

He also is reluctant to eat dry food and seems not his usual self.
Click to expand...
No question, something is wrong, even if this vet can't find it. Quite possibly you'll have to go to someone else to have the problem diagnosed.
 
violet

violet

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PS......When my Amy was grinding her teeth she didn't have a problem with drooling either. She had a dental (to have her teeth cleaned) as a first step to see if that would help and after the dental there was no more teeth grinding. So I guess ours was a simple problem with an easy solution.

I can only say, you need to go to someone who will find the source of the problem, whatever the problem is.

Edit: I mean, wherever it's coming from, whether from inside the mouth or somewhere else.
 
B

beachangel83

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The same thing is happening to my poor baby. He's 11 and just stopped eating and drinking one day. We took him to the vet but all blood work and xrays came back perfect. The doc said his teeth needed a cleaning and weren't in perfect shape, but nothing to be concerned about.

We've had him on an IV for fluids at home for the past couple of days and are hand feeding him. His energy has come back and aside form the fact that he wont eat on his own he's back to semi-normal. Using the restroom, purring, moving about. If we stopped feeding/watering him though he'd go right back down hill. As if the chewing is hurting him. He wont eat his hard food anymore and I recently heard a bone grinding type of sound when he chews.

Next up is the dentist, I hope this helps but the Doc and us are completely stumped :(
 
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