Red tongue and drooling

Bobke is a 4 year old DSH.  Today I noticed his lips were wet.  We couldn't see anything in his mouth so we figured he had just had a messy drink of water (not typical of him).  He hasn't really acted like himself but nothing really obvious.  Last night he slept with me which is unusual (too busy playing).  He hasn't wanted to go out in the garage (closed and no chemicals he can get into).  He sits by the door to go out there but changes his mind.  He tried to jump up onto the TV and missed when he has done that many times without fail.  I just noticed he's drooling.  Not just the wet lips but a long shoelace of slobber.  We looked into his mouth again and the tip of his tongue is red.  Has anyone seen anything like this?  I didn't notice anything different in our feeding ritual this morning but I'll make sure he's eating tonight.

It could be a problem with bad teeth or infected gums, but he's pretty young for that.  If he goes outside, I would be worried about poisons or being bitten by something (from a mouse to a spider, and lots of other stuff).

He doesn't go outside.  He goes into our garage but it is always closed and we have no chemicals he can get into.  We leave the car maintenance to the professionals so no drip pans or puddles and our yard equipment is in a separate building.  I'm going to make an appointment tomorrow when the vet opens.

It could be something in the house, but some real detective work on the part of the vet may be in order.

Too bad they can't tell us, huh?

Update on Bobke:

He went to the vet Monday and it is still a mystery what happened to his tongue.  The vet said it looks like he burned it and the surface is sloughed off leaving the raw tissue exposed.  He gave us antibiotics (his breath stinks like it's infected) and pain killers along with some liquid diet to keep him going.  Once the pain killers took effect he was drooling less and ate some food.  Luckily, he's a chubby kitty so as long as we keep a little bit of food going into him and keep him hydrated he should be fine.  We're drawing a total blank on what he might have done.  All we've come up with is he could have licked a hot water pipe from our boiler??  Not sure why, after 3 winters of living with us, he would decide to do that but that's the only wild explanation we could come up with.

Thank you for asking AND giving an update.  My 3 year old has lost weight but seemed to be eating fine.   I called Friday to get him into the vet.  Appointment is made for tomorrow and I was thinking the worst.   After I made the appointment I decided to see if he would let me look in his mouth.  He did and the front of his tongue is red about the size of a nickle.   He is a drooler but I bottle raised him so that is not unusual for him and certainly did not throw a red flag.   I am hoping that is it just some kind of infection and not life threatening.  I have been fretting all weekend.  Your question, and updates has certainly eased my mind.  Of course, each cat is different, I understand.  We hopefully will have an answer tomorrow.

Maynard was diagnosed with an infection,  No clue how he got it.  His treatment is a shot of antibiotics and a shot of cortisone.   Follow up visit in 2 weeks.  We don't foresee any other problems at this point.  Thank God. 

I hope Maynard heals up quickly! It's frustrating not knowing what caused the injury, but at least it's treatable.

Thank you.  I will let you know his progress.  So far today, he is hiding.  I think he is a little mad.  

lv2ridetrixie said:

 
Thank you for asking AND giving an update.  My 3 year old has lost weight but seemed to be eating fine.   I called Friday to get him into the vet.  Appointment is made for tomorrow and I was thinking the worst.   After I made the appointment I decided to see if he would let me look in his mouth.  He did and the front of his tongue is red about the size of a nickle.   He is a drooler but I bottle raised him so that is not unusual for him and certainly did not throw a red flag.   I am hoping that is it just some kind of infection and not life threatening.  I have been fretting all weekend.  Your question, and updates has certainly eased my mind.  Of course, each cat is different, I understand.  We hopefully will have an answer tomorrow.

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Your post caught my attention. A few years ago I came home from work to find Boo hiding under the bed....totally unlike him. When I finally coaxed him out, he was drooling profusely. He wouldn't open his mouth and clamped it shut when I tried to look. I took him to the vet the next morning and, as it turns out, he contracted FCV (feline calicivirus) from one of the newly adopted cats. He had a dime/nickel-sized red area on his tongue just as you describe. It was a tongue ulcer caused by FCV and is one of the primary symptoms. It is very painful and a cat will likely not want to eat. We had to put Boo on pain medication and supportive therapies until the flare-up passed.

Just thought I'd throw this out there in case it might be worth mentioning to your vet.

Thank you.  The vet didn't seem to be concerned with how Maynard got the infection.  He did give him a shot of long lasting antibiotics and cortisone. As long as this clears it up, I don't really need to know how.  The vet did say it may take another round of treatment.  Depending on Maynard's progress in 2 weeks.  

Well, I have sad news.  At the follow up visit for Maynard, my vets recommended that I take him to a specialist.   I did, that day.  They believe it is cancer on his tongue, a mass, not an ulcer.  Doing a biopsy would have maybe resulted in a feeding tube.  We decided that would be a horrible quality of life.  Maynard is home as long as he is comfortable.  I called my vet and asked if we could still do another treatment of antibiotics and cortisone.  They agreed.  He got those this morning.   He can't be feeling too terribly bad because I went outside to check on him (he's an indoor/outdoor cat) and well lo and behold, he had a chipmunk.  Ugh for the chipmunk but it shows me he is doing things he enjoys.

Thank you all for input and  the compassion you have shown me.

God bless the fur babies and their humans.

lv2ridetrixie said:

 
Well, I have sad news.  At the follow up visit for Maynard, my vets recommended that I take him to a specialist.   I did, that day.  They believe it is cancer on his tongue, a mass, not an ulcer.  Doing a biopsy would have maybe resulted in a feeding tube.  We decided that would be a horrible quality of life.  Maynard is home as long as he is comfortable.  I called my vet and asked if we could still do another treatment of antibiotics and cortisone.  They agreed.  He got those this morning.   He can't be feeling too terribly bad because I went outside to check on him (he's an indoor/outdoor cat) and well lo and behold, he had a chipmunk.  Ugh for the chipmunk but it shows me he is doing things he enjoys.

Thank you all for input and  the compassion you have shown me.

God bless the fur babies and their humans.

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I'm so sorry for this devastating news.

Thank you for your condolences.  Maynard is still hunting. The poor boy is hungry.  I did find a cat food that he can eat.  Fancy Feast pouches.  He has been eating..... a lot.   I am trying to get weight back on him.

I will still give updates.  He may stay in a good quality of life for much longer than I originally anticipated.