Kitty having many problems

Hello, I have a kitty named Grey, he is a neutered male American Long Hair, and he is about 8 or so years old. The other day I had noticed he was pawing at his mouth and growling a bit at it as if it was bothering him. I checked his mouth and it appeared his upper canine tooth had made a hole in his bottom lip and so I decided to take him to a vet. The vets were pretty surprised and didn't know how he could of done this to himself, they were also kinda stumped on what to do for him, so they decided that they would cauterize it and hope that the tooth would stop going into the hole, allowing it to heal. They gave him some vaccines as well and sent me home with a pain medication called meloxicam which also reduces inflammation(I recently looked up this drug and read some scary things about it, I also called another vet that said they don't even prescribe the stuff).

We get home, he goes to his litter box and pees/poos a little, but throughout the day he didn't eat much and stopped drinking water. Well later in the night I noticed the place where they cauterized his lips, a lot of brown crust was forming, which he eventually ripped off and ended up reopening the hole, which caused some bleeding. I took him back to the vet and they said they really didn't know what to do and maybe to give him the remaining pain/anti-inflammatory medicine(2 more doses) to see if the swelling on his gums would go down, allowing his tooth to slip passed his bottom lips.


My question is, what could be done about his tooth problem? Has anyone had this happen before? I don't really want him to lose his tooth because the vet said it's still in good shape, but I also don't want him suffering anymore. He is my soul mate kitty and I couldn't imagine life without him, I just want him to feel better and not have to worry so much anymore.

I AM NOT A VET but if one tooth is causing this much trouble, I'd have the tooth removed. My CJ (16) has had many teeth removed due to resorptive lesions (not what your cat has) and does very nicely. She also was given metacam (meloxicam) and it put her into acute renal failure. I won't allow any of my cats to be given that drug!

Good luck to you.

I think you should take him to the other vet who doesn't prescribe the metacam and get a second opinion and ask about removing the tooth.

It sounds like his tooth went through his bottom gum because the lower gum is very swollen. I wonder if there is anything either vet can do to rapidly reduce the swelling. 

I would take him to the other vet too, especially as this one seems stumped anyway. Hopefully the other one will have some more ideas on how to treat Grey.

My immediate thought, too, would be to have the tooth pulled, even if it's a canine, which I'm guessing it must be.  Otherwise, I'm not sure how the gum will ever heal. 

I also think having the tooth pulled would be the best option. Even if there was something a vet could do to heal the gum, it would constantly be torn by the tooth over and over again. After the extraction the gum would have a chance to heal up and relieve Grey's pain. I understand that the tooth is still in good condition but when it comes to situations like this it would be better for Grey to have it removed. Good vibes for both you and your kitty.

I would take him to another vet to see what can be done. i wonder if they could file the tooth down some?

How the kitty doing? I sort of have the same problem with mine..only in reverse. She had her upper left canine tooth removed a couple weeks ago and now she has developed a sore on her upper lip on the same side from the lower canine tooth. I've noticed the upper lip seems to fall behind her bottom canine. I'm hoping it resolves on its own once she has adjusted to that tooth being gone. At least, I hope so as I don't know what the solution would be!  

Remove that tooth! My cat had the same problem, are you taking care of his teeth keeping them clean? Its possible something he ran into took a big chunk out of his gums. You should put a cone on him so he cant mess with his mouth anymore so it can heal. My cat long ago had the same issue but it was decay from something i can't remember.