Treating stomatitis without steroids?

I adopted KiKi the three year old Maine Coon after fostering her for a month. I met her at the SPCA while volunteering. She was a cruelty case (starved, abused) and was put up for adoption a few weeks after my 14 yr old kitty died of Kidney failure. I got attached to her and I found out they were going to put her down because she had an ulcer in her mouth. She had been there over two months at that point and was overlooked due to the dozens of kittens. She was put on clindamycin and they thought it was a rotten tooth, I took her in to get the tooth taken out and they ended up removing 14 teeth, all but her front teeth. They gave me one days worth of buprenorphine and let me officially adopt her. 

We took her to the vet a week later (a month ago now) and the vet said her mouth looked like it was healing but prescribed more antibiotics because she was still red. We also found out she has a grade 3 heart murmur, something  I was not told and the vet tech/vet either didn't check or didn't hear anything while she was getting her teeth out so she is going back soon to get that rechecked and get her mouth looked at. She is eating good (I switched her to grain free, wet food diet since the ulcer appeared after she had been eating low quality food at the SPCA, she didn't come in with it) and she has a lot of energy, isn't drooling, etc but her mouth does look a little red still. Vet said the next step would be steroids. I don't want her to be put on steroids due to my bad experience with them with my kitty that passed away and because she has the heart murmur. I've also read that it can take up to 6 months after removing the teeth to see if the stomatitis is gone or not anyway. 

Has anyone had success with other methods besides steroids? Is there anything I can suggest to the vet instead of steroids if she thinks she needs to be put on them? What are your experiences with stomatitis? I'm interested in hearing other people's stories, I've never heard of it before I adopted her. 

In my opinion, give her Callendula Q.

You can visit a homeopath too regarding this. This medicine has magical power to heal any kind of wounds.

Hi lizzimi, thank you for adopting Kiki and offering her a furever home.  It is such a shame the vets/techs didn't inform you of all of her health problems, but hopefully you will be able to manage this.  I don't know if it will make a difference to what management options your vet might look at for her stomatitis.  I have my fingers crossed for her that her mouth heals well with the additional prescription antibiotics.  I feel so sad for any cat that continues to experience pain and symptoms even after tooth extractions.

My boy had stomatitis when he was younger but thankfully his gingivitis is currently managed and we have avoided lesions for over a year now, and not had any extractions to date.  I have done plenty reading on it though as Mouse can suddenly develop quite severe oral lesions and I know I may have to make decisions with quite short notice.   He now has a diagnosis of feline herpes and we are not sure if that has contributed to his oral problems.

One fairly recent article I found looked very interesting and offers quite a different approach to all the other information I have seen. I have attached it here.  

http://www.dentalvets.co.uk/docs/FCGS-VPJuly12 NJarticle.pdf

You can look at it your self of take it for your vet to read and discuss with you.  It is the bit on use of Feline Recombinant Interferon Omega which relates to the stage in treatment I think you are at with Kiki.

Hope things go well for you all.

Zakiulrahman said:

 
In my opinion, give her Callendula Q.

You can visit a homeopath too regarding this. This medicine has magical power to heal any kind of wounds.

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Does anybody else have any experience with this?

I think the best person to talk with would be a homeopathic vet if you have one in your area if you want to go down these lines for treatment.

The other option is try what worked for Mouse but you still have to go with antibiotics for secondary infections and look at options again if the inflammation does not subside. Nutritionally it is not the best diet as not grain free and not high in protein but one the mouth is comfortable enough to manage the large, rough kibble feed only Science Plan t /d dental dry food, and suppliment the effect of the scraping effect of the kibble with twice daily administration of an enzyme toothpaste.  This keeps the mouth plaque free and aims to minimise the cat's auto immune response to the plaque and bactria that build up in it. You have to be very strict with the routine though and keep any additional little treats to an absolute minimum and 100% protien only like tiny quantities of fresh or freeze dried fish or poultry (like 5 or 6 bits of kibble size cubes a day).  To build the immune system you then look at ways to add a pro-biotic e.g. with the little cubes of fish or poultry, a tea spoon of sardine or pilchard or something similar.

MServant said:

 
I think the best person to talk with would be a homeopathic vet if you have one in your area if you want to go down these lines for treatment.

The other option is try what worked for Mouse but you still have to go with antibiotics for secondary infections and look at options again if the inflammation does not subside. Nutritionally it is not the best diet as not grain free and not high in protein but one the mouth is comfortable enough to manage the large, rough kibble feed only Science Plan t /d dental dry food, and suppliment the effect of the scraping effect of the kibble with twice daily administration of an enzyme toothpaste.  This keeps the mouth plaque free and aims to minimise the cat's auto immune response to the plaque and bactria that build up in it. You have to be very strict with the routine though and keep any additional little treats to an absolute minimum and 100% protien only like tiny quantities of fresh or freeze dried fish or poultry (like 5 or 6 bits of kibble size cubes a day).  To build the immune system you then look at ways to add a pro-biotic e.g. with the little cubes of fish or poultry, a tea spoon of sardine or pilchard or something similar.

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Thanks. I have a cat that has been on prednisolone for 3 years for stomatits, and has just been diagnosed with dibetes.

So I'm looking for options to get him off the pred

Have you seen the Stomatits Thread?  There is a vet that has a specialized syrup you can get for stomatitis.  Here is the information on it:  The phone number was (972) 385-8400. The clinic have changed their name since and are now called Veterinarians Dental.  Here's their website:  http://www.vetdentdallas.com/ 

From what I understand you can have your vet call them and get the formula or authorize the prescription.

cprcheetah said:

 
Have you seen the Stomatits Thread?  There is a vet that has a specialized syrup you can get for stomatitis.  Here is the information on it:  The phone number was (972) 385-8400. The clinic have changed their name since and are now called Veterinarians Dental.  Here's their website:  http://www.vetdentdallas.com/ 

From what I understand you can have your vet call them and get the formula or authorize the prescription.

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Thank you!

Which thread are you taking about?
I've searched and read several about stomatitis

There are several threads that I have found with information about it:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/260047/stomatitis  This thread talks the most about it, as in what types of ingredients are in it etc.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/258947/stomatitis-syrup-from-dallas-texas

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/262512/does-interferon-help-with-stomatitios

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/257668/does-the-dallas-dental-service-animal-clinic-still-exist

cprcheetah said:

 
There are several threads that I have found with information about it:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/260047/stomatitis  This thread talks the most about it, as in what types of ingredients are in it etc.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/258947/stomatitis-syrup-from-dallas-texas

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/262512/does-interferon-help-with-stomatitios

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/257668/does-the-dallas-dental-service-animal-clinic-still-exist

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Thanks again