Stomatitis Support/Advice Needed

catslady

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Hi everyone,

My poor cat is about two weeks post-op for a full mouth extraction of all of his teeth due to stomatitis. I have been feeling very alone in dealing with this, besides having a knowledgeable vet and dental specialist who performed the surgery, and stumbled across a thread from 2012 where it seemed like some other posters here had cats with the same condition. I was hoping to get some advice.

My cat had been acting very strangely about this time last year, what I call having "attacks" while eating. We had recently gotten a border collie, so I mistakenly thought he might have had just some behavioral issues going on. By spring, he had lost 3 pounds, had atrocious breath, and had gotten increasingly lethargic. I took him into my vet and stomatitis was suspected after she noticed redness/inflammation, along with all the classic symptoms. The first step was to have him undergo a cleaning along with a steroid shot, to see if this would be effective. At this time, a tooth that had resorbed was extracted as well. Detour did really well for about 2 months, and then the attacks returned. At this point, we then tried a steroid along with antibiotics to see if this would clear it up. As you can imagine, I did an insane amount of research, and knew that this probably wouldn't help, but we wanted to try in the event my cat was one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately, he wasn't, and two months later, the symptoms arose again, with surgery recommended, as he is only 5 and steroids over his whole life span would have eventually gotten to be unsafe/ineffective.

My cat underwent surgery with little complication. He was monitored the whole time, and had dental x-rays taken pre and post-op. I know I won't see if the surgery was a success until a few more weeks when the steroids clear his system. My concern is how to help him in the meantime. Before the surgery, his diet was a mixture of mostly dry food and wet food as he would tolerate. He loves dry food, but was extremely finicky when I tried to find a wet food to supplement him with when he was dealing with all of his symptoms. After the surgery, he initially ate a whole can of wet food and I was extremely pleased. Well, after the pain patch was taken off, things got worse. He would no longer take his antibiotic that was hidden in a pill pocket (I suspect it was very hard for him to grip on to, but he has since lost interest in even soft treats). I don't know if the lack of appetite is due to the surgery itself, or because we had to switch him to an oral antibiotic, which he is not taking well. He really dreads taking it, but I can't stop giving him the dosage until we go for our post-op check up due to risking infection. Ever since we've switched to the oral antibiotic, my cat has been hating me. This whole experience is so agonizing, but he shrinks away in fear whenever I approach him. I've tried to be very calming when administering the antibiotic, but his whole demeanor towards me is so changed because of this. I am sure he's still adapting and that things still feel weird in there (thinking back to my wisdom teeth days), but now the lack of him eating is really worrying me in addition to this. He stopped eating the wet food as much (he will now lick it once or twice before losing interest), and did not take to his dry food moistened after one initial time. In desperation, I returned him to dry food before the recommended time (only a few days), but he's showing pain when trying to eat this. I threw in the towel last night, and gave him tuna, which I know is not good for a cat's diet long term, but he thankfully ate this. I also tried to give him cat's milk, which was a big no go. Our follow up is in a few days, but I'm just hoping to seek some advice in the meantime.

I'm sorry for the book, but am hoping I can find someone with the same/similar story who can help. I feel guilty enough that he's been living with this problem a year, and for subjecting him to the surgery, but I know that it will be for the best regardless of whether or not he makes a full recovery. Him not eating/avoiding me is really causing me a lot of misery. I would do anything for my cat, and I just don't know how to help him. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Stomatitis is a painful, awful disease, with little known about it, and I feel like it can be just as draining for the owner.
 

xinghua31

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I'm wondering if my little girl may have stomatitis too. She had 2 teeth and a root extracted about a month ago, but certain teeth in her mouth appear to have inflammation above them again. I know how horrible it feels. I had the vet tell me she had a grade 1 heart murmur that could have been caused by bacteria coming off the teeth and getting into the blood supply, and then attaching themselves to the valves of the heart. If the vet recommends MetaCam, I would advise about doing some research into it (google MetaCam kiils for instance).

I have found that making food time a game helps. Try flicking some soft chews (try Dreamies) for him to chase if possible. I can also suggest that you try getting a cat water fountain. Cats apparently seem to like moving water ( it piques their interest I guess). Otherwise just try leaving some bowls of water around (maybe try making it filtered water, but NOT mineral water. This can cause urine crystals in cats, and in males it can be deadly, as their urethra is very small and easily blocked by the crystals that can be formed in the bladder by minerals!)

I hope your little boy gets his appetite back! :)
 

mrsgreenjeens

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The only thing I can suggest is to get all kinds of different canned foods and puree them in a blender or magic bullet or something, with added water to make them into a slurry that he can lap up.  If you  need to, put tuna juice on top to get him to eat.  Try Fancy Feast...most cats LOVE those.  Or try  making him some homemade food.  That should be ok for the next few days, at least.  Just put a couple of boneless chicken thighs with some water, tightly covered, in the oven for maybe 1/2 hour at 350 degrees.  Let it cool and toss that in your blender or food processor with additional water until a good consistency for him to eat.  DO NOT ADD any seasonings at all.  This is not nutritionally complete, but it's much better than nothing and can hold  him for at least a week. 

As to the medication, you could ask your Vet to send the prescription to a compounding pharmacy, where it might be able to be made into a transdermal gel that you could rub into his ears, especially if he's going to continue to need to take them.

BTW, if you might want to continue making him food, we can help you make to nutritionally complete
.  This is just a quick fix.
 

susank521

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I'm so sorry you're going through this
.  One of the hardest parts of trying to help them is how you feel when they react like they're afraid of you. Breaks your heart. My stomatits kitty always did and still does prefer kibble. When he had his teeth extracted he did eat some can food post-op but mostly what he would eat was very, very well moistened Fancy Feast dry food (we tried purple and green bags, but I don't remember which one he would eat). So you might try that if the chicken mrsgreenjeens suggested doesn't work.

Hopefully, you are close to being finished with the pills and won't need another round of the antibiotics, but there are a lot of good ideas in this thread about trying the pills with different food items: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/246066/pilling-success-my-new-trick  

Sure hope things go well at your follow-up. 
 
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catslady

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Thanks so much for your suggestions, everyone!

I think sometimes it may actually take posting something for things to get better on their own. I think trying the tuna may have piqued his appetite, since I've seen him chowing down on the dry food when the tuna hasn't been out since the last time I posted. Thankfully, he seems to be adapting to eating it a bit better than he had been. I can only imagine this is going to be a long road to recovery/for him to adapt fully. If I hit another roadblock, I'm definitely going to try to take something from all of these suggestions.

He currently gets organic wet and dry food, but both of my cats go crazy if they can eat something along the lines of Fancy Feast or any other mainstream food... funny how that works, huh? So that will probably be a good option if he falls back into not eating.

I'm hoping the period of him not eating is more behavioral than anything else. I've switched to having someone else in my family adminster the antibiotic since I honestly couldn't take it any more, and he has been eating and more relaxed since then. I'm not sure if this change or the tuna changed his attitude, but hopefully I'm on to something. It is just the most frustrating thing when they won't eat, but at least I have this arsenal on my side if we run into this problem again.

Thanks again for all the advice, it's truly appreciated!

PS. Susank, what was the recovery like for your kitty? Did the extraction work for him? About how long did it take for him to go back to "normal" -- eating and behavior-wise? Most of the information out there is from a medical/professional standpoint, and I would really enjoy your take on a more personal level.
 

susank521

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I am so glad Detour has started eating again and that you have someone else that can administer the pills. That is wonderful news.


My Simon had his teeth extracted on 6/12/13, he went through the surgery and recovery just fine and was on soft food for 2 weeks per the vets instructions. When I put his regular kibble down after those 2 weeks of soft food, it took him about 2 minutes to learn how to eat hard food without teeth! 

He did very well until mid-August when I noticed him again exhibiting symptoms, sure enough another stomatits attack. I was so sad for the poor fella. Back to the vet we go and I chose to try a steroid injection. Thankfully, he has been symptom free ever since. Simon is a semi-feral and even though we have been working diligently on our people skills his tolerance level leaves a lot to be desired.
 That fact greatly influences treatment choices, but irregardless I now believe that if this ever happens to a more manageable cat I would follow the same course. The vet and I have discussed other options besides steroids in case we're faced with another attack, but really I'm just praying I don't have to make a decision! 
 
 
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catslady

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Trust me, I am so, so glad too! He is still eating his dry food, and I'm very pleased.

I'm so sorry to hear that Simon underwent another attack after the surgery. I'm crossing my fingers that it was just a fluke instance, and that the steroid clears him up. Detour had his follow up yesterday, and the vet said everything looks great with very minimal redness/irritation (most likely as the sutures are still dissolving), but this is my worst nightmare. I'm not letting myself feel too optimistic yet for this reason. However, my vet and the dental specialist both said that every cat they see after a full extraction is still much improved than they were before the surgery, so I guess we can both find some comfort in that.

I can only imagine having a semi-feral cat with this condition. You are such a trooper and I hope he continues to do well in the future. Stomatits is such an awful disease, and I really hope that more is known about it soon. It helps to know that my cat and I aren't the only ones though.
 

susank521

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Glad to hear that Detour's follow up went well yesterday. You read varying statistics regarding post-extraction success, everything from 50% to 80%, but the odds are in your favor and we'll hope for the best for you and Detour! Please keep us updated on his progress.
 
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