PLEASE HELP! Cat fang is loose, not sure if bad enough to see vet

So my cat is 8 years old and for a long while now, her top left fang has been just  poking out of her mouth, sort of like a saber-tooth tiger's would. We thought it was just a quirky thing she did, and paid no mind to it since it only poked out from time to time and she didn't seem to favour it. However, for the past few days to possibly a week, the tooth has been poking out constantly. Today I decided to take a more detailed look at her mouth, and found that the fang is indeed loose and protruding horizontally. This would normally be a red flag for me and I would take her to the vet without question, but I am a little bit confused about her situation. She doesn't even seem to notice it. She is eating completely fine, drinking water, plays and nibbles on my hand with no issues, doesn't mind me touching her mouth, and isn't irritable at all. I googled it for awhile and a lot of answers seems to point towards dental disease, but she has no other symptoms other than this loose tooth. No extreme plaque or tartar build-up, no drooling, no sore gums, no bad breath, nothing at all. In fact, her mouth has minimal plaque and her gums are a healthy pink. She eats dry kibble and I feed her dental treats regularly (have been slowly working my way up to teeth brushing- so far she isn't a fan). I'm super confused about this loose tooth and what could have caused it, and I'm even more confused about whether or not this is worth a vet trip. She does play pretty rough with one of those toys that has the string with a toy mouse on the end, attached to a fishing rod looking thing. I'm wondering if maybe that caused an injury to her tooth?

Anyways, I've had mixed messages from a lot of people. My family and the lady at the pet store told me just keep an eye on it, that it's normal for cats to lose teeth due to injury, and that if it gets in the way of her eating to see the vet. But I've also had people who work at vet clinics advise me to see the vet asap, just to be safe.

Obviously seeing the vet is the better option just to be completely without doubt or worry, but my cat seeing the vet is a situation more stressful to her than this tooth is. The tooth doesn't bother her at all, but vet trips ALWAYS cause her to panic, urinate everywhere in her carrier as well as in the vet's office, and she does not get along well with other animals- having so many around her at the vet's is not a happy situation. 

Is this seemingly painless and worry-free tooth worth the stress that the vet puts on her? Should I just wait it out and continue to check her mouth for signs of infection? Or is it worth the stress to her to see the vet?

Sorry it's so long, but there are a lot of details. Everything that I've read so far about cats losing teeth always points towards either injury or dental disease. I'm thinking it is caused by an injury seeing as her mouth is (seemingly) healthy and she isn't showing any symptoms of disease.

Anyone have anything similar happen to their cat? 

Maybe others can offer advice.  My cat hated going to the vet as well but this sounds like something that will get worse if not looked at by a vet.  While you are at the vet you could give her general health checked & avoid other problems as well.

I had something similar happen with a cat of mine.  Scratch had an upper canine that was always a bit longer than the other, and it was visible hanging slightly down from her lip.  One day I noticed it was loose, so I took her to the vet immediately.  He put her under to remove the tooth, and clean the rest of her teeth at the same time.  I got the phone call with the bad news as he was doing so. Most of her teeth had tiny holes in them.  Not visible by just looking at them, a slight gum redness, but that was it.    She had Feline Tooth Resorption, and it was affecting most of her teeth.  She had to have all but 7 pulled the first time, the rest were out in two subsequent operations over 5 years and by the time she was 9 she had the last three removed.  There was no obvious sign to me that anything was wrong other than that one loose tooth.  She ate fine, had no bad breath, no drooling, no sign of pain.  The only thing about her was she was always a bit of a cranky cat.  Not super bonded to me, would bite sometimes after too much petting, a bit aloof - but nothing out of the ordinary for a cat.  This COMPLETELY changed when she had her teeth out.  Once she was healed up from the first surgery she started to follow me everywhere.  She slept with me every night, she became super cuddly, and became my best friend I'll ever have... she lived to be 15 years old, I just lost her a few months ago.  She lived a happy life without her teeth! 

I would seriously consider taking your cat to a vet to be checked out.  There could be other things going on with her that you aren't aware of.  And Riley1 has a good suggestion, get her general checkup done/vaccines at the same time.  Might save you a trip or two down the line.  I understand the vet stress all too well, but dental issues have so much impact on the health of your cat.  And as you may be aware, they hide pain amazingly well.

is it bad that my kitten only has 3 fang teeth and the third one is only just started popping through                     

Hey! My cat is 10 yrs old, he also has a tooth that sticks out of his mouth. I thought nothing of it until i was petting him earlier and saw that it look off, so I opened his mouth (gently of course) and touched it a bit (Tried not to cause him pain) and it is loose.... and he doesn't seem to be in pain what so ever, he is fine with eating, drinking etc. As far as I know he hasn't stopped eating or anything...but he did have a bit of a reaction when I touched the tooth. So I'm unsure if he is in pain or if he just didn't like being touched. I have read up a bit, & all I've come across is dental disease (Which in fact he does have dental issues) but last time (February 23) we took him to the vet, the tooth wasn't loose. He doesn't go outside during the winter months and he doesn't play with toys very often. So I'm not sure what caused the tooth to loosen...

kyli66 said:

Hey! My cat is 10 yrs old, he also has a tooth that sticks out of his mouth. I thought nothing of it until i was petting him earlier and saw that it look off, so I opened his mouth (gently of course) and touched it a bit (Tried not to cause him pain) and it is loose.... and he doesn't seem to be in pain what so ever, he is fine with eating, drinking etc. As far as I know he hasn't stopped eating or anything...but he did have a bit of a reaction when I touched the tooth. So I'm unsure if he is in pain or if he just didn't like being touched. I have read up a bit, & all I've come across is dental disease (Which in fact he does have dental issues) but last time (February 23) we took him to the vet, the tooth wasn't loose. He doesn't go outside during the winter months and he doesn't play with toys very often. So I'm not sure what caused the tooth to loosen...

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My 13 year old recently lost a fang.  He has had dental issues in the past, so I took him to the vet...and didn't even know it was missing until the vet pried his mouth open and showed me.  I kept seeing him jabbing his lower fang up into his top lip, which was unusual, and he was in pain and refused to let me get near his head, and that's why I took him in.  The whole thing was GONE.  It was there the night before!  They checked him and said he didn't have anything else going on....and told me what to watch for as far as infection and gave me antibiotics to give if I did see the signs starting, but it never did.  He still eats whatever he wants.  I still don't know what caused it, he doesn't have resorption.  And...I never found the fang!