Treatment for Stomatitis

susi001

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My 1 1/2 year old cat has been diagnosed with severe stomatitis.  I was wondering if anyone could tell me treatments and outcome for their cats that have stomatitis.
 

puck

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Firstly, a FeLV/FIV retrovirus test is ran, and if positive for one of these, the likely culprit for the stomatitis is diagnosed. Knowing they have a retrovirus helps when choosing the course of treatment. For example, prednisolone, corticosteroid treatment, is unlikely to help a retrovirus kitty's oral inflammation, and could knock down their leukocytes terribly low.

Even retrovirus-negative cats' stomatitis inflammation often doesn't respond to pred therapy. The most common, higher rate of success is treating by multiple tooth/root extraction ranging upwards to a full-mouth extraction, as the crowns and roots of teeth are the source of inflammation, and once those roots and crowns are gone, decreased inflammation is often noticeable even a mere 24 hours after surgery. Cats that scream when trying to swallow food can swallow canned and kibble alike when that inflammation is diminished, even without their teeth.

Pain management including buprenorphine during active stomatitis bouts and after extractions is paramount to keeping them comfy enough to eat. If not on steroids, Onsior, a NSAID therapy, is a good 3 day course option to discuss with your vet, as it is Rx only, both at initial treatment options, and post-op, if you go that route.

Often tried but usually ineffective options include oral rinses daily with chlorhex based hygeine rinses, brushing (yowzer, painful!), pain managment only without treating the stomatitis itself and "seeing if it will abate" on its own and perhaps be an intermittent problem, or is only juvenile stomatitis and will resolve after 6 months age (obviously not your cat), and dental diets, which are very large, hard kibble that supposedly aid in mechanical plaque removal as well as bacteria preventing with enzymes on the surface and/or in the kibble.

I will say full mouth extractions of a stomatitis mouth are best done by a veterinary dentist, specializing in their field, as leaving tooth roots, insufficient nerve blocking, and fracturing the mandible are all risks of full mouth or mutliple extractions. Their nurses/techs are also specialized in anesthesia, prophylactic cleaning/scaling, and nerve blocking these special kitties. Many years of additional training, and many months of mentored/supervised practical experience before going gung-ho on your baby, less likely to have complications or insufficient extraction technique with that much targeted experience with stomatitis cats.

They will also be vigilant in a retrovirus kitty about using very sterile, clean instruments, pre- and intra-op antibiotics to protect systemically, and cleaning up well to limit infectious spread to other patients. Paying a specialist is money well vested.

Some don't have the Diplomate of Veterinary Dentistry behind their DVM, but have the additional residency/seminar training, continuing dental ed/labs, and experience, to be considered a "non-certfied" veterinary specialist in their field. They advertise this on their website, are known as a dental vet, and other local vets know their dental practice and refer their regular patients to the dental vet's hospital for this procedure only, rather than allow them to keep them as regular patients. Their non-dental treatments and diagnostics are usually higher than the regular vet, so best to only see them for their specialty services.
 
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susi001

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Thank you for the excellent information. Mariah has an appt. this Thursday with a dental specialist/surgeon.
 

puck

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How was Mariah's appt? Initial consult?, or the go ahead and surgerize/extract? Hope she's doing stellar and y'all are both resting and less stressed!
 

kat lee

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My 2 year old rescue..Tobie was just diagnosed with severe Stomatitis..the vet says the only option is teeth removal! I have been doing research and realize there are more natural ways of getting it under control! My vet also wants $1,600 to remove his teeth..I will do it if necessary but would prefer a more natural solution! He can eat but I know he's in pain at times! Any suggestions?
 

michael spencer

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Hello Kat Lee,

I noticed your post regarding Stomatitis.  We had a cat with Stomatitis as well...and his name was also Toby!!  funny coincidence...anyway, wanted to give my advice because it took us a full year to get our kitty's mouth issues under control, and I might be able to save you some stress.  

I see you posted over a month ago, so a lot may have changed with your situation.  This is what we ended up having to do..our Toby was abandoned by neighbors who moved and didn't take the cat.  :(  We took him in and realized quickly something was wrong..he was thin, and always seemed hungry, I would feed him, he would start to eat, then growl and run away.  Then he would act scared of his food bowl.  Realizing he must be having pain, I took him to the vet and she initially said his teeth were rotted out, gums inflamed, etc.  We did surgery, and the plan was to remove all the teeth.  When the vet got in there, she decided to leave 5 of the healthy looking teeth. At that point she had never said the word Stomatitis..I think she just thought the teeth were rotten.  Well, leaving the teeth ended up being a mistake...we had to do a second surgery to remove remaining teeth, but Toby continued to have mouth pain/problems eating.  Had xrays done to make sure there were no bone/teeth fragments embedded in the gums.  There weren't.  

All this cost a pretty penny...probably around $2,500 over the course of a year.  LOL.  But we loved that cat so much!!!!

After he healed up over his second surgery we started him on a medication called Atopica (cyclosporine).  They've come out with a generic that worked fine and was thankfully cheaper.  Vet had us giving it to him everyday...then we gradually worked it down to twice a week and that managed his inflamation perfectly.  I tried to get it down to once a week, but he started having issues again, so went back to twice a week.  He had no problems after that, and believe me, after a roller coaster of a year trying this and that to fix him, we were very happy!  

Stomatitis is very nasty and when it gets to the point where the cat won't eat things go downhill fast.  I'm skeptical that natural methods would do any good, its just too agressive of a disease.  THere were times when vet had to give him steroid shots to sort of jump start his healing/eating.  Not good to give those too often, but we didn't have a choice...the sooner you can get things under control the better.  

As far as feeding a toothless cat...after he healed up, he did just fine!  You can always feed him patte, which our kitty LOVED, but he could handle chunky as well.  Even dry food, you can soak with a little water.  

I hope this helps you , and anyone else who is struggling with Stomatitis.  :(  Good Luck!
 

chris strunk

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I just got the stomatitis news today......the vet gave him a shot for pain and 10 days of clavamox. How is your kitty doing? I guess the good news of the cause being unknown is that you may just figure it out. This sure ruined my day. Feel so bad for buddy.
 

katcrown

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My vet has decided my cat has stomatitis. I took her in a month ago after noticing she wasn't eating and looked thinner. My cat who's name is Kitty, was thrown out as a small kitten in a ditch near our house in the dead of winter and my husband began feeding her dog food. We decided to keep her in the garage when it was too cold out, which led to her staying there until the weather got better. We didn't want a cat so we decided to have her spayed and vaccinated and find her a home. Well, my husband became attached so we've had her about 5 years.  She is about half wild but will let anyone pet her, just not pick her up; she's an outdoor cat. She stays in the garage every night and allowed to go out when she wants, but stays in all winter.

She was hospitalized for 3 days July 25th and given antibiotics, a steroid shot, fluids. My vet was going to remove a back took thinking it had a tumor because of the irritation around it, but after anesthesia was given and starting the procedure, he decided the tooth was rock solid and left it in. He said we will have to give steroid shots when it comes back and to keep a close eye on her  Its been exactly a month and she refused food Monday and Tuesday when I took her for another shot. She has tried to eat dry food today. I've been feeding her dry for 5 years but got her canned and some tuna and salmon which she has been eating well this month.  I've read so much information, I'm confused about what to do! My vet is small town and probably not seen many cases of this so I dont think he needs to try to pull all of her teeth. Her hospital bill was $500 which I'm making payment on. Has anyone tried the prednesolone cream applied to the inside of the ears? Using Plaque off? L lysine? Altopica? Bone Meal?Ubiquinol?  Curcumin? Clunia? Raw food? Colloidal silver? I've read no fish, poultry, grains? Help please!
 

chris strunk

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My vet has decided my cat has stomatitis. I took her in a month ago after noticing she wasn't eating and looked thinner. My cat who's name is Kitty, was thrown out as a small kitten in a ditch near our house in the dead of winter and my husband began feeding her dog food. We decided to keep her in the garage when it was too cold out, which led to her staying there until the weather got better. We didn't want a cat so we decided to have her spayed and vaccinated and find her a home. Well, my husband became attached so we've had her about 5 years.  She is about half wild but will let anyone pet her, just not pick her up; she's an outdoor cat. She stays in the garage every night and allowed to go out when she wants, but stays in all winter.

She was hospitalized for 3 days July 25th and given antibiotics, a steroid shot, fluids. My vet was going to remove a back took thinking it had a tumor because of the irritation around it, but after anesthesia was given and starting the procedure, he decided the tooth was rock solid and left it in. He said we will have to give steroid shots when it comes back and to keep a close eye on her  Its been exactly a month and she refused food Monday and Tuesday when I took her for another shot. She has tried to eat dry food today. I've been feeding her dry for 5 years but got her canned and some tuna and salmon which she has been eating well this month.  I've read so much information, I'm confused about what to do! My vet is small town and probably not seen many cases of this so I dont think he needs to try to pull all of her teeth. Her hospital bill was $500 which I'm making payment on. Has anyone tried the prednesolone cream applied to the inside of the ears? Using Plaque off? L lysine? Altopica? Bone Meal?Ubiquinol?  Curcumin? Clunia? Raw food? Colloidal silver? I've read no fish, poultry, grains? Help please!
my kitty buddy had stomatitis for about a month. I went through the antibiotics and stopped giving him dry food. He was an indoor kitty so I started letting him out. I used to give him catnip all the time, now he gets none. Took him back to the vet and was told that it completely cleared up. Its been over two months and he is fine. Not sure what did it but that's what I did. I will say this, once he got outside he went on a grasshopper diet. Always eating grasshoppers. Although he would later always puke them up, it makes me wonder if grasshoppers have something in them that helps. Cats sometimes know better than us. Anyway that's my story hope maybe something helps.
 

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I am having such a hard time with one of my cats and have been since she was a kitten, with stomatitis. :( In a couple of months it seems the only thing left to try will be full mouth extraction, even though my vet has been trying everything to avoid it, as he wants it to be the last ditch effort...he was not pleased with her mouth yesterday. :(

They have been doing laser therapy on her as well as laser acupuncture. She is also on L-Lysine, Plaque-off, and Ascenta Feline Omega3. Her laser therapy is $18/session and she needs 3/week after it flares back up again, which has been every 3-4 weeks. The first week worked really well. But the second round...not so much. I am hoping these new supplements will make a difference. She is also 100% wet food only. I tried to go with Hill's Science and countless other "better" brands, but she starves herself when I offer her those and it ends up being such a waste. I have been sticking with friskies fillets non-fish (she socializes all other friskies lines with pain, even pate...and it's a hassle!) I feel SO bad for my baby. I love her so much. I wish hers would clear itself on up, but she's about to be two and no end in sight! 
 

LotsOfFur

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Stomatitis is such a horrible thing for our kitties! I'm so sorry that you and your kitty are going through this.

I currently have a cat that lost her teeth to stomatitis.

If you are worried about not having teeth and food... Don't be! She can eat just about anything she wants.

I didn't go through what was tried for her as she was a foster of mine as a kitten 7 years ago and I got her back when she was "dumped" and already had lost all of her teeth! (A story within itself).

My toothless kitty now LOVES eating. She eats Stella & Chewys freeze dried raw (rehydrated of course), pate style wet food and before we transitioned to an all wet diet I couldn't keep her out of the kibble. She even eats cooked chicken with no problem! They really are resilient and stomatitis is so painful. Please don't fear a full mouth extraction, I know you are doing all you can to relieve your kitty's pain, and I thank you for it as not everyone is willing or able to afford the excellent care you are giving!

:hugs: for you and kitty!
 

mindyl3igh

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I am so sorry I never replied to this thread again. I have been so busy with cats! lol - but I have got to share this information! She has not had to have a laser therapy treatment in almost 6 weeks now! Before, it was weekly and quick to flare back up. She is 100% wet food and I do give her soft treats. She eats Fancy Feast Classic only, usually beef flavor, and I have been giving her L-Lysine, Plaque Off, and Omega 3 Fish Oil every single day! She eats with no problem now. It's crazy to watch! She's even gained all of her weight back. I am one relieved mama. It was so hard to watch her be so hungry, but run away from her food. I hope this helps someone! 
 

crazycatjane

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We rescued a cat with stomatitis about a year ago. For about 6+ months we tried conventional food, antibiotics, etc. to no avail. She had a hard time keeping food down, showed obvious pain when trying to eat, smelled awful, and would shy away from too much affection because she was embarrassed. We FINALLY switched her to a raw meat diet and she slowly came back to life. Her new diet has saved her life and she is a different cat. She has put on a lot of weight (much needed), enjoys eating and affection, and plays outside. I can't say enough about the benefits of this new diet. I just wish we hadn't hesitated for so long to make the switch!
 
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