My Leo's mouth looks weird, can't afford a vet visit. Help!

Hi.

 

My Leo turned 17 this past June (he doesn't look or act like it though!) and overall, is in excellent health.

However, for the last few months, I've noticed that I'm seeing more of his teeth and gums than I feel like I should be seeing.  He does have some tartar buildup on one side, but on the other, he has what looks like a canker sore.  I know that the obvious course of action would be to take him to the vet to find out, but right now, money is not good.  Is there any way to fix this like with a home remedy... or is it just an unsightly show of age and nothing more?

 

Would an allergic reaction cause a mouth sore?  We had been going through different flavors of foods, so maybe the ingredients in one may have caused this?  (Just a guess)

 

Just to clarify, he does everything normally.  He eats very well, goes to the litter box with no trouble, still has his energy (he still runs around the house like he always has), he purrs, etc.  And when we last took him to the vet some months back, the vet said his teeth and gums were in great shape.  So it seems too early (I think) to be periodontitis or anything severe like that.  And I looked up the symptoms of stomatitis, but thankfully, there were no matches to his situation.  It must be something that developed fairly recently.

Here are some pictures so that you can see for yourselves:

View media item 298208
View media item 298209

Just a small amendment to my post: let's say I could somehow afford to get him to the vet (maybe if I borrowed some money from a family member or friend), is it possible that there are antibiotics that can remedy this?  Leo has been in excellent health his entire life and I am proud to say it, so I'm trying to stay positive about this.

I mostly would like to know if anyone has seen or experienced this before with their cat in the meantime and either what they did or if they know what can be done to correct it  Thanks!

Well, I'm not even sure I see what you're talking about.  You've got two different pictures from two different angles, but you said canker sore (singular)  So...which side of his mouth is it on? 

In answer to your question about whether antibiotics could help...not knowing what it is, there isn't a way to answer that question accurately.  Can you CALL your Vet and tell them what you are seeing, maybe send the pictures, and ASK them?  They are more familiar with his mouth, and if an antibiotic seems warranted, maybe they can prescribe one that you can get filled.  (just an option)

BTW, congrats on having a 17 year old in excellent health.  That really is quite a feat!

Thank you, Mrs.GreenJeans.  I'm so proud of him too!

As for the pictures, the first one, the one on top, is the one that the supposed canker sore is in.  It's the grayish portion along his lower gum.  It's right behind the tooth, almost looks like a fingernail.  If you still can't see it, I can try editing the picture to draw a circle around it (I probably should've done that first).  The other picture I took was in case it looked like there was anything else the matter that maybe I wasn't seeing but someone else might notice.  Sorry for the initial confusion.

This was just a case where something looked out of place but I couldn't put my finger on it.

As for your idea, I guess calling the vet would be a good solution for now.  Like I said before, given that his mouth received positive remarks some months ago, I'm hoping that it's nothing serious and that it can be remedied.

View media item 298382
Here it is.

I do not want to scare you, but when two of my cats were terminally ill, it only became apparent to us through mouth issues. One had cancer and the other late stage kidney disease, but both seemed fine to us- until each cat developed an infection around a tooth. The fact it happened to both cats seems to make it a good indicator of an underlying health issue. As my vet said, their bodies needed the extra fighting power for their major illness at that point and stopped keeping the bacteria in their mouths in check, resulting in an abcessed tooth. I wish we had done yearly check-ups for them, but at the time I thought if they appeared to be healthy, there was no need.

Of course, this may not be the issue with your kitty at all. It could be just as it seems- only a canker sore or simple infection. But I worry because of your cat's age. Because of this, I would try to get him in for a check up as soon as you can. Money is an issue for us as well, so I understand that problem. We tell the vet upfront that we only have X amount of dollars to spend and they fit the examination and suggested treatment to our budget. We can get an exam and antibiotics for under $70.

If you are referring to the grey parts of the gum on both sides on the bottom It looks like a normal cats' mouth to me. I'm not a vet and I am relying on looking at my cats' mouths. 2 of them have that grey it looks like it's the jaw bone showing through the gums.

It could be freckles which is normal in many cats, particularly orange cats and tuxedo cats. Freckles can appear on the nose, the lips, even in the mouth ton the gums. They are typically black but may be dark gray-ish.

Thanks for the replies, everyone!  Well thankfully, Leo is not showing any signs of a sick or slowing down cat.  In fact, last night he actually played with his ball, hitting it around the floor!  He's still got it!    Leo has always been a strong cat, never having been sick or taken for surgery (minus neutering when he was about a year old) and has always been given lots of love from my family and me.

When I took Leo to the vet several months ago, I had them do a full test of his blood, organs, and other vital functions, and according to the vet, everything was completely normal.  He did have a bacterial infection in his kidneys, but we were given antibiotics for that and were told not to worry as it was not "kidney failure" or anything that serious.

Also, as I posted earlier, during that visit, the vet said that Leo's teeth and gums were fine.  So I'm guessing that it is something fairly new.  For it to go from fine and unremarkable that recently to something as bad as cancer would be a really freakish, "what the heck happened" sort of a scenario to me.  It just seems too early for it to be that, but like one of you said, this is why frequent checkups are a good idea; catching something earlier could prevent it from degenerating into something worse.

Given how things have been going so far though, and how much time has passed since the last vet visit, I doubt that it is anything major.   He still goes to the bathroom normally, grooms himself, eats his food well, etc.  Nonetheless, I'd like to take him to the vet as soon as possible and afterward, I'll let you know what was said.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy his snuggling with me and purring for now. 

Have a nice weekend!

To me it does look strange but I'm not sure if that's due to the fact he's not got any little teeth between the fangs or not. Is the sore bleeding or anything? 

He has the normal rows of cat teeth where they ought to be, but there hasn't been any bleeding or pus or anything like that.

What you're seeing in the picture is (I think) maybe some swelling or the outline of the sore.

To Hexiesfriend, I thought that at first too, that it might be bone protruding through the gum.  But I would imagine that if it were that, that it would be something that could've been seen coming by the vet.  Before taking the picture, I could only catch a glimpse of it, but now that I've looked at the still image a few times, it looks to me more like a sore.  If it turns out that it is bone...

Let me ask this, could a canker sore or other mouth anomalies be caused by food allergies?  I ask because he has had changes of food formula over this year, from pate to bits, fish to chicken.  When he ate dry food or wet food that was chicken flavored, no sores.  But since maybe the Spring, we have gotten fish flavored foods for him, salmon and ocean whitefish.  Just a thought, especially since I have heard pet owners say that fish isn't really the best food for cats (despite what the cartoons we grew up with may have told us!).  He hasn't eaten anything fish related in about a month's time now.

Okay, good news.  It looks like what I highlighted is just a freckle of some sort on his gums.  Same with the brown spot on the other side.  I noticed it when I looked at old pictures of him from years before and saw the same things on his gums (his mouth was open in the pictures).  So if he's had those all this time, and he has been to the vet since then, and nothing was said, then it probably isn't anything to worry about after all.

I think there's a word for this, I can't remember it but I think it starts with an "L", and it describes a "cat beauty mark" if you will.  So, whew!  That is a relief!