I should just call this a short novel on Tom :/
My 14-year-old cat Tom has had a horrible 15 months and the latest problem seems to be his facial nerves (injury from a dog attack) as well as his canine causing him a lot of pain by stabbing into his lip. I’m trying to avoid an extraction because he also has kidney disease. Hoping someone might have had some similar experience because I’m really not sure what to do.
I think I should put this in context – and there is a LOT of context so this is a long post – hoping you can make it through to the end! 11 years ago he had his upper canines removed. His lower canines have always caught on his upper lip (I’ve heard this referred to as a ‘Billy Idol sneer’
) and he developed callouses but has never seemed bothered by it.
Now, in the last three weeks, one canine has started stabbing a small hole in his top lip – sometimes it bothers him more than others, sometimes it bleeds. Right now it seems really sore.
The vet says possibly it’s just due to movement of his teeth, and I may be best to have his remaining canines removed.
But there are a few complicating factors.
My husband’s dog attacked him about six months ago. It was awful – his eardrum was ruptured, and he had facial nerve damage which for a while paralysed his right ear and eyelid. That seemed to resolve – but in the last three weeks he has developed something like a tic in his right ear, and sometimes his whiskers, chin and eyebrows quiver – again, just on his right side. The vet thinks it is possible this is another effect of the attack – but she can’t say if this is a sign of his nerves healing or getting worse. She also says this could be causing the problem with his lip, if the right side of his face still has nerve damage and is ‘drooping’ – but again she doesn’t know. She said the quivering could even be a reaction to the pain in his lip L
But I’m hesitant to go ahead with the tooth removal because he has also recently been diagnosed with early stage kidney disease (he only has one, and his remaining one is quite enlarged). That was discovered after a UTI and a couple of crisis visits to the vet where he ended up on a drip. So obviously good nutrition and lots of water in his food is incredibly important – which is harder when his lip is sometimes too sore to eat, but also makes me scared to put him under a general anaesthetic and through the pain and stress of having his teeth out.
To complicate things even more, he had a cancer scare last year – he had lung inflammation which was initially diagnosed as cancer but is now treated with anti-inflammatories. He had an awful recovery from a general anesthetic during that time,
AND he has spent so much time at the vet that he absolutely hates it and has to be sedated even for a blood test. Plus I’m in massive debt because his bills have totalled about $15,000 – not a deciding factor because I would send myself bankrupt for him but something I have to keep in mind.
So, has anyone had experience with facial nerve damage and/or canines causing similar problems? Is there anything I can try rather than going down the route of extractions straight away? I have read that vitamin B12 can help with nerve repair so I was considering giving it a try – but I also don’t want him to be in pain anymore.
Any advice or insight would be REALLY appreciated
My 14-year-old cat Tom has had a horrible 15 months and the latest problem seems to be his facial nerves (injury from a dog attack) as well as his canine causing him a lot of pain by stabbing into his lip. I’m trying to avoid an extraction because he also has kidney disease. Hoping someone might have had some similar experience because I’m really not sure what to do.
I think I should put this in context – and there is a LOT of context so this is a long post – hoping you can make it through to the end! 11 years ago he had his upper canines removed. His lower canines have always caught on his upper lip (I’ve heard this referred to as a ‘Billy Idol sneer’
) and he developed callouses but has never seemed bothered by it.Now, in the last three weeks, one canine has started stabbing a small hole in his top lip – sometimes it bothers him more than others, sometimes it bleeds. Right now it seems really sore.
The vet says possibly it’s just due to movement of his teeth, and I may be best to have his remaining canines removed.
But there are a few complicating factors.
My husband’s dog attacked him about six months ago. It was awful – his eardrum was ruptured, and he had facial nerve damage which for a while paralysed his right ear and eyelid. That seemed to resolve – but in the last three weeks he has developed something like a tic in his right ear, and sometimes his whiskers, chin and eyebrows quiver – again, just on his right side. The vet thinks it is possible this is another effect of the attack – but she can’t say if this is a sign of his nerves healing or getting worse. She also says this could be causing the problem with his lip, if the right side of his face still has nerve damage and is ‘drooping’ – but again she doesn’t know. She said the quivering could even be a reaction to the pain in his lip L
But I’m hesitant to go ahead with the tooth removal because he has also recently been diagnosed with early stage kidney disease (he only has one, and his remaining one is quite enlarged). That was discovered after a UTI and a couple of crisis visits to the vet where he ended up on a drip. So obviously good nutrition and lots of water in his food is incredibly important – which is harder when his lip is sometimes too sore to eat, but also makes me scared to put him under a general anaesthetic and through the pain and stress of having his teeth out.
To complicate things even more, he had a cancer scare last year – he had lung inflammation which was initially diagnosed as cancer but is now treated with anti-inflammatories. He had an awful recovery from a general anesthetic during that time,
AND he has spent so much time at the vet that he absolutely hates it and has to be sedated even for a blood test. Plus I’m in massive debt because his bills have totalled about $15,000 – not a deciding factor because I would send myself bankrupt for him but something I have to keep in mind.
So, has anyone had experience with facial nerve damage and/or canines causing similar problems? Is there anything I can try rather than going down the route of extractions straight away? I have read that vitamin B12 can help with nerve repair so I was considering giving it a try – but I also don’t want him to be in pain anymore.
Any advice or insight would be REALLY appreciated
