I think my cat has a tooth problem...

I feel so dense for not noticing earlier. She's been biting me out of no where so often, I should've checked her mouth then to see if something was wrong.

I got a zoom groom for my cat a month or so ago, and since two weeks ago she started to chew on the thing. I thought it must be just boredom, or she just likes chewing on things, but the more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. Today I caught her chewing on the zoom groom again, so I held her down and pryed her mouth open to find that there's some purplish colouring on the left side on the roof of her mouth and on the cheek side of her teeth. Doesn't look like she's bleeding anywhere in her mouth. Anyone have a clue what it could possibly be?

Guess I'll have to take her into the vet on monday, to find out what it is...

Also, my cat seems to have oily ears. I've been Q-tipping her ears gently with some olive oil and cleaning all the wax out pretty often, and she seems to like it a lot. She'll sit there purring away till I'm done cleaning and then she'll want more. Sound wierd? Something I should worry about? She's kinda got hairy ears.

-Lemur 6

If her ears are a brownish wax that keeps comming back I would be concerned about ear mites,definitely get them checked.Is your cat drooling?It is possible she might have an abcess or her tooth might be rubbing up against her gum and the friction is causing it to bruise ( this happens to one of mine) how old is your cat? Does she still have baby teeth or is she older, is tartar a problem.If you're worried I would talk to your vet. My cats chew on their brushes too.

I'm not sure what it is you're seeing in your cat's mouth, but you're definitely doing the best thing by taking her to the vet for a look. Cats are too good at hiding pain and, unfortunately, there are dental conditions that can be very painful. Some problems are obvious for people to see when examining their cat's mouth, but others aren't and require a vet to determine if the mouth is healthy. That's why a complete check-up is a must at least once per year, more often if the cat is older.

I haven't heard about cleaning ears with olive oil, but have heard of vinegar or saline solution being used. You're lucky that your cat likes having her ears cleaned! It must feel good to her - she probably looks very cute sitting there patiently while you clean them - wish mine would do that!

Hope everything works out at the vet. Please let us know.

Haha, so it turns out that nothing's wrong with my cat. My vet called the purplish marks in her mouth "freckles", and he told me to lay off the ear cleaning since it's just making her wax more. Seems like she has another problem now though, she's peeing everywhere...

Please don't use q-tips in your cat's ears! If she moves wrong, or jumps you could pierce her eardrum. If you have to clean them out, use a soft cotton roll dampened with mite medicine and wrung out.

Originally Posted by hissy

Please don't use q-tips in your cat's ears! If she moves wrong, or jumps you could pierce her eardrum. If you have to clean them out, use a soft cotton roll dampened with mite medicine and wrung out.

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Oh, hmm... I think I use a Q-tip only on the bare patch of skin right in front of the ear, I use a damp cloth for the inside, but I stopped doing that as per vet's orders. I guess I have a lot of practice from doing it on squirmy ferrets, there's a fool proof way to prevent ear drum puncture using a Q-tip, unless the cat/ferret tries really hard to puncture their ear drum on purpose. If you hold the Q-tip such that the end points in the same direction as the ear tip points, it allows you to clean the majority of the ear without ever allowing you to point the tip toward the ear canal, thus preventing accidents.

I tried using a cotton ball a while back too, but I think it kinda freaks her out. She ran off with the cotton ball half in her ear and I guess it was muffling her ear so she couldn't hear and I had to chase her down and pin her to get the cotton out of her ear. She's so kooky, last night I was playing with her with a string and she flipped, turned toward the wall, and jumped straight into it, bounced off and then bolted into the kitchen.