Lost a loooong tooth!

[LeiLana80]

So my Sunny cat has always had dental issues. Bad breath, swollen gums. Finally recently diagnosed with stomatitis, he is supposed to have a full dental removal next month (He already has some back teeth missing, though, not sure how! Happened before we got him.)
Anyway, he had one of his front canines fall out a few weeks ago. It got extra long, then one day it just disappeared. Left a large hole in his gums. All through this I was dosing him with Colloidal Silver to keep infection away (which works amazingly well and there was no infection, per the vet).
Anyway, I'm honestly surprised at the sheer length of it... wow! The tooth looks healthy, honestly, so the problem is indeed in the gums.
But he no longer has bad breath and he obviously feels SO much better... to the point I'm wondering if surgery is not the right idea, at least not for now?

It's funny though, because that lip doesn't have a tooth to keep it's shape, the bottom tooth keeps poking his lip up and he looks like he's snarling. In reality, he's a total love bug... so it's hilarious to see him do this lol.

What do you guys think? Full dental removal? What is that like? Recovery time?


The tooth!

The snarl!


His regular happy kitty face.

 

[daftcat75]

Yes, full dental removal is still recommended. Stomatitis won't resolve. It only gets worse. Cats are extremely stoic about dental discomfort. Your cute Billy Idol kitty will eventually suffer from ulceration where the tooth missing its match is poking into the opposing gum. Done over so many meals, this is going to be irritating and eventually painful.

My angel Krista had FORLs. Another chronic degenerative dental disease. I made the mistake of trying to manage it as her discomfort presented. This was horrible. This meant I was forcing Krista to endure the pain until it exceeded her hunger. It also meant for a lot of recoveries that were more difficult than they should have been because I flared up her gut trying to keep her eating until her next extractions.

Please save Sunny a lot of discomfort and pain and keep the dental removal appointment you already have. Recovery should be fairly straight forward. Krista was eating again mere hours after having her "remaining mouth extraction" procedure. It was hardly a full mouth by the time I found a dentist to agree to take the rest. She did go cross-eyed with pain a few hours later when all the meds they gave her before the procedure wore off. But thankfully, the surgeon sent me home with pain medicine and his personal number to text him if I needed to. He responded fairly quickly too. A dose of bupe and she was feeling better soon enough. The whole recovery takes about two weeks. Toothless cats may make more mess when they eat. But they have no trouble eating. Given the alternative of living with stomatitis and waiting for his other teeth to fall out, I believe Sunny will be much happier to pay the tooth fairy all at once.

If you have the opportunity between now and the procedure, I would ask the vet or dentist if you can get the pain medicine (buprenorphine) compounded into a transdermal. Buprenorphine needs to be absorbed in the mucosal membranes in the mouth. It's not effective if swallowed. They say aim for the space between the cheek and gum. This may be easier said than done after oral surgery. Often you can ambush a sleeping cat with bupe. But your Sunny may want nothing going near his mouth. It would be advantageous to be able to give him his pain medicine as a "wet willy" in the ear instead. Ask your vet or dentist about this now so that they have time to get the prescription filled at a compounding pharmacy. They may know of one they work with. Or you may consider Wedgewood.
Buprenorphine Transdermal Gel

 

[Lari]

It's funny though, because that lip doesn't have a tooth to keep it's shape, the bottom tooth keeps poking his lip up and he looks like he's snarling. In reality, he's a total love bug... so it's hilarious to see him do this lol

My husband's cat came to him missing a top canine, and the expressions she made were the best (we recently had to remove the bottom canine, so she doesn't make such funny faces anymore).

 

[klunick]

So my Sunny cat has always had dental issues. Bad breath, swollen gums. Finally recently diagnosed with stomatitis, he is supposed to have a full dental removal next month (He already has some back teeth missing, though, not sure how! Happened before we got him.)
Anyway, he had one of his front canines fall out a few weeks ago. It got extra long, then one day it just disappeared. Left a large hole in his gums. All through this I was dosing him with Colloidal Silver to keep infection away (which works amazingly well and there was no infection, per the vet).
Anyway, I'm honestly surprised at the sheer length of it... wow! The tooth looks healthy, honestly, so the problem is indeed in the gums.
But he no longer has bad breath and he obviously feels SO much better... to the point I'm wondering if surgery is not the right idea, at least not for now?

It's funny though, because that lip doesn't have a tooth to keep it's shape, the bottom tooth keeps poking his lip up and he looks like he's snarling. In reality, he's a total love bug... so it's hilarious to see him do this lol.

What do you guys think? Full dental removal? What is that like? Recovery time?


The tooth!
View attachment 383112View attachment 383113
The snarl!
View attachment 383114

His regular happy kitty face.
View attachment 383115

Love the snarl!! So so cute!!!

 

[JulietteTruong]

He’s so cute! Poor guy. Cats really hide their pain well, and mouth pain is no joke. I’m guessing he’s in pain. When my sister’s kitty had teeth issues, she was super friendly and social you’d never think there was a problem. It was her horrendous breath that let us know to have it checked out. Sure enough, her mouth was a mess!

 

[LeiLana80]

to endure the pain until it exceeded her hunger.

This is just... duh. Now I feel bad for even thinking of delaying.
Thank you for your input, it really truly helped.

I'm honestly just suspicious of most medical practices (for people and animals) due to too many bad experiences... hence my hesitation.
His surgery is scheduled for the end of July and we will be keeping the appointment!
Thank you again.

 

[LeiLana80]

Hokay!!
Sunny had his surgery three weeks ago. He did fine.
They only removed 7 teeth (three of which were the little teeny ones up front though). I honestly thought they'd remove a lot more... they are now saying it wasn't stomatitis and that he just had some rotten teeth. I hope so, I guess time will tell. I'm kind of irritated for the "yep, it's stomatitis, we will remove his teeth" to "nope, we only removed a few, 'we will deal with the rest later' " (exact words!).

Here's a problem, though.
Since he now no longer has either of his top canine teeth, his bottom canines are constantly pushing into his top lip and it has caused two sore spots on either side. The vet basically said, "sorry, that's just how it is." I'm pretty pissed, because now we go from a sore mouth to sore lips. He's constantly licking his lips, trying to get his mouth to "sit" closed correctly- and it's usually not. It bothers him basically constantly. So now we have a new problem and I don't know what to do for him. This sucks. My poor boy.

 

[daftcat75]

Hokay!!
Sunny had his surgery three weeks ago. He did fine.
They only removed 7 teeth (three of which were the little teeny ones up front though). I honestly thought they'd remove a lot more... they are now saying it wasn't stomatitis and that he just had some rotten teeth. I hope so, I guess time will tell. I'm kind of irritated for the "yep, it's stomatitis, we will remove his teeth" to "nope, we only removed a few, 'we will deal with the rest later' " (exact words!).

Here's a problem, though.
Since he now no longer has either of his top canine teeth, his bottom canines are constantly pushing into his top lip and it has caused two sore spots on either side. The vet basically said, "sorry, that's just how it is." I'm pretty pissed, because now we go from a sore mouth to sore lips. He's constantly licking his lips, trying to get his mouth to "sit" closed correctly- and it's usually not. It bothers him basically constantly. So now we have a new problem and I don't know what to do for him. This sucks. My poor boy.

Can you ask the vet if he can file down the points of those canines? He may not have the training for that. You might need a dental specialist to either extract those canines, take some point off them, or something else. Unfortunately dentists have long lead times for appointments. I hope he can figure out his new mouth in that time.

 

[fionasmom]

I am very sorry that you are facing this new problem which was absolutely not of your causing. Here you expected the issue to have a happy ending if you did dental work. Yes, start trying to resolve those remaining irritating teeth. To me, the final comment speaks to the fact that the vet knows he did not take care of business.

 

[daftcat75]

"nope, we only removed a few, 'we will deal with the rest later' " (exact words!).

Call him back and say the rest, or at least those two canines, need to be dealt with now. "Later" came sooner than expected. I would ask him if he can do something for those two canines now. And I would get yourself a dentist appointment no matter the wait time. You can ask to be on a cancellation list in case they have something open sooner. When that appointment comes, let the specialist evaluate his remaining teeth, gums, and the rest of his mouth. If he believes it's stomatitis, have them all removed proactively rather than waiting for the next "later" to come. Or at least discuss that possibility with the specialist.