Pole Has Bad Teeth And Gingivitis

Ming-Yi and I took Pole to the vet’s today.

Waiting for our turn.

I already informed the vet that Pole is extremely nervous and “jumpy” so he was prepared.

The only times Pole had ever been to the vet’s was for her kitten vaccinations and spaying. There was also one other time when I mistakenly thought she had urination problem (blocked bladder), so I rushed her to the clinic. That visit was a total disaster as Pole was too “jumpy” until she was literally jumping everywhere. I was given some medicine which I failed to pill. But as it turned out, it wasn’t a bladder problem at all. Pole was just doing her “Dory”, flitting here and there.

Besides the above, Pole had never been sick, so no clinic vet had ever been required.

At other times, I could not even plonk a deworming medicine into her. She jumps. And she is VERY strong.

But today, at the clinic, although Pole was initially very nervous, the vet’s calm mannerisms must have comforted and soothed Pole. The vet palpated her organs and her kidneys and liver appeared to be normal and fine. She weighed 2.6kg.

Pole settled down very quickly and let the vet open her mouth to have a look (we weren’t able to do this at all last night).

What the vet saw was definitely gingivitis (or stomatitis) and it’s quite severe too. There is also a bad tooth which has rotted until the root. This explains the pawing and the chewing movements and also why Pole has not been able to eat.

The vet says tooth extraction is needed. But that will not be done yet. He prescribed Baytril (antibiotics), Prednisolone (steroids) and an anti-gastric medicine (since Pole has not been eating). The medicines are for two weeks to reduce the inflammation after which a blood test will be done to determine if Pole is fit enough to go for the surgery. The tooth extraction will require general anaesthesia. I’m worried about Pole being 12 years old, but the vet says that is why we need to do the blood test.

There is also no point in doing the blood test now because the inflammation is quite bad in the mouth and the readings will shoot up.

So, it’s what we suspected – it’s a dental problem. We don’t know at this point if it’s due to her kidneys.

Remember Vincent had severe stomatitis two years ago and even after all the medicines, he needed two dental extractions. Then, he was well…for more than two years until now when he has mouth ulcers again. We thought it was the stomatitis flaring up, but it turned out to be kidney failure. Throughout the two years, Vincent’s stomatitis did come back, but the problem was easily solved with Plague Off. The current mouth ulcers, however, could not be solved with Plague Off – it’s his kidneys.

The vet also asked if Pole showed any signs of kidney problems – is she drinking a lot of water – no. But she was a bit dehydrated today.

I truly hope it is not her kidneys.

By the way, this vet today told me there is now a blood test that can detect kidney problems one year before it manifests in the conventional blood tests.  It’s called the SDMA test. It is available in a certain clinic in the Klang Valley already.  This might be something we wish to explore further for our senior cats.

Pole was calm after the initial examination. The vet gave her the first dose of three tablets with absolutely NO resistance, no struggle, no problems AT ALL.

Wow…I was surprised. Pole was a total angelic cat.

The vet also said that we could spray the Biosilver (nano-silver) on both sides of her mouth by just lifting her lips. He showed us how to do it (lifting the lips). Pole did not resist at all.

So we came home.

Pole still didn’t want to eat so I let her be. Maybe she is still traumatised by the clinic visit.

After she settled down, we wanted to spray the Biosilver.

That’s when “Pole, the Total Angelic Cat” turned into “Pole, the Cat from Feline-Hell”.

She fought, pushed and jumped.

We used a towel and wrapped her up.

She still managed to fight, push and jump out of the towel.

Then, Ming-Yi had an idea, why not pour out the Biosilver and use a syringe to apply the fluids to the mouth? Yes, I thought that would be an excellent idea. At least there wouldn’t be the sound of the jet/spray which most cats dislike.

So, we tried the syringe method on Vincent since he too might benefit from the Biosilver fluids. Vincent was a total angel and allowed us to do it, totally.

Yay…let’s go try this on Pole.

Yes….we did. And it was a total nightmare.

If we thought Vincent was difficult, move over, Vincent, you’ve been dethroned.

Pole is the new champion now.

The Prednisolone needs to be given twice a day. If I failed to give it this evening, we’d probably have to take her back to the clinic for pilling.

Let’s see how it goes….

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2018/09/15/pole-has-bad-teeth-and-g..

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