cat with sore gums

piskins72

my cat is off colour tonight, seems to be in a bit of pain but not sure where, was ok earlier on today and was out for a couple of hours and didnt take much notice of him when I came back, as he was curled up asleep in his basket, but when i went to move him he started to growl a bit.

He was in a cattery over the weekend and the lady said she though that his gums were inflamed a bit and that he was eating on one side of his mouth, but seemed to be ok then yesterday and today, hes not the easiest of cats to examine, but had a look and gums are inflamed a bit, could this be reason? I tried to feel around other areas and hes not really yeilding to anything a such. was eatin ok today and when i left around 6 he was going for a snooze in his basket, was back around 9 and hes been like this since.

any opinons/ideas appreciated.

seems to be now that his tail is very sore to touch, and I think there is a slight passing of blood, have no idea as to what could have happened to him.

palaver

When cats are fed only with soft food or even ready made dry food the gums can easily get the same deseases like human gums. If your cat doesn't have the chance to hunt and eat mice and birds with loads of tiny bones the teeth and gums aren't cleaned naturally. Bones are a natural "toothbrush" for cats (and dogs). Check if she stinks out of her mouth. It's an indication for gum inflammation.

In this case I recommend to go to the vet to get the tartar removed. Hopefully you live in an area with a vet to do this. You can help her along with rubbing some sage cream on her gums. That's something you should get from the chemist. Veleda does sage cream for human gums.
Might be a struggle though to rub it on your cat's gums, I can imagine.

In the future give her chicken bones to chew on.

Good luck for the little one!

piskins72

jst have dropped him down at the vets, his gums are very pale and his ears are pale also, he has white ears so they are normally pinkish, so its very obvoious something is up with him, will know more later once vet has had a chance to check him over.

watna

I hope she's ok! my cat regularly gets ill with his gums. He gets grumpy when he's normally very affectionate and can't eat. He gets regular infections (he's 15) and has to get his teeth cleaned every two or three months. We also give him this cat toothpaste that the vet gave us. The only way to get him to take it is to stick it on his paw, cats are clean so will lick it off. The vet told us that gum and teeth infections are very common in older cats. I think it's because he doesn't hunt as much so doesn't crunch bones etc. He might have to have some teeth removed if it gets any more regular, again this is supposed to be common in older cats. His front tooth already fell out but it was in a fight with another cat so we were all really proud that he's lost it in that way, not sitting arounf the house. That would have hurt his pride!

Let us know what the vet says, hopefully it's just a gum infection.

piskins72

its not his gums that are the problem at the moment, said that teeth could do with a cleaning alright but hes not well enough for that a min. its his tail and bottom that seem to be the problem!! vet jst rang me back, he is very sore and tender in base of tail and around bottom, she has given him 2 injections and is keeping him over nite and will see how he is tomorrow. dont know really what could have caused that, a kid pulling his tail maybe or something?

watna

Although my cat has had lots of interesting ailments, that hasn't been one of them! I wouldn't imagine any cat letting a child pull it's tale long enough for it to get that injured. She wasn't hit by a car or anything? Maybe she got a bump? At least she's in the vets and is being looked after. Hopefully she'll perk up after the injections.

piskins72

no dont think so, like he didnt come in yesterday afternoon in pain or anything like that. there wasnt any visible signs of trauma, but then again i know some times its hard to tell with cats if they internal injuries and that. he had perked up a bit this morning cause he was purring and that. he seems to be jinxed for this time of year, this time last year he got a chest infection and year before he broke his toe on one of his back legs! :rolleyes:

Jules

Does you cat go outside, if so sometimes they can get into fights and one of the many injuries they can get is a tail base abcess, what this is is basically another cat causes a cut of some type, can be a bite and it gets infected. Most of the time you cannot see the would but it can swell up and be very sore. IMO sounds like your cat does have one. Generally these can be lanced and with some pain releif and antibiotics he should be grand.

As for the advice about chicken bones, i wouldnt go with that. It is generally wet food that causes cats to have bad teeth. Dry food acts as an abrasive, rubbing the surface of the teeth to remove plaque. Most vets reccommend a good dry food diet.

piskins72

just to let u know update in case u wondering.

cat is still in vets, the vet has done blood tests and that on him and hes not got feline aids or feline leukemia, so thats good, the vet said on fri he had a bad chest infection, cant figure how he could have gotten that as he sleeps in kitchen at nite time and is out in daylight hours and comes in once it gets dark. she even said he had a touch of pneumonia

today they did bloods, xray and dental as they had to knock him out anyways for the bloods, said he was eating fairly ok over weekend and was perky, so thats a good sign, she will jst see if anything shows up on rest of bloods before i can bring him home.