Dental Health
...or lack there-of.
I noticed last night that Eddy was missing a few teeth. I wasn't sure what was up, if I miss-counting, or what. I slept on it (or tried to), and looked at him again in the morning. At 7:30, I was the first call in to the vet, for an appointment about an hour later.
Eddy is the sweetest cat in the world...except at the Animal Hospital.
I paced around the room, leafing idly through a copy of People magazine. I could hear him. He does not like going to the vet.
It turns out he has stage 3 gingivitis. The vet explained that he's probably feeling some pain. Unfortunately, he's going to lose more teeth, but will feel a lot better. I feel bad that I didn't know sooner, but glad that I took him in as soon as something looked odd.
Poor kitty. We're going to have to start watching the teeth a bit more carefully.
Comments
I'm LOLing about Eddy's lack of appreciation for the practice of veterinary science. Poor kitty!
Elvis only has his front bitey teeth left. He also had bad dental health. Way back when, we were instructed to brush his teeth every day with a fingertip toothbrush thingy.
That did not go over well.
Over the years, they all had to be extracted from gingivitis. He can eat just fine, except for chewy cat treats which he isn't supposed to have anymore anyway. He'll just swallow up the hard food. Wet food tends to be a lot more messy for him.
Good thing you caught it. Elvis never showed any pain or discomfort and we only knew about his teeth during his annual exams. I felt bad knowing I had let it go on for longer than it needed to, but you know how much cats like you messing in their mouths.
Take a peek at his/her gums. If it's red (or teeth are missing), you may have problems. We're kinda lucky--Eddy tolerated us doing that (do a point).
Eddy is 4, which they said is rather young for him to have problems this bad--he's probably genetically predisposed to it. However, it sounds like this was causing a fair amount of pain for him. Hopefully, after the pain of surgery subsides, he'll be better than before.