Cat diagnosed with Feline stomatitis

Hello everyone,
My cat Leo has had a pretty rough week! A few days ago me and my wife noticed he wasn't eating as much as normal and he was acting a little strange he kept rubbing his face on everything, very vocal when trying to eat and just didn't seem himself!

A couple of weeks ago we noticed on his top lip on the under side looked sore and he kept rubbing it on anything, he has had them previously but they went away but these ones weren't, we also noticed that he was sleeping a lot more this past week during the day but up all night yodeling and being very loud, one night I hardly slept and had to get up with him at 4.30am as I couldn't take it anymore, as soon as I was up he went to sleep!

So yesterday we decided to take him to the vets, my sister in law works there so she took him for us, it was discussed when we had adopted him last year that he has inflamed gums and needed a dental which is scheduled for next week, the vet ran some tests and has diagnosed him with Feline stomatitis, which obviously isn't great news.
The vet believes his has always had this condition but due to living with 32 other cats in a rescue this has been overlooked in the past before we got him, he hasn't lost weight at all he actually has gained a pound (12lbs) and the last 2 days he's eaten a lot better and is back to sleeping through the night.

We have been given an oral medication to give him once a night, I can't remember what it's called but the vet basically said it's an anti rejection drug usually given to humans after organ transplants, he says other patients at the clinc with the same issues have had decreased symptoms of pain since being on the medication, he's hoping it will basically stop Leo's immune system from overreacting to the plaque on his teeth, we've had one dose so far and he seems happy enough so we will have to see how that goes.

The vet said once they do the dental they will asses Leo's mouth and see how bad the problem is on the gum line, we've been told he may need to have a full dental extract if he continues to be in pain and I was just wondering if anyone has had experience of cats with no teeth or have gone through dental extraction??
He is 2 years old.

Thanks

Sorry for the long ramble!!!

Stomatitis is very, very painful and the only treatment that seems to have any lasting effect is a full mouth extraction.    

Leo is a very handsome kitty. Sorry I cannot help you regarding the Stomatitis. 

LavishSqualor said:

Stomatitis is very, very painful and the only treatment that seems to have any lasting effect is a full mouth extraction.    

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Totally. After this I am told that the cat recovers well & has no difficulty eating wet/dry food. It is the only thing for stomatitis, which can kill your cat eventually. I believe though that this can cost as much as $2,000 so you need to look into the cost first.

It's amazing how much pain cats can endure so as not to show weakness.

I would hope your vet gave you some Buprenorphine for him.  If not you should ask.  You don't want him to be in pain.

I have a foster who had 10 extracted last fall. He is 4ish. 2 days later he was better than ever. We have since then changed vets who is running labs to determine if he has bartonella, or needs to go ahead with full extraction. After seeing how he bounced back after the first 10, I'm. No longer worried!