Dental Issues

[ailish]

I rescued my cat, Ailish, at the age of about 1 year. She is strictly indoors. When she was 4 I had her in for a well cat check and they told me her teeth needed cleaning. They showed me her teeth and they were black! When I asked if I was doing something wrong, since she was only 4, they told me it was genetics. So I got her teeth cleaned immediately and there were no other problems at that time. They told me at the time that I would probably need to have her teeth cleaned about every four years, which made sense to me. They suggested tooth brushing, but when I pursued how much difference that would make the vet said it would maybe buy me three months in the cleaning cycle. I decided that wasn't really worth the drama.

Now it is three years later and they tell me she has what could be resorption lesions, plaque build-up and gingivitis. I thought I was doing the cleaning to avoid serious dental problems, but here we are three years later. She eats four meals a day, three wet and one dry. She is otherwise completely healthy. What should I be doing? Cleaning every two years whether she needs it or not? More dry food? I feel like a bad cat mother, even though I've been doing what was suggested with these teeth. My sister has a cat who's older than God and he has nice white teeth and he's a barn cat! Is the cleaning even worth it?

 

[Maurey]

Yes, you should get your cat a dental. Consistent inflammation in the mouth is bad, and FORL can be excruciatingly painful. Your cat is just unlucky with her dental health genetics.
Dry food doesn’t help clean teeth, that’s a myth

 

[Fen]

I have a cat that has similar issues! I posted a thread on an account I can no longer access with pics and my girl's issues if you'd like to have a look . There's some very helpful advice from other members with products and links to other threads there! Dental question

My girlie Akila only turned 1yr last month and suffering quite similarly to your girl with poor dental genetics, sadly. But all is not lost! Akila has since had a clean and I've gotten her onto daily brushing, plaque removal water additive and incorporation of raw bone to her diet.
I'd suggest removing the dry food from Ailish's diet entirely if possible? And getting her onto a wet diet with as low carb/additives as financial/availability allows because although we'd assume the crunchiness of dry food would aid in cleaning teeth, in actuality the carbs, additives, preservatives and fillers in dry foods can be very detrimental towards dental health since they are converted into sugars and cause sticky buildup on kitty's teeth, so those of us with especially prone kitties need to be very careful.
It's only been one month since my girl's teeth cleaning, but so far so good and her dental specialist was impressed with her checkup and the follow up/maintenance routine we've built, so hopefully it'll stave off the amount of cleanings Akila will need in the future too ( we were looking at yearly cleanings here)
I do empathise with you and Ailish, I'd implement a plan for her too even if just to see how it goes

 

[Alldara]

The cleaning will definitely be necessary and the teeth that are reabsorbing will need removed. It is extremely painful for your cat.

Unfortunately, some cats have poor genetics when it comes to teeth, just like people! However, I don't understand why your vet said teeth brushing makes only a minimal difference.

Teeth brushing at home doesn't do as much as a full cleaning but it is very good preventative care! Especially for cats who are genetically bad teeth wise. It does not replace a vet cleaning, but it can:
- make the cleaning faster at the vet (and therefore lower cost and risk)
- lower gingivitis and therefore improve health
- lower the risk of tooth removal and therefore pain and cost

In recent years, fish oil supplements have also been shown to assist with cats dental care. It helps to prevent inflammation and flare ups of gingivitis.


I would get the teeth removed that are causing pain and the cleaning as it will also effect your cat's heart, kidney and liver:

Dental Disease and its Relation to Systemic Disease in Pets

EVen before the dental you can begin an at-home routine. I suggest this dental gel:
TROPICLEAN Fresh Breath Oral Care Clean Teeth Cat Dental Gel, 2-oz bottle - Chewy.com
it helped a LOT before Nobel's dental.

My biggest tip is to start with a q-tip for brushing and do it when they are sleepy. I use the ones with the cardboard rather than plastic (q-tip brand).

Brushing Your Cat's Teeth

 

[daftcat75]

The good and bad news is that teeth brushing or more frequent cleanings would not have prevented the FORLs.

The worse news is that FORLs can be chronic meaning you might be dealing with extractions as long as she has teeth.

My recommendations from someone who had a cat with FORLs:

1. Move the cleanings up to once a year. This won't do anything to prevent FORLs. But it will help you catch the teeth as they go bad quicker. Sadly, your Ailish won't tell you until her pain exceeds her hunger. Otherwise, she'll eat right through the pain because what else is she going to do?

2. Go onto AVDC website if you are in North America (or ask around at your local specialty hospitals or vet schools if you're not), and find yourself a veterinary dentist. If her body continues to resorb her teeth, there will come a time when her extraction needs exceed the skill level of a general practice vet who had only a single course in dentistry in vet school. Dentists have two to six month lead times on consultation appointments. You'll want to make an appointment now when you don't believe she needs a dentist yet. If you wait until your vet tells you she needs a dentist, you may still have a two to six month wait time on that initial consultation. Need doesn't shorten that first wait. On the other paw, once she's had that initial consultation, it's much quicker to schedule procedure appointments.

3. Collect any X-rays and records of the work that's already been done and get ready to hand that to the dentist. The dentist will review what's been done and the most current X-rays. He may take a more conservative wait-and-see approach. Or he may take a more proactive approach. Trust the dentist on this one. Pulling teeth is not an enjoyable or profitable way to fleece a cat parent. The other reason why you want to consult with a dentist is that some extractions are harder on a cat than others such as the canines (fangs.) If the canines are removed asymmetrically, the lip or gum opposing a missing canine can get bit where a matched canine would normally stop that from happening. Add this up over four meals a day times and that opposing lip or gum can get very irritated. A dentist could either remove the matching canine or file it down so it doesn't have as much of a point. Either procedure is beyond the expertise of a general vet who would (who should) shy away from extracting healthy teeth.

4. Consider a full mouth extraction. It doesn't have to happen right away. But this is where she may be heading. It sounds extreme and it sounds expensive. I can tell you that it's not cheap. But when you add up multiple rounds of extractions, it is more affordable than doing this piecemeal (e.g. waiting for them to go bad individually before extracting them.) It will also be easier on Ailish in the long run getting all of the recovery out of the way at once. Krista went through way too many FORLs flare-ups. I had to take her in for way too many dentals. When I finally got her seen by a dentist, I said, "I have no shortage of vets who want to work with her IBD, but I ran out of vets who want to work in her mouth. Make this the last dental she'll ever need." He reviewed the X-rays and pointed out some places where previous vets had done shoddy or incomplete work, and ultimately agreed that removing her remaining teeth and roots would be the best course for her. That recovery was a hard one for her. It took her almost the full two weeks for her eating to get back up. I think part of it was that she had all those sutures in her mouth and it took that time for them to dissolve. In any case, for the remaining time she had, her teeth never bothered her again.

I haven't been able to get my new cat, Betty, in for a dental yet because we got sidetracked with her IBD for this long. We finally got to a place where we can pause the steroids tapering and circle back to her teeth. This will be the first dental she's had since I adopted her in January. I already know they are going to recommend an extraction or two. If the doc says she has FORLs, you bet I will be scheduling a dentist consultation. We may not need to consider an FME this soon. But I want to make certain that she's already had an initial consultation so that I can jump that line if and when she needs an actual procedure appointment.

AVDC Veterinary Dentist Directory

 

[catsknowme]

I suggest asking your veterinarian about using herbs and supplements for symptom relief during flare-up. I like to add CoQ10 and slippery elm bark decoction for my kitties. I used to use turmeric for the CoQ10 but I now prefer Qunol which is expensive but I buy it during RiteAid 's "buy1, get 1 free" sales.

 

[Mighty Orange]

I'm currently adding colloidal silver to my cats water. Spot go's in for a dental this coming Wednesday.
Stomatitis symptoms and colloidal silver
I've had good luck with other homeopathic treatments,