Is my cat's tooth broken?

AspenNicole

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Today I noticed my cat pawing at his mouth and struggling to eat, so I managed to get a look at his mouth (with much resistance) and I'm afraid his tooth is broken. He's salivating quite heavily and his gum is very swollen. He got out of the house briefly today and as I live in a very rough neighborhood, I have a terrible suspicion that he was kicked in the face. He's all cuddled up with me for now and I'm going to get him to a vet asap but is there anything I can do for him at home in the meantime? Anything to ease his pain or try and reduce chances of his mouth getting infected? I'm including a pic I was able to get of his mouth.
 

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fionasmom

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Welcome to The Cat Site....sorry that the broken tooth is what brought you here. From the pic, I do see a partially broken tooth. However, what I am not sure of, and what I suspect from your description of the swollen gum and salivating is that the pulp is exposed which is causing him a lot of pain or that, in addition to the tooth, someone did damage to his mouth when they kicked him. It is possible that the tooth is not the complete problem but an injury to the mouth is also involved.

How terrible to think that people are out there who do things like this.

In the short term, if he will eat, use soft food, even wet kibble if that is all you feed him. Kibble in a wet state is not ideal, but if it is freshly wet he will be okay. I am not going to tell you to try to relieve the pain yourself. Never give an NSAID to cats, and I personally do not give aspirin as it can also be very risky if a vet is not giving your precise instructions.

He does need a vet asap. Please let us know what happens and I hope that he can easily heal from this.
 
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AspenNicole

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Welcome to The Cat Site....sorry that the broken tooth is what brought you here. From the pic, I do see a partially broken tooth. However, what I am not sure of, and what I suspect from your description of the swollen gum and salivating is that the pulp is exposed which is causing him a lot of pain or that, in addition to the tooth, someone did damage to his mouth when they kicked him. It is possible that the tooth is not the complete problem but an injury to the mouth is also involved.

How terrible to think that people are out there who do things like this.

In the short term, if he will eat, use soft food, even wet kibble if that is all you feed him. Kibble in a wet state is not ideal, but if it is freshly wet he will be okay. I am not going to tell you to try to relieve the pain yourself. Never give an NSAID to cats, and I personally do not give aspirin as it can also be very risky if a vet is not giving your precise instructions.

He does need a vet asap. Please let us know what happens and I hope that he can easily heal from this.
It is possible that there is additional injury, yes, but as it's all so recent I can't tell where his pain/discomfort is coming from any more specifically than the mouth region. He's been holding his mouth somewhat open but it doesn't seem to be misaligned or anything from what I can see... He did eat some wet food thankfully. Anyway, thank you so much for the reply. I'm so heartbroken and angry that he was treated this way, so the support is appareciated.
 

fionasmom

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Please let us know what happens. It is very hard to thoroughly examine a cat's mouth, even a friendly cat. Whatever happened to him, he did not, as an innocent animal, deserve it.
 
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