Our kitty Henry is 8 years old and has had issues in the past with closing his mouth. He sometimes would have his mouth seem to stick open, and it would take him a few tries after eating or yawning to get it fully closed but he was always able to close it again. This morning he ate his wet food per usual and this evening a few minutes before I fed them their evening wet food, we noticed his mouth was stuck open and he couldn't seem to close it.
He hid from us after we tried to check him out (he is a very nervous cat, can't be around anyone who isn't us, was my husbands before we met....my husband raised him as a bottle fed kitten bc the mama cat who was also a cat of my husbands stopped feeding him, he was the runt of his litter. He took quite awhile to adjust to me....and when we moved 2 years ago he spent a week hiding between our mattress and the wall in our bedroom before he would even explore the house, so he is a very timid, scared cat.) We got him out of hiding and wrapped him in a towel to check his mouth and noticed a few traces of blood in his upper gums and one of his upper fangs was slightly moved to the inside of his lower fang~which is propping his mouth open because of how it has moved from it's normal spot. We took a qtip to lightly push the fang and it is loose, the upper part where it connects to his gum is very discolored and his gums are bright red surrounding his tooth.
I tried to gently tug at it to see if it was loose enough to come out but it didn't, and I didn't want to hurt him with hard tugging. Each time I touch the tooth he cries loudly. We ended up letting him go because he seemed terrified and we wanted him to calm down a little. He ended up sitting on the edge of our bed...shoving his paw in his mouth at his tooth like he was trying to get it out himself.
We are unsure as to whether or not we should take a trip to the emergency vet tonight, or call our regular vet in the AM to get him an appointment~we have never had a problem w/ same day appointments. He has eaten today so we know that he is okay in that area for right now but we are concerned about his pain level and what may be causing this tooth to be loose/coming out.
Does anyone have any ideas on anything we can do for him, or any advice? Also, should it be something we rush to get seen tonight or does it seem like it is not so much of an emergency? We hate seeing him in pain, although when we leave him alone he seems way less annoyed/terrified/in pain/bothered about the situation, so IDK if this is something cats just know to try and deal w/ on their own and we are making a bigger deal out of it than it is or not. We are also concerned about why he is losing the tooth, and if the loss of the tooth might mean some sort of sickness that we need checked out.
Any advice is appreciated
He hid from us after we tried to check him out (he is a very nervous cat, can't be around anyone who isn't us, was my husbands before we met....my husband raised him as a bottle fed kitten bc the mama cat who was also a cat of my husbands stopped feeding him, he was the runt of his litter. He took quite awhile to adjust to me....and when we moved 2 years ago he spent a week hiding between our mattress and the wall in our bedroom before he would even explore the house, so he is a very timid, scared cat.) We got him out of hiding and wrapped him in a towel to check his mouth and noticed a few traces of blood in his upper gums and one of his upper fangs was slightly moved to the inside of his lower fang~which is propping his mouth open because of how it has moved from it's normal spot. We took a qtip to lightly push the fang and it is loose, the upper part where it connects to his gum is very discolored and his gums are bright red surrounding his tooth.
I tried to gently tug at it to see if it was loose enough to come out but it didn't, and I didn't want to hurt him with hard tugging. Each time I touch the tooth he cries loudly. We ended up letting him go because he seemed terrified and we wanted him to calm down a little. He ended up sitting on the edge of our bed...shoving his paw in his mouth at his tooth like he was trying to get it out himself.
We are unsure as to whether or not we should take a trip to the emergency vet tonight, or call our regular vet in the AM to get him an appointment~we have never had a problem w/ same day appointments. He has eaten today so we know that he is okay in that area for right now but we are concerned about his pain level and what may be causing this tooth to be loose/coming out.
Does anyone have any ideas on anything we can do for him, or any advice? Also, should it be something we rush to get seen tonight or does it seem like it is not so much of an emergency? We hate seeing him in pain, although when we leave him alone he seems way less annoyed/terrified/in pain/bothered about the situation, so IDK if this is something cats just know to try and deal w/ on their own and we are making a bigger deal out of it than it is or not. We are also concerned about why he is losing the tooth, and if the loss of the tooth might mean some sort of sickness that we need checked out.
Any advice is appreciated