Nearly Toothless Krista Has An Eating Aversion

daftcat75

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Krista has just a few teeth left due to resorption and multiple rounds of extractions. One of them is a single canine. The others are whatever incisors she still has. The molars and premolars are gone now, some incisors, and the other three canines. Since the last round or the one before it when they took her other canines and left her with one, she went from an avid licker to a cautious licker to almost no licks at all. Sometimes she'll lick and then wince. Sometimes she'll stop grooming or stop eating midway like it just hurt too much. I keep trying to explain this to the vet but I'm afraid they've been too focused on her teeth and gums.

The other night, I plated her food. She came over and looked at it. Then she walked away. So I mixed another smaller portion with her favorite turkey meat stock. That got her to the plate. About 1/4 of the way into it, she hit a chewy bit and jawed at it (she doesn't have chewing teeth left), dropped it, jawed a few more times like something was bothering her, then walked away from the whole eating endeavor. She climbed onto the bed and looked at the food with a forlorn expression like, "I wanted to eat that." I booked her dental for yesterday right after I saw that. After the call, I gave her some transdermal buprenorphine and not five minutes later, she finished the meat stock plus food portion and then visited her regular food. Aha! That's pain of some sort holding her back.

The vet said the dental went fantastic yesterday. Her remaining teeth look good. No root fragments. Gums look good. Gums and teeth are good. But something is still holding her back.

She looks at food. She even visits the plates or does her feed me song and dance (though admittedly it has lost enthusiasm lately) but then doesn't want to take more than a few bites if I can even get her to take that much. I don't think there is any issue with her appetite or nausea. I definitely believe that she waits until she absolutely cannot hold out any longer and then only eats as much as she can tolerate the pain, if it is pain, wherever that may be. If gums and teeth look good, it must be her tongue?

I'm waiting for the Dr to call back from yesterday to let me know if he inspected her tongue during the dental.

I don't think it's a mouth cancer because her appetite has been strong until very recently and she has been regaining lost weight this whole time since the last round of extractions (also until very recently.) If it was a cancer, I would have expected a weak appetite and weight loss.

Has anyone else had a cat with mouth pain that wasn't teeth or gums? What kinds of things should I be asking the vet or looking for at home? Any other suggestions besides buprenorphine and an appetite stimulant? I would give her every meal with meat stock mixed in but there's definitely an upper limit of how much stock this cat can tolerate per day. As for changing food or offering treats, both are made complicated by her multiple food sensitivities. She has well-managed IBD that can easily turn into a pancreatitis flare-up if she's allowed to eat the wrong food for too long. I can bribe her with fish flakes but that would turn into a flare-up. I would like to fix this at the vet's office than work around it at home. We're just both at a loss for what it might be.

Thanks in advance!
 
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Furballsmom

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I'm so sorry to hear this!

She even visits the plates or does her feed me song and dance (though admittedly it has lost enthusiasm lately) but then doesn't want to take more than a few bites if I can even get her to take that much.
This is one of the most incredibly frustrating things in the world.

Could there be something going on in her throat, or deep in her ears?
 
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daftcat75

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Possibly her ears. She had been miserable for months with food allergies causing one of her ears to fill with fluid. She’d scratch her ear and shake her head and it would have this flapping sound like she was all stuffed up. I would make her ear tea which was chamomile with a splash of apple cider vinegar that I would drop just a few drops into her ear. The flapping sound would go away and she was visibly less distressed. Less head shaking.

Since I’ve been giving her a couple of teaspoons of meat stock daily (one in the morning and one at night—more than that is disaster in the gut and butt), she hasn’t been showing any ear distress.
 
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daftcat75

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Would ears cause an aversion to licking though? She used to lick any finger presented to her. She also would climb on top of me and lick up a wet spot on my shirt. She won’t do the latter and the former she’ll only give me a few guarded licks very rarely. Most times, she just sniffs it, considers it, and then butts her forehead into my finger instead. “No licking. But you can rub me now.”
 

Furballsmom

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hmmm, although it could be that she's just disinterested...? almost like a change of personality rather than an active aversion?
 
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daftcat75

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hmmm, although it could be that she's just disinterested...? almost like a change of personality rather than an active aversion?
She will hover her mouth in position like she wants to lick. But remains cautious and guarded to do so. It's less a change in personality than a memory of pain. The desire to lick me and leave wet spots is there. But something else is too that stops her. Sometimes she'll lick and wince while grooming herself and stop mid-groom. Whatever it was, she decided that was enough. I keep thinking maybe she doesn't have a comfortable glide path for her tongue now that she's missing so many teeth. But all three vets at this hospital won’t say one way or another whether this is a possibility. It’s like they are all so focused on her teeth and gums that they are overlooking what’s really bothering her.
 

Furballsmom

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Sometimes she'll lick and wince while grooming herself and stop mid-groom.
oh goodness!

I apologize if you've tried this route already, but would any of the vets, or yourself, be able to consult/talk with a university veterinarian medical department?
 

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I also thought of throat and ears, maybe neck. You know Hima has dental issues as well and I can't explain everything, even the vet can't for now but sometimes I get success by the position of the plate. Just yesterday she ate only couple pieces of chicken but I went there and handfed her, she didn't need to lean down to the plate, and she almost finished all the chicken this way. I suspect there is a little something in her nose, possibly dust or a bit congestion from allergic reaction because she smells just fine but there's a bit of noise when she exhales deep, one there wasn't before, and I only can hear it because the bedroom gets too quiet. You mentioned allergies with Krista, maybe there is something similar going on?
 
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daftcat75

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Krista's allergies are food related and manifest themselves in primarily one ear. If there are other symptoms I'm missing, I'm not yet observing them (or making the connection.)

She's currently still stoned out of her head on bupe SR. I'm not sure she's slept yet but at least she has put her head down for a bit. But I gave her mirtazapine yesterday morning when she didn't even look at the plates the night before. Through the bupe fog, the mirtazapine silently kicked in and she's been a nibble machine. She doesn't eat very much at once. But she returns again and again like she's got nothing better to do since she can't sleep.

I would like to keep her on the mirtz for a month to regain lost weight and hopefully keep us out of the vet's office long enough to retest the abnormal readings from a couple weeks ago. I'll email the dr about that and see what he thinks. I can also shift her to transdermal bupe which she tolerates so much better than the SR if she still needs pain relief to eat when the SR wears off.

It may just be the mirtz. But I figured if her tongue is bothering her, why not offer her chewable food rather than lickable food. So instead of warming it up which makes it more soupy, I've just been serving it cold straight from the can again. And she's eating it. Probably just the mirtazapine. But whatever works.
 
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