- Joined
- Feb 7, 2014
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Last night I noticed my flatmate's cat has some teeth/gum problems. It's the tiny front teeth on the right side of her lower mouth; the teeth are out of alignment and the gum is red and swollen. The tooth at the front has a slight brown discolouration around the bottom.
My flatmate suspects it might be an baby tooth that hasn't come out yet (the cat is about 9-10 months now). I would say that's possible - the tooth looks smaller than its neighbours - but I also think it's infected due to the discolouration and the swelling and redness of the surrounding gum. The tooth is loose, and the cat doesn't like it to be touched.
The cat is eating fine and still tries to play-bite us a lot, so it can't be that painful. But I know it's hard to tell when cats are in pain sometimes. It certainly looks painful.
Ideally she should go to a vet but my flatmate has had a lot of money problems this year, and her 'something went really wrong' fund is very low. Getting this treated could very well wipe that out. So she wants to leave it for a few days and be very certain it's necessary to take her to the vet over.
I'm just concerned and feeling kind of helpless, so I'm wondering if any of you good people can offer some words of advice, or at least help me gauge how serious this is. I know 'go to the vet' would be number one - believe me, I'm working on it - but if there's anything else that can be done please tell me.
Here's a picture - the problem tooth is the one almost in the centre.
My flatmate suspects it might be an baby tooth that hasn't come out yet (the cat is about 9-10 months now). I would say that's possible - the tooth looks smaller than its neighbours - but I also think it's infected due to the discolouration and the swelling and redness of the surrounding gum. The tooth is loose, and the cat doesn't like it to be touched.
The cat is eating fine and still tries to play-bite us a lot, so it can't be that painful. But I know it's hard to tell when cats are in pain sometimes. It certainly looks painful.
Ideally she should go to a vet but my flatmate has had a lot of money problems this year, and her 'something went really wrong' fund is very low. Getting this treated could very well wipe that out. So she wants to leave it for a few days and be very certain it's necessary to take her to the vet over.
I'm just concerned and feeling kind of helpless, so I'm wondering if any of you good people can offer some words of advice, or at least help me gauge how serious this is. I know 'go to the vet' would be number one - believe me, I'm working on it - but if there's anything else that can be done please tell me.
Here's a picture - the problem tooth is the one almost in the centre.