Toothless Cat!

[Redfraggle]

Hi everyone, happy new year!
I took my FIV+ cat to the vet today because he’s been struggling with a sore mouth. Tooth and gum problems are common with FIV cats, and he’d had most of his teeth removed by the shelter before I adopted him. Unfortunately, the ones that are left are so bad, the rest need taking out too. Has anyone here got experience of caring for a toothless cat? Are they able to groom themselves ok (my cat is long-haired)? And can you recommend food that will be easy on his gums? Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[abyeb]

Thank you for caring!

I’ve never had a cat without teeth, so other members will probably be much more helpful than I am. I think that most wet foods will probably be okay, since they’re already soft. I would think that pate style could be the easiest for her, because there are no chunks in it that would require chewing.

 

[Redfraggle]

Thank you for your response! I think you’re probably right in terms of wet food. He hates being groomed, so I just hope he’ll be ok doing most of that for himself. Poor little guy!

 

[huxleysmom]

My cat Huxley has stomatitis. He had a full mouth extraction before I adopted him. He has never had any issues with grooming although he is a short-haired cat, or eating any kind of food (including dry food). He is now eating home-cooked food due to various allergies. The only thing I would not give him is chunck meat or large pieces that he would really need to get into with teeth in order to chew them to safely eat them. He is a bit of a messy eater I’m not going to lie, but he eats pretty much like any normal cat on dry and wet food would eat. Dry food is usually small kibble. He just grabs it and swirls it around his mouth with his tongue and swallows it whole (it’s quite funny to see and apparently the way cats without teeth deal with it, as a friend of mine has a cat who just had a full mouth extraction too, and she does exactly the same with her dry food)

 

[Redfraggle]

Oh that all sounds positive, thank you so much for putting my mind at ease. Lots of love to Huxley!

My cat Huxley has stomatitis. He had a full mouth extraction before I adopted him. He has never had any issues with grooming although he is a short-haired cat, or eating any kind of food (including dry food). He is now eating home-cooked food due to various allergies. The only thing I would not give him is chunck meat or large pieces that he would really need to get into with teeth in order to chew them to safely eat them. He is a bit of a messy eater I’m not going to lie, but he eats pretty much like any normal cat on dry and wet food would eat. Dry food is usually small kibble. He just grabs it and swirls it around his mouth with his tongue and swallows it whole (it’s quite funny to see and apparently the way cats without teeth deal with it, as a friend of mine has a cat who just had a full mouth extraction too, and she does exactly the same with her dry fo