What is this tongue-grinding sound when my senior cat eats kibble?

[dulcemir]

When my elderly (16.5+ years) cat eats kibble, he always makes this really unpleasant and irritating grinding sound with his tongue. See the video here.

I once described this sound to my vet, and he suggested it was a sound cats made when they're nauseous. I'm not sure how accurate this is, because why would he still eat if he was nauseated?

His teeth were last checked by the vet last month, and the vet said they looked good.

Has anyone experienced this with their own cats?

 

[Alldara]

When my elderly (16.5+ years) cat eats kibble, he always makes this really unpleasant and irritating grinding sound with his tongue. See the video here.

I once described this sound to my vet, and he suggested it was a sound cats made when they're nauseous. I'm not sure how accurate this is, because why would he still eat if he was nauseated?

His teeth were last checked by the vet last month, and the vet said they looked good.

Has anyone experienced this with their own cats?

This is the sound they make when teeth are grinding. He might have cracked a tooth. That can be very painful. My vet was able to give me a payment plan to remove some teeth for our cat.

Magnus made this sound when he had double fangs for a little bit.

 

[fionasmom]

Assuming for the moment that it is nausea, did the vet offer any help for it, or diagnostics to find the cause? Or does your cat have a known condition which would cause the nausea?

To me, the video does look as if he is having trouble chewing or moving food around his mouth to avoid a certain spot. How thorough was the tooth check?

 

[kudzu kitty]

I also get that from one of my cats occasionally as he's chewing kibble - I don't know if he's been doing it "forever" or just long enough that I've forgotten when it started.

It definitely started well before he had a full dental cleaning and a tooth removed a few years ago, so I've never worried about it, just assumed it was a quirk of how he chews sometime. I don't know for sure if it's a tooth-on-tooth sound, or tooth on kibble but probably the former. If it's a recent change for yours, it may be that he's chewing differently because he's avoiding something painful, but he may just be using his mouth differently as he ages?