My poor kitty... (UPDATE)

littlemushroom · August 2014

My cat either broke or lost a tooth last night. She came up for some cuddles and when we touched her face and neck she started making her "grumpy cat" noises so we stopped touching her. Except she didn't stop. She kept making her whiny, grumpy noises for a few minutes then jumped down and continued to make her grumpy meows. Then she made a sound like you would imagine a cat would make when being strangled. She scared me to death!

After that the grumbling subsided a bit, but I was really concerned and got her to come over to me. I held her so FI could see if she had something stuck in her mouth because she was licking her lips a lot. That's when he saw she was missing her front left fang. He couldn't see much because she REALLY didn't want us touching her face (which is very unusual for her, normally she loves having her face scratched). Her gum was bleeding a bit and she was obviously uncomfortable, so we headed straight to the emergency vet.

The vet was able to get a better look and said either she lost it completely or it broke off right at the gum line because no part of the tooth was visible. Her gum was swollen a bit though. They gave her a pain pill to help with the discomfort, and gave me some antibiotics to give her to make sure it doesn't get infected. She was much better when we got home and went straight to her food dish to have some dinner.

I have an appointment at her regular vet this morning because she needs dental xrays to see if the root is still there and needs to be extracted. The emergency vet said she will have to go under anesthesia for the xrays because a cat won't sit still.

This is all so odd because she had her annual checkup a few months ago and the vet said her teeth and gums looked great. Now I am worried about my cat, have to take off some time for work that wasn't planned, and the wedding is Saturday and then we leave for a 2 week honeymoon the Friday after. I am really hoping she is ok and that any follow up care she needs will be done by the time we leave. I am also assuming the xrays and an extraction if needed are not going to be cheap. So I am worried about that too.

Send some good vibes my way today. My poor fur baby, Basia, and I need them.

AddieCake · August 2014

Awww! Vibes!

pinkcow13 · August 2014

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear this! Poor baby, I'm sending you all the positive vibes!

beethery · August 2014

Poor kitty! Good woowoos to the kitty, from my kitties and me!

Jells2dot0 · August 2014

Poor baby!!! I hope all goes well!

Bubblegum5586 · August 2014

Poor kitty

! Hope she feels better soon!

themuffinman16 · August 2014

My kitty and I wish your kitty well. We hope your furbaby gets better and is up playing around, in no time.

missdelilah · August 2014

That's terrible! I hate it when my pets are in pain. Giant hugs! I hope things get sorted out quickly and kitty is back to normal soon.

Unfortunately cat tooth extraction can be very expensive, so lets hope that it turns out that the whole tooth fell out, rather than snapped.

I hope it doesn't interfere with your wedding plans too much!

littlemushroom · August 2014

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. The vet scheduled her full dental xrays and an extractions that need to take place for Thursday morning. Apparently 10:00 am was too late in the day to do surgery today and they are booked up tomorrow.

The vet thinks it is tooth resorption, which means the cat's immune system attacks the root of the tooth until it is reabsorbed by the body and the tooth falls out. Everything can look normal with the part of the tooth we can see, but the root is being attacked. Most cats don't show any signs of it happening and there is no way to prevent it. They will see what other teeth are affected when they do the xrays and extract them as well.

It is very expensive, so FI and I will have to figure something out with the wedding and honeymoon. I just want her better and not in any pain, so it is worth it.

pinkcow13 · August 2014

I'm so sorry to hear that

Does the vet offer any sort of payment plan to cover this procedure?

levioosa · August 2014

=( Poor kitty. My cat started losing her teeth when she was around 18. It didn't seem to hurt her though. She finally passed away at 21 years and didn't have too many teeth left. We were only feeding her wet food at that point.

wandajune6 · August 2014

Poor kitty!

littlemushroom · August 2014

@pinkcow13 They accept CareCredit, which I may end up having to use. I just was not prepared to spend close to an additional $1000 this week.

lurkergirl · August 2014

My 3-fanged dog and I will be thinking of you and kitty. Gotta love the furry friends...even when they cost us obscene amounts of money! Good luck with everything!

hellosweetie1015 · August 2014

Aww, poor kitty! My cat and I will be thinking about y'all. Give her snuggles for me!

lc07 · August 2014

Kitty had extractions done before for broken teeth and she was SO much happier afterwards. I was also concerned about her being able to eat comfortably afterwards. She only eats dry food. (I've tried to get her to eat wet but she won't) Anyway, the vet assured us that cats do crunch on their kibble but they mostly just swallow it whole anyway and it's no big deal to be missing teeth. Consider getting quotes from other vets. I asked friends for recommendations and found a vet that was MUCH less expensive for this type of work but still very reputable. Now I've been going to them for everything for the past 5 years.

kbsmom1 · August 2014

I had to have my cats left fang extracted too. I noticed he smelled bad and a closer look her tooth looked abscessed. It was successfully removed... Poor baby...and put on antibiotics. And he recovered very quickly. Don't know the reason for the abscess as he always ate dry food and stays inside. He can still eat dry but he wasn't eating as much so I switched to wet. At 15 years old he can eat what he wants:) hope yours is better soon:)