I have a non-positive (just a regular old cat- except that he was my first foster and has literally helped foster every cat I have taken in!) that is missing a little tooth on his bottom jaw and another is barely hanging on. It's always been like that- he's only 2. Don't know when he lost it. But he was 2 months when I acquired him as a very sickly, kill animal shelter rescue brought into a no kill rescue, with exposure to everything probably. Started his life on antibiotics and fighting a recurring upper respiratory infection. I eventually fostered and lost 3 other kittens rescued along with him that separately all succumbed to FIP (1 to wet, 2 to dry). Anyway, my boy has no gum disease whatsoever but his vet said it's highly likely he could lose all teeth before middle age. Just due to a rough start in life. It seems to make sense that- altho he's a healthy horse now- when his milk teeth were falling out and being replaced with his adult teeth- he was at his sickest, not getting nutrition, etc., so those adult teeth were not being formed in the best possible circumstances. My vet said this is actually more common than you would think in cats who didn't get adequate COLOSTRUM from their mother through nursing, if any at all :( (this would also be why I love my vet so much-- b/c he talks about colostrum and how important it is!). And remember that all cats have milk teeth they lose naturally and most actually swallow them-- which is totally fine and "natural." Altho I did find one of my newest kitten's milk canine on the bed and I felt like I had found a buried treasure! After having so many cats in my life-- kittens, fosters, geriatrics!, this was the first tooth I ever actually found!!!! Anyway, I guess my point is that the process of cats losing their teeth for whatever reason, whether it's milk teeth, or due to gingivitis, if it's not actually affecting the cat as far as eating and what not, it's a much more natural process that occurs more than we know (geriatrics regularly lose teeth even if you've kept up with their regular teeth cleaning). It's a much more natural process than us losing our teeth! And with a positive cat, truly the main thing is to minimize their stress-- it's the golden rule of having a positive. So assuming no detrimental effects of letting nature take it's course, I would advocate leaving the teeth alone (of course, following vet's advice for cleaning and treating an active infection). I personally would avoid having a positive's teeth pulled as much as possible. As even avoiding anesthetic if you can in a positive is important. The process of losing teeth for cats is not a big "event" like for us so I don't think we should do anything to turn it into a stressful event for them!
That's my two cents. Caroline Kaufmann > Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:12:48 -0500 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] advice on kitty's loose tooth > > I should have said before that I had called the vet when I first noticed it, > and they said as long as she was eating that she was probably ok. I hate > the thought of stressing her out to take her to the vet if it might just > fall out and be ok. When I first got her (a year ago), all of her upper and > lower tiny teeth were missing. She had very bad breath and gingivitis. > After giving her Petzlife oral gel over a period of many months, the vet > said her mouth looked very good, and her breath got much better.... So > she's had a history of bad teeth. Thank you for the advice! > > On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 5:51 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > One of my positives started smelling bad and I realized that he had a > > serious red line on his gums > > near the teeth. The vet said that the gum infection was so bad, his > > little front teeth would probably > > fall out. Gum infection is quite often seen in positives. Alot of the > > infection cleared up with > > antibiotic but not all. We'll need to try something more. > > > > I would suspect something like this with your kitty to let that tooth get > > so loose. > > _______________________________________________ > > Felvtalk mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > [email protected] > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: It works the way you want. Learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen:112009v2 _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
