Cat Mouth Discomfort? - I give up ~ a quiet end

[SmartAlex]

About a month ago, Mitey Mite started messing with her mouth. This is not my video, but this is exactly what she does: Video

We took her to the vet. Vet found the lower left canine tooth was cracked. She also got a full blood work up, and besides her elevated kidney numbers (year two of that now) she got a clean bill of health. She just turned 17 this month, but is in overall good health.

The next day she went in for cleaning and extractions. Removed two teeth. She felt great when she came home. Ate. Went into grooming overdrive to get the vet stinkies off. We thought we had done the required maintenance to make her feel better and we could move on. A couple of days later, she was back to the pawing behavior, but was otherwise normal, eating, drinking, grooming etc. Let her mouth heal but the behavior only increased.

Two weeks after dental work we returned to the vet re: the pawing behavior. Again, clean bill of health. Gums healed. Mouth looks great. Throat feels great, no masses detected. Two vets standing there scratching their heads. Vet offered to knock her out again and go probing in the gums, but we declined for now because:

She paws equally at both sides. So it isn’t just discomfort in one single location (i.e. an infected root).
She does not necessarily do this every time she eat or grooms.
She still spends a lot of time grooming and nibbling at her toes so no sign of tooth discomfort.
We’ve examined her mouth every day and she shows no sign of a painful reaction to pressure.
When she yawns wide open, her tongue, roof of her mouth and throat look perfectly normal.
I don’t want to put her under that stress again so soon just to go poking around. It may come down to the point where we go in for X-rays though.

I’m out of ideas. The past two days she has eaten hardly anything, wet or dry. Still eager for treats. This morning she did eat a small portion of tuna but she won’t always eat that either. I’m going to stop at the store today and get a couple of food toppers to entice her.

Any ideas?

[Simkie]

Perhaps this is an odd presentation of nausea. Have you tried her on pepcid or cerenia? Talk to your vet, but I’d probably try both. Renal failure can really make them feel pukey.

Could also just try pain meds. Was she on anything directly after surgery?

[SmartAlex]

Hmm. I never thought of the pukey thing. She used to be rather bulimic, but she rarely vomits anymore.
She was on a pain med the day before the surgery because the vet discovered the cracked tooth and was worried that she was in pain. The prescribed dosage bombed her out but we it would be possible to give her a lower dosage as a test. I have several capsules left. We did not give her pain meds afterwards because she seemed revitilized and pain free so any pain meds that delayed the behavior for days after the surgery would have been just what she may have been given at the vet post op.

That cat that was in the video I linked also had videos of a facial tick. She has sort of a tick in her front legs. Started in her right and has now moved to her left. She will shake her paw, or it will sort of buckle out from under her. I compare it to feeling carpal tunnel and trying to shake it off. Which made me wonder (not for the first time) if it’s neurological.

[Marshfield]

I have also seen in once in a dog as a manifestation of calcium issues associated with parathyroid disease

[SmartAlex]

Interesting. Since her throat seemed OK, I considered even inner ear or TMJD because sometimes after a spell she acts like her jaw doesn’t want to close right. If it were an issue with her thyroid that would sort of be the right area for discomfort.

[Zu_Zu]

Jingles & AO ~

[CanadianTrotter]

I’ve seen my cats do this periodically and it ends up being a piece of food was stuck either at the side or under the tongue. They would dislodge it, spit it out then eat it.

[SmartAlex]

@CanadianTrotter

I’ve seen my cats do this periodically and it ends up being a piece of food was stuck either at the side or under the tongue. They would dislodge it, spit it out then eat it.

I know right! I need to get video. Acts just like she has hair between her teeth, or something jammed up in the roof of her mouth. Then like she is trying to tongue something out of her lower lip (chewing tobacco maybe ), then maybe it’s crammed behind her molars on the left - no wait - right side, then a little hack… all in one session. So inconsistent! Sometimes after eating. Sometimes after grooming. Sometimes for no reason at all. Sometimes not for hours and hours while eating and grooming normally without incident… Some days are worse than others.

I’m starting to think the only solution is to knock her out (again) examine her teeth (again) X ray, scope, the works… then there will be a day when I only see her do it once. Last night I told her we were going to have to pull out all her teeth one by one to eliminate that possibility. Her response? Unprintable :rolleyes:

[syreino]

This is Rhodes’ story.

Rhodes had ocular issues most of her life, which we managed medically until she developed glaucoma. In 2014 she had an enucleation. It turned out that there was a tumor behind her eye, and it was intraocular sarcoma. Oncologists at the time had mixed views - clean margins, she should be fine to she’ll be dead in 6-12 months. There was nothing that could be done other than the surgery and wait and see. She had a few episodes of sneezing and no vet could find anything. But when she started pawing at her face, just her right side, I knew there was something dramatically wrong with her.

We went to a specialty hospital and they did a “thorough” exam. Found masses on her lungs and said she had lung cancer … she was put on Palladia and after a month no change in tumors, and since she hated the palladia we switched to prednisolone, which had fewer side effects. We went back faithfully every month and every month I said please check her mouth and every month they threw more anti-nausea medicine at us (she was always a food addict but was starting to not eat even her wet food at this point).

We went back to her ophthalmologist, and it turns out her sarcoma had, instead of growing into her brain or other eye (which were supposedly the options), had grown down into her mouth. And for 4 months this specialty hospital that I won’t name did “full work-ups and exams” and didn’t find it. We then saw a different oncologist and the option was put a feeding tube in and try to remove the tumor and then chemo/radiation or let her go. I opted to let her go - we had a great weekend, I was able to get her to eat sloppy wet food and we hung out and enjoyed our time. She was 15, and she’d lost the will to live since her best friend died 6 months before - so the pawing could be nothing (as many different vets thought), or it could be something.

She survived 20 months from her surgery, and I miss her every day and I am mad at all the vets for not believing me and helping her. But because she was a happy go lucky cat, I try to forgive and realize it was her time regardless of inept humans.

Good luck with your kitty and I hope it is nothing instead of something.

[vxf111]

@CanadianTrotter

I’ve seen my cats do this periodically and it ends up being a piece of food was stuck either at the side or under the tongue. They would dislodge it, spit it out then eat it.

I have also seen this when a cat swallowed something that got lodged and didn’t go all the way down (small sewing needle). Discovered on x-ray.

[SmartAlex]

@syreino, I’m sorry about your kitty, and appreciate your response. Many of us humans know how hard it is to get a correct diagnosis even when we can tell the doctor what we feel, and with an animal it is ten times harder. I am concerned that with Mitey’s age that this will be the beginning of the end. If she is finicky about eating, that makes it so much harder to manage her kidney health and if one domino goes…

@vxf111, yes I’ve thought about something lodged all the way down, or even a tumor somewhere. Which is why, if this continues at this rate we will end up with an x-ray.

Being a good cat mom can be tough sometimes.

[D_BaldStockings]

Could also be an ear problem?
Pawing and chewing could also point to deeper ear issue.

Or pharynx problem of some sort?

Just trying to find other places inside her skull/throat to rule out.

good luck

[D_BaldStockings]

One more thing
poisonous plants in the house that kitty gets into?

[D_BaldStockings]

This??
https://www.petcha.com/my-cat-paws-a…outh-and-gags/

http://www.catexpert.co.uk/cats/face-clawing-tongue-tearing-feline-orofacial-pain-syndrome-in-cats/

[SmartAlex]

No house plants.

I saw that stuff on FOPS. Hard to tell, but worth considering. Her sister, I’m sure though our vet at the time looked at me like I was nuts, had feline hyperesthesia syndrome. So the possibility that this is some sort of hypersensitivity also has crossed my mind. Pretty much at this point, I’m sure that the cracked tooth and tartar were really just coincidence, and there is something else non tooth related going on that we can’t fix with extractions and cleaning. It could even be as simple as having a rigid piece of grass stuck in her throat and causing irritation.

[SmartAlex]

Just an update for those interested. I read up on the FOPS (feline orofacial pain syndrome) and felt that is what we were dealing with. Triggered by a bad tooth, exacerbated by oral surgery and accompanying stress. I noticed she would do it in anticipation of eating more so than after eating. It was worse on days my husband was stressed out and there was tension in the house. He’s very high strung but I actually heard him say a couple of times “I’m just going to have to let that go and get over it because I’m stressing the cat.” :lol:

Having determined there was nothing we could remove that was causing her pain, and having read other’s experiences, each time she did it, we would distract her from it and stroke her cheeks and massaged her jaw to relax her. My last resort was going to be pain management, but pilling her was not something I wanted to do unnecessarily considering we were dealing with stress/mouth issues. The frequency and duration reduced each day over a week’s time. The past two days I did not see her do it at all, although, this morning she had a short bout of it after trying to chew food as opposed to gobbling it down whole.

I had to change her wet food (Prescription k/d) to something more enticing. There were two days where I doubt she ate a thimble full of food. She is now happily eating good quantities of a commercial mature formula canned cat food and still eats small quantities of her free choice dry Rx food as usual. I hope to get her switched back to the Rx wet food but we’re picking our battles.

[SmartAlex]

For posterity: We were back to the vet today. Mitey’s kidney numbers have been getting progressively worse (we knew that) and she is getting very picky about her food. Has lost weight (1.5 # in 8 weeks). Has up days and down days. Seems like she feels like crap every other day. Then she started with the mouth again this week. She had not done it at all for five weeks. Vet says it’s not pain, it’s nausea. Explained about the cause and effect with kidney failure, nausea and dehydration. I can buy into that (don’t you wish they could talk and tell you how they feel?). She got SubQ fluids and is supposed to take 5mg Pepcid AD every day. I stocked up on old lady food and will try watering it down (she licks instead of chews all food).

We’re going to try SubQ fluids at home for a week and see what that does with her appetite and retest Creatinine etc in one week. My husband is against stressing cats with needles, drugs and vet visits. So when I get home we will have that argument. If she feels better with five minutes of fluid a day, I think that is a small price. I’m sure if she starts feeling better and eating in a week he will buy into it.

[CindyB59]

My old cat has kidney disease, and won’t eat any of the prescription foods. Was losing weight & looked like crap. Vet said give her her regular food back & give her fish oil. I wasn’t sure she’d eat it, but I started giving it to her. She loves it and begs ea night for it. Her coat is much better & it seemed to help her appetite. She’s gained weight back, several lbs. isn’t gonna cure k/d, but sure ha she made her happier in the meantime.

cheap & easy to try, can’t hurt anything. I just cut a people one open & squeeze into a little dish for her.

[SmartAlex]

I’ll try that. She does prefer fish and tuna juice works sometimes (but not always). I think we are down to a matter of days tho, not even weeks before she tells us she is done. The vet seemed pretty grim, and Mitey was nauseous all night and barely slept. When I put food down for her this morning, the smell made her wretch but she did eat some treats later. Refused treats last night.

I told my husband this morning I don’t think she’s lost the will to live just yet, but a few more days of this heartbreak and I will have lost mine.

[Simkie]

Fwiw, my renal failure cat was best managed with pepcid, cerenia AND zofran. Pepcid isn’t an anti nausea drug at all, but it does help with the acidy belly. If you want to try hitting it hard for a short time, pushing the vet for an actual anti nausea med would be worthwhile.

I’d wrap all of Juliet’s pills in a single small piece of pill pocket and only have to pill her once for her various meds. Very useful trick when trying to balance treatment with not wanting to stress them.

Good luck!