Gingivitis in Cats

[jagracer]

I've just taken my young cat to the vets for its vaccination and the vet said she has gingivitis. Her gums are a bit red and vet said it's not too serious at the moment but may need scaling or other treatment if it gets worse. She didn't offer much advice apart from trying to sell me a tiny tub of powder to mix with her food saying you can't brush a cats teeth. She was also more interested in selling me a monthly payment plan which I am not interested in, after I said I didn't want it she sort of lost interest and left me to the receptionist for the bill.
Having looked on line the general advice seems to be to brush the cats teeth with a special cat toothbrush and paste.

So, has anyone any experience of this and what I can do to prevent it getting worse and any ongoing treatment I can use, does brushing work, providing of course my arms aren't ripped to shreds in the process.

[elephantstone]

Wouldn't worry about it this one has gingivitus too..













I wouldnt normally joke about an animals illness but since you said its nothing serious i couldnt resist a crap joke!

[bexVN]

That sounds like Plaque off? No experience of it myself but we don't really rate it so rarely sell it. Using a mouthwash such as Hexarinse would be your first port of call. You can smear it on the gums with a cotton bud, it does taste odd so some cats will object but we have a few clients that do it and it makes a good difference.

Now gingivitis - Very common, see it in many many cats. Its the early stages of periodontal disease, it can also be triggered by certain viruses but the only way you'd know if it was virus linked is to test. Stomatis is the severest form of gingivitis and is very painful, only treatment is usually mass extraction of teeth! (this is usually virus linked)

It sounds like your cats is quite mild and could stay that way a long time even without attention but it would be wise to try (esp if your cat is insured)

RAW chicken wings are supposed to help but I have seen conflicting studies about how truly effective they are. My breeder friend gives them to some of her cats (some won't eat them!)

Brushing is possible, you need a small headed, soft (kids) toothbrush or you can buy animal specific ones. You want a toothpaste that contains Chlorhexadine in gel form, no point using any other paste Pet Dent Gel is good.

Hope that gives you a starting point. I am sure you tube will have video clips on how to brush cats teeth, you don't need to do the inside of the teeth and introduction to brushing needs to be taken very slowly.

[jagracer]

Thanks for the info bex, yes it was plaque off. I'll take note of what you have said and look on youtube as well. It's my daughter's cat, she left it with me when she went to Aus for a year two years ago and apparently she (the cat) has suffered with this since she got her. She was a rescue kitten and didn't get off to a good start having been found suffering with cat flu and losing an eye as a result.

[bexVN]

jagracer said:

Thanks for the info bex, yes it was plaque off. I'll take note of what you have said and look on youtube as well. It's my daughter's cat, she left it with me when she went to Aus for a year two years ago and apparently she (the cat) has suffered with this since she got her. She was a rescue kitten and didn't get off to a good start having been found suffering with cat flu and losing an eye as a result.

She is a high risk candidate for being a poss calici with that history but as I said we suspect a lot of cats out there carry it (my cat does bu she doesn't actually suffer with her teeth, it's attacked her uppper respiratory tract unfortunately)

[jagracer]

That sounds worrying as we already had 3 other cats plus her other cat as well. The other cat of my daughter's is constantly sneezing often with large bogie deposits as well. Both were rescued as kittens but we were unaware of the seriousness when we took them off her. All a bit too late now as we've had them both for two years but I will need to do more research into it all.
Thanks for the help.

[Saleen836]

Oddly enough Mrs Saleen took her 2 cats last week for their boosters and the vet said the same about one of hers, the vet suggested cleaning the teeth at home or adding biscuit to the food.