My cats breath smells like...burning?
August 3, 2010 12:51 PM   Subscribe

Kitty filter: My vet has diagnosed my cat with stomatitis, and has strongly recommended that she get her back teeth pulled. Has anyone had a cat that has experienced this?

Ok, I read through every. single. cat question on ask me and no one has asked this one yet. I adopted my cat a year ago from a shelter. At the time she was tiny, recovering from being malnourished and had a infection in the mouth/nose. She is much better these days, and has developed into possibly the most delightful, lovable cat on the planet. The only remaining issue is that she has very bad breath and chronically-inflamed back gums, that are supposedly very painful, and the vet has diagnosed stomatitis after examining my cat. Apparently this is an auto-immune disease where the immune system reacts to dental tissue. Despite the inflammation she still eats wet food, sometimes dry, drinks water and regularly grooms herself. (She's quite vain)

The vet recommends pulling her teeth, to the tune of $1,000. This is a not insignificant amount of money for me. In fact, I feel nauseous thinking about it. Supposedly the inflammation and pain stops almost instantly for cats that have this procedure. I'm committed to giving my cat the best care possible, but before I agree to the surgery I wanted to see if anyone has had experience with stomatitis in cats. Did you have their teeth removed? Should I seek a second opinion? Does this seem like a lot of money for pulling a few teeth? Thanks.

(On preview, I see I somehow missed this question. I'm going to still post this, as I'm looking for more info on cats with stomatitis, specifically.)
posted by Maude_the_destroyer to Pets & Animals (14 answers total)
 
My cat had FORL (warning, gross) which is not cat-gingivitis but is pretty dang awful. He had to have a canine pulled, along with several other teeth.

Cat teeth-surgery is a pretty big deal. You have to put the cat under, and work in a tiny, tiny space to extract teeth that are probably going to fall apart and or be some other sort of pain in the ass. Our vet does regular dental cleanings, but for this kind of extensive work, he referred us to a feline dentist. I cannot stress enough that you should look into this unless dental is a closet specialty of your vet. One of ours had Special Cat Dentist, and much more invasive work, and recovered pretty fast. Other cat had regular vet do her cleaning and a routine extraction, and recovered more slowly. Feline Dentist is the better place to spend one's money (and I say this as someone who LOVES MY VET).

As to whether it's worth the money - it will be $1,000 now or more than that later when this is advanced. She's in pain, regardless of whether she eats, and unfortunately early malnutrition can (I understand) contribute to dental problems. I know it's not cheap, but it's gotta be done. See about a payment plan?
posted by Medieval Maven at 1:10 PM on August 3, 2010


The clinic that I work at does not charge $1000 for cat tooth extraction. Usually it's around $300-400, if that. I would get a second opinion/comparison shop. But definitely get the tooth extraction.
posted by bolognius maximus at 1:14 PM on August 3, 2010


Pulling a cat's teeth involves surgery, and that's always expensive in animals. Sedation usually indicates pre-anesthesia blood work, and the combination of the two costs $100 or so at minimum, before the surgery even begins. I would suggest asking around to find a more affordable vet, though. There are vets who ask around $1000 for this procedure, but there are also vets who'll ask $500, sometimes in the same town. Scuttlebutt in any given town will tell you which is the affordable-but-good vet -- ask at your favorite pet store, preferably when a bunch of pet owners are standing around and can share their opinions.

Don't forget to ask about payment plans. Many vets are happy to set up monthly payments. Some also offer Care Credit, which is a credit card you can get to cover the balance -- just make sure you pay everything within the no-interest period, because the interest is insane.

One of my cats has this problem, and had all but one of his teeth pulled over two separate occasions. It made a huge difference in his comfort and health: he's a lot bigger and shinier now that eating and grooming don't hurt, and he no longer leaves weapons-grade surprises in the litter box. The lack of teeth doesn't seem to bother him, and he eats both dry and wet food with no hesitation. It turned out so well that if I could go back I'd tell the vet to pull the last tooth, too, as I'm sure it'll eventually go the same way.
posted by vorfeed at 1:15 PM on August 3, 2010


I have two cats with stomatitis. Both have had most of the their teeth removed - one in three different settings over a couple of years, the other all at once. In both cases, it was clear right away that they were much more comfortable. My only regret about the whole thing is that with the first cat we didn't have the right diagnosis at first, so her discomfort wound up stretching out over months and multiple surgeries instead of just getting it all over with.

I don't remember how much it was for the cat who had everything done at once, but $1000 sounds high. I would guess mine was more in the $750 range - but then everything's cheap-ish in Pittsburgh. Probably vets elsewhere can charge more.
posted by Stacey at 1:35 PM on August 3, 2010


I would like to see a picture of "...the most delightful, lovable cat on the planet."
posted by amtho at 1:36 PM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


My Katie had/has stomatits and had all but her canine teeth removed in May, 2009. Before the surgery she was always bothering at her mouth, always miserable, barely eating. After the surgery, she's a different cat. She eats, she grooms, she plays. SHE PLAYS! She's so very happy now. She was 16 at the time of the surgery* and she now acts like she's a young cat. Now, her recovery wasn't instantaneous. But once she recovered from the surgery itself, she was totally fine. She eats dry food without issue (we don't give her wet food because she scarfs it and then barfs immediately).



*We chose to do the surgery at her age because she was miserable but otherwise totally healthy and I'm so glad we did!
posted by cooker girl at 1:43 PM on August 3, 2010


Are they recommending pulling all your cat's teeth? If so, as a matter of course I think I would find another well-recommended vet and get a second opinion. I've had cats need teeth pulled for resorbtive lesions (not fun either) and, while not cheap, I don't remember it costing $1k. Good luck to you and your kitty!
posted by aught at 1:45 PM on August 3, 2010


I recently had my cat's teeth pulled, all of them. She had red gums and her breath smelled like a latrine. She is MUCH happier now. Price was a big deal for me too, but they wanted to take all the teeth out now vs having to put her under later for more surgery.
posted by dreamling at 1:48 PM on August 3, 2010


Response by poster: I would like to see a picture of "...the most delightful, lovable cat on the planet."

Oh, where are my manners! Here's a picture from the day I adopted her.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 2:02 PM on August 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


My cat Paisley had exactly what you describe. I don't remember what the vet called it (it was over 20 years ago now). But basically it was her saliva reacting with the enamel of her teeth. Her gums were all red and bloody and it was painful for her to eat.

We had her teeth pulled, again it was so long ago I don't know how much it was but I can tell you my mother would have never paid $1000. The vet told us to have the four fangs (canines??) removed surgically and that all the other teeth would fall out on their own. The vet was right. The surgery went fine and all the other teeth just came out over the next little while. She was a toothless wonder by the time she was about a year old. She was a much happier cat and lived to the ripe old age of 18. (We gave her wet food and she was an indoor cat.)
posted by sadtomato at 2:08 PM on August 3, 2010


We just had this done with our cat. She had six teeth taken out, and the whole shebang—preliminary visit, bloodwork, follow-up visit, pain medication, half-day stay at the vet—cost $900. And this is in Brooklyn, which can be a pretty expensive place to go to the vet. I guess it depends on where you are as to whether a thousand is reasonable or not.

oh and p.s. Kitty is lively and doing fine, after having been increasingly apathetic and grumpy before the surgery. The recovery weeks were a little rough, but now she's pretty much as good or better than she was before her teeth went nasty.
posted by felix grundy at 6:14 PM on August 3, 2010


Best answer: A full-mouth extraction is often the only course of action for stomatitis. And a grand is on the cheap end of things, it can be easily twice that where I work. Dental surgery is extremely time-consuming and in cats it is very fiddly work. It makes a HUGE difference to quality (and quantity) of life to have this addressed properly. Make sure your vet has a decent pain management and anesthetic protocol (including blood pressure monitoring and the ability to do something about it if there is a problem there (poorly managed BP can cause kidney damage)).
posted by biscotti at 6:20 PM on August 3, 2010


My six-year old kitty had all but his canine teeth pulled a few weeks ago. He had a similar problem to your cat. His teeth had become so bad he could barely eat soft food, and he was miserable.

Surgery, a couple of days lying low, and he's a new little man. His formerly red, inflamed gums healed in a week, and you can barely see where the teeth would've been. Inside his entire mouth is smooth, pink skin. He's already back to eating hard food and seems so much happier. My vet told me that domestic cats don't actually need their teeth to eat -- they crunch food on their hard palate.

I sometimes call him The Toothless Wonder, but only to myself. Don't want to make him self-conscious.
posted by Georgina at 6:22 PM on August 3, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks to everyone for taking the time to share your opinions and experiences. The kitty had her surgery this morning and is recovering very well. When I went to pick her up the vet gave me photos of before/after the procedure. In the before picture, her gums were so angry, inflamed and red. I feel awful that I considered not getting this done. The total cost ended up being much lower than the $1,000 estimate, as the extraction went really quickly because the connective tissue was so degraded from the stomatitis. She only has her canines now. I have a feeling, based on what y'all have said, that when the sockets heal she's going to be a much happier cat.
posted by Maude_the_destroyer at 8:24 PM on August 10, 2010


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