Will Every Cat Get Gingivits?

Yes, every cat will eventually get Gingivitis if you don’t give your cat the proper care. Please read the following information to prevent this painful condition.

Plasmacytic-Lymphocytic Stomatitis is a chronic condition occurring in cats which causes severe gingivitis and tooth loss. This is a result of another disease. Feline Immunodeficiency and Feline Leukemia is found in some cats. Symptoms include extremely foul breath, excessive salivation and trouble eating. Generally, since this causes them mouth pain, they discontinue eating while rapidly loosing weight.

If  the mouth is examined there will be extreme gingivitis around the back upper molars. The gums will be red and look raw. They may bleed easily. If not treated the gums will start to recede from the tooth as the root of the tooth becomes absorbed causing the teeth to fall out or break off. When biopsies of these areas were conducted they were found to contain lymphocytes and plasma cells, which is why this disease is so named. With the inflammation the chances of a bacterial infection are definitely higher than normal. These cells are in evidence whenever there is a chronic inflammation and result in secondary infections which can cause a bacterial infection in the blood stream. This is quite serious and can infect other organs such as the heart, kidneys, and liver.

A thorough cleaning under anesthesia making sure to get below the gum line with a good long acting disinfectant gel is essential to beginning any treatment. If the cat is given antibiotics this will provide temporary relief and keep the bacterial infection of the gums from getting any worse. However this is not a long time solution. Various treatments have been tried such as ant inflammatory therapy with cortisone and immunostimulants such as immunoregulin.

The only long term treatment that seems to relieve the symptoms and get the cat back to good health is removing the premolars and molars. In the meantime while trying to get the cat back to a healthy animal there are several high calorie, nutritional cat foods on the market that are soft and require very little chewing. Due to the nature of this disease cats are quite reluctant to eat as they are in severe pain. It is imperative that they get nutrition.

Prevention is the best alternative for avoiding chronic gingivitis, since response to treatment for this disease is exceedingly low. It is essential that upper respiratory infections in a household be controlled, since calicivirus seems to be a contributing factor for this disease. Vaccinations for this disease at 6 weeks, 9 weeks, and 12 weeks should be administered to kittens. Until this series of vaccinations are complete, a kitten should be kept away from other kittens and cats. Keep all cats up to date with their vaccinations for best results. Feline leukemia and FIV tests should be routinely done. Any cat showing a positive result to testing should be immediately removed and isolated from all other cats.

Two new products came on the market in 1997 that were designed to control and prevent tartar and gingivitis. TD, produced by Hills, is a dry food that was made to fight the build up of plaque and tartar. Chews, produced by Vrx pharmaceuticals, is a freeze dried fish food that has antibacterial enzymes to fight gingivitis and also provides abrasive cleaning action. Both products can be obtained through your veterinarian. They just may be the key to preventing feline chronic gingivitis thus saving your cat from losing their teeth and succumbing to this painful disease.

Opinions on Gingivitis/Stomatitis in Cats
About two weeks ago, my male 9 year old cat was almost definitely diagnosed with chronic gingivitis/stomatitis, a condition that is treatable with corticosteroids shots and antibiotics.

How Can I Treat my Cat’s Refractory Gingivitis?
Severe, recurrent, refractory gingivitis in cats can progress to a syndrome called stomatitis.

Feline Gingivitis
Some cats suffer more than others. My cat, a 16 year old moggie has great teeth. I have never done any work on them except inspect them.

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One cat behavior that you should avoid right from the beginning is the cat biting your fingers. Cats are fond of wiggling fingers and love to grab and nibble on them. Although some cat owners find it cute when their kittens nibble on their fingers, it can become dangerous when your cat becomes an adult. You might get a scratch and hurt yourself.

One common mistake that owners do while trying to prevent such cat behavior is pulling their hand away. They think their pussy will stop behaving like this.  On the contrary, she thinks it’s a form of play and tries to grab your fingers even more!  The right way to avoid such behavior is to push your hand towards your cat’s mouth, all of a sudden. This abrupt movement will startle her. After this, replace your hand with a toy. As your kitten lets go off your hand and starts to nibble at the toy, she’ll find that it doesn’t jab into her mouth. Now, she’ll prefer the toy to your hand!

The catch is to give your pussy a positive experience through the toy and a negative one, through your hand. This way, she’d automatically abandon your hand and pick the toy as her nibbling object.

Not every cat behavior is acceptable. And you must make your cat understand this. However, scolding and beating is not the right thing to do. Handle your pet with care, patience, and love. She’ll impress everyone by her good manners!

For more cat training tips and help, visit www.cattrainingguides.com

My Cat Loves Eating Trash!

One cat behavior that can be quite annoying as well as embarrassing for a cat owner is when your cat starts eating morsels of food from the trash. People would think you don’t give enough food to the poor animal! But, the reality is that you feed your cat two times with a bowl full of food, yet she chooses to dig into the trash proudly and pick a rotten piece of meat from it.

Can you do anything about this cat behavior? Certainly!

Tips To Keep Your Cat Miles Away From Trash

First of all, get a trash can that your cat can’t tip over easily. The next time you catch your cat approaching the can, squirt water on her. It will give her a nice surprise! Another thing you should do is empty your can more often. Over time, scraps of food get accumulated on the sides of the can, inviting rodents and cats to feast on them. A clean trashcan will hardly attract the cat, as they are drawn by the odor of rotting food.

Get a strong lid for the trashcan. It isn’t a pleasant sight to have all the trash strewn around your kitchen, after your cat has had its “fill”. One thing you need to remember is you don’t teach animals any good habits through beating or chiding them. Be patient and try to discourage bad cat behavior by distracting their attention. Gradually, your pussy will know what habits annoys her owners and what pleases them.

For more cat training tips and help, visit www.cattrainingguides.com

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Cat Flea Allergy - A 2 Steps Treatment Approach

If your cat is suffering from cat flea allergy, read on as this article provides you with a 2 easy steps treatment approach to alleviate your cat’s pain and discomfort.

See your cat scratching and biting on its fur frantically?

See inflamed, irritated and infected skin on your cat?

If yes, your cat may be suffering from cat flea allergy!

Cat flea allergy, or commonly known as flea allergy dermatitis in cats is one of the most common single cause for consultation of a vet. This is cause mainly by the bites from fleas when they feed on the blood of the cat.

For a normal cat, it would only feel minor irritation to the fleas bites. Even in the presence of dozens of fleas, these cats will not be greatly affected and they feel little itch. On the other hand, if a flea allergic cat comes in contact with even a single flea, they can have severe itch reaction to the flea bites. Very often, such allergic reaction may continue for days to weeks causing intense itch and discomfort to the cat.

To treat cat flea allergy, there is a 2 steps approach to it.

Prevention:

Cat develops flea allergic dermatitis because of the presence of fleas on them. As such, the only way to prevent the occurrence of this dreaded, tormenting skin disorder in your cat is to prevent the contact of your cat with fleas. No Fleas, No Bites!

Flea control for cats is therefore an absolute necessity. To get rid of cat fleas completely, your choice of a flea treatment product is very important.

The need to treat the surrounding environment, both indoor and outdoors, are often ignored leading to re-infestation after you succeed in eradicating the fleas on your cat.

Treatment:

Cats affected by flea bites allergy is usually in great discomfort. Their constant scratching and biting may lead to inflamed and infected skin.

Keeping the skin clean is therefore important to prevent secondary infection. Bathing your affected cat with a medicated shampoo may be necessary. Antibiotic and steroid cream may be prescribed to relief the itch and inflammation.

  Visit the section on "Flea Bite Treatment" where you can find out more about the reaction and symptoms of cat flea allergy and what you can do to alleviate the pain and discomfort of your flea allergic cat.

Your choice of a flea treatment medicine for your cat is very important. Your success depends on your choice of the right product. Learn how to select one from the many available in "Flea Medicine" and a step-by step plan in treating your house for flea in "House Flea Control"

By Ann Wong Published: 6/23/2008

 

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