Our cat Max is a four year old Ragdoll with a wonderful gentle easy going personality-and what a looker! He has beautiful blue eyes and a beautiful silky coat.
A couple of years ago we started noticing that Max had really bad breath. His teeth looked like an older cat’s teeth rather than that of a four year old’s. My mother didn’t really think anything of it and thought that was just the way he was. About six months ago Max’s left eye was dripping brown discharge and even though my mom would wipe it with a warm cloth and water it wasn’t going away and seemed to be bothering him.
I work as a co-op student at Bloor Animal Hospital and made my mom take Max in for a check up. It turns out that Max’s teeth were severely decaying and rotting. He had stage 3 Periodontal disease, pockets between the teeth and the gums, gingival recession and more than 50% bone loss. Unusual for such a young cat! This was probably genetic and just the “cards that he was dealt” in life. We felt so bad for him! When Dr Lyons examined him and showed us his mouth his teeth in the back were bleeding! His breath was extremely bad. He must have been living with a gnawing pain and aching mouth and couldn’t tell us!
On November 14th Max had to have 10 teeth extracted-one of them being his top canine. His remaining teeth were cleaned and are healthy at this time. He was given wonderful loving care and lots of medication for pain to make his recovery as comfortable as possible. Bloor Animal Hospital made certain that his pain was managed.
After just a few of weeks we noticed that Max became almost like a kitten again! Running around playing and bouncing off of the walls. No more bad breath-just nice healthy pink gums! He eats soft food and even still enjoys small amounts of kibble. Max’s quality of life has greatly improved-he’s beautiful, healthy and happy!
Written by Chloe, Bloor Animal Hospital Co-op Student
