Please help this clueless mommy.

Hello,

I'm in a little bit of a pickle here because I've never owned cats before. On Tuesday night my 2 year old siamese cat (Little-One) fell down the stairs.....again. He usually lands on his feet, but when I could finally get hold of him to see if he's alright I saw that there was a bit of skin off his nose. The poor thing landed on his nose and broke his one top canine. The vet thinks he broke a little bone in his nose and wants to charge me $500 to remove the tooth, or $1000 (CAD) for a root canal.

My mom for some reason thinks that cats get new teeth more than once. I find that very hard to believe, but I need to make absolutely sure.

The vet also thinks that he might have kidney disease, and since I love my cats so much, I would be the perfect cadidate to take for a ride. Do cats "tell" you when there's somehing wrong? Is there anything I should watch for? He still eats - not as fast as before the fall - and plays and looks for trouble with his brother.

Any advise would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you.

 

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty's fall Poor thing. Why has he fallen down the stairs so much? Just sounds strange for a cat to fall down stairs......

I'm sorry I have no advice in this area (teeth or kidney disease). I can only suggest a second opinion from another vet. I'm sure others will have more advice for you in this area.

Sometimes yes sometimes no. I have read a lot here that cats will purr even if they are sick or in pain. How does the tooth look? Is it swollen or bleeding?

Also..what was the reason the vet thought he had a kidney disease?

 

I'm sure the lady we baught the cats from dropped Little-One on his head a few times. The wall by the stairs doesn't go all the way to the ceiling, so sometimes when he runs to jump on the ledge he can't stop fast enough and then falls down the other side. Silly thing! This is the first time he got hurt.

The gum around the tooth seems to be a bit more pink than the rest of the gum. I guess this means he's hurting right?
I can't see any blood, however, nearly half the tooth broke off.
I suppose it would have to come out, right?

 

well...its probably like humans. if i cracked a tooth in half..it would probably hurt. and it damages the root of the tooth. then the tooth either needs a root canal to save the damaged root or extracted.

of course i am not a dentist...but i have had root canals...

and...cats can die from untreated infection. that is why vets will tell you to have their teeth cleaned. at least that is the way i understand it. it is not something to take lightly. i dont think your vet is trying to "take" you. but i would get a second opinion asap if you dont believe him/her. i wouldnt wait long.

if your kitty has kidney disease, then his immune system isnt good anyway. i believe he needs tx asap.

 

Get a second opionion. Call your local shelters and no-kill shelters for a reliable low-cost vet, or check out the sticky on top of the main cat page. My vet doesn't even do root canals etc. They just extract. I believe she's in pain and may need antibiotics. You don't want infection to set in. Chessmind, our resident human dentist can give you better insights.
My Venus(RIP) used to climb on top of railings and fall off the second floor. It was very scary but she never hurt herself, only the walls as she slipped down, down, down. :mrgreen: BTW, the pricing sounds right. Dental cleanings are usually around $300 and with extraction/s around $500.

 

hiya and welcome to the forum

i'm very sorry to hear about Little Ones spill. i wa scared to death about my kitten falling down the stairs here at my place. then course he did. but it was only a few of them and i guess he bounced or something coz he was only little then and very lucky lol either way he didnt get hurt. never know huh?

i second the second oppinion idea, though Chessmind would know more about the dental aspect i believe.

Oh- and animals usually dont let u know when something is wrong. It's programmed into them- especially cats. Int he wild when an animal shows signs of destress or weakness that could mean their life coz preditors would see it and attack them. So over time they learned to hide all signs of distress. :? so dont just assume your kitty will let u know when something is wrong. by the time u can see something is very wrong it's usually too late.


good luck with this!

 

Thank you so much for replying everyone!!!

I take Little-One to another vet today. It's the same guy who helped me last time I had a crisis with the very same cat.

Anyhow, I love this guy to death. He said that I shouldn't just have the tooth removed, because the cat is still eating and going to his box just fine. He did ask us though to check the tooth everyday, and as soon as I see swelling or anything we should then defenitely have it extracted.

As for the kidney disease, he explained that even though some of the readings in the pathology report might be a bit higher or lower than "normal" we have to keep in mind that "normal" is based on statistics, therefore, just because it is not normal for most cats to have the readings Little-One has, doesn't mean that it's not normal for my cat.

Good Grief. This is a mouthfull. To get to the point though, he said that Little-Ones readings aren't far enough off for him to be conserned. We should watch the peeing, pooping and eating.

Amen.

 

What I forgot to tell you was that the vet said that removing a tooth that isn't causing any problems is too traumatic for the cat, because the root is soooooo long that it goes way up into the jaw. Not like for us you just have it done and go home. They'll be in a huge amount of pain afterwards aswell. That's why we've decided to wait a while and see. Usually it's not necissary to have it removed.
The first vet we took him to also told me that usually a roken tooth doesn't bother them anyway.