I have a seventeen month old silver tabby Maine Coon and a 22 month old cream Maine Coon. We noticed very inflamed gums and searched out a feline Vet. Our told us to get rid of the plastic dishes, which we didn't have, and take him home. The new Vet performed dental surgery today. He had already lost 4 teeth at top front and two more were loose. Two in upper back were broken up & she had to cut roots out. Two in bottom were also removed. The remaining teeth appear fine at this time. However, the gums are very inflamed & he is on an antibiotic for awhile. I will make an appointment for the cream guy tomorrow. They are not out of the same litter. Vet is concerned it could be immune problem. But cream kitty is also somewhat inflamed. This has been extremely upsetting that something like this could have occurred. Has anyone dealt with this? Please tell me steriods are NOT the answer.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 1999

Answers

I am afraid I don't know the answer to your question but I would strongly suggest that you get some advice from the many breeders, exhibitors and fanciers on the mcats list. What you need to do is to go to onelist.com and then sign yourself up on the membership for something called mcats. Once you have joined mcats you can send an e-mail to the list and ask for advice. Good luck.....if you don't understand the above steps, let me know and I will try to help you through the steps.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 1999

There is a condition known as "stomatitis - recently discussed on the MC list. It is an autoimmune disease being seen more frequently in cats. It usually presents as a gingivitis. My 13 year old neuter has it in his pharynx resulting in a very sore throat. He was given a steroid shot and I give him interferon daily. There is some improvement - he goes back for checkup next week. With gingivitis, many breeders have seen improvement after having teeth pulled. One breeder reported having a full mouth xray taken which showed a deep tooth infection. Extraction cleared it up.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 1999