Where Are My Toothies

Where Are My Toothies – Part I

He he - dis is a pic of me supervising M's work on Twitter. 

Now the story you’ve all been waiting for:

Life in my new house with my new family was pretty good until one morning I woke up and didn’t get my breakfast treat. In fact the food dish had disappeared completely. The next thing I knew, I was grabbed and stuffed in dat box that was used to pick me up at the shelter. In just a few minutes I was back at the VET lady’s place. M gave me a smooch and said she’d pick me up later. It was scary to have M leave me der all alone.  The VET lady poked me with something and I went to sleep. When I woke up, I discovered the VET lady had kept 2 of my toothies. Doesn’t she have enough of her own, I thought.  Why she need mine? Now she’s stealing toothies from the anipals that visit her.

Well, M did come back to get me. I heard VET lady say something bout dey had to pull 2 of my toothies cuz they were so bad. Also, my gums were infected. So VET lady gave M some stuff in a bottle and told her to give it to me 2 times a day. Den M was supposed to give me some sort of soft foods for 2 weeks and come back in a month to be looked at. Well, I thought, der is no way I’m going back to dat place cuz they steal toothies.

I didn’t like dat yukky stuff in the bottle at all, so I’d try to fight my peeps. I guess I just wasn’t strong enough tho cuz dey always won the fight!

Well, M says we have to somehow shorten dis story or it will go on for pages (it might anyway).

I made several trips back to dat Lady VET cuz each time I went, she said der was still infection. She had tried 3 kinds of antibiotics and even gave me a shot of Cortisone. Finally one day she said "I’m afraid Mario is one of those rare cats that might be allergic to his own tooth decay. “ She said she’d like to “refer us to a specialist that deals in animal dentistry.”

Dis was not sounding good. I didn’t understand it all, but I knew it sounded bad.

Then one day night I went to get a snack and a drink of water –but the evil food snatcher came back and snatched both my food and water. I should have suspected dat something bad was going to happen, but I didn't.  (M says I not the smartest kitty they’ve ever had – guess she’s right.  But she does say I'm the sweetest. he he)

The next morning my peeps grabbed me and stuffed me in dat stupid box again. Dad sat in the back seat with me and the box, while M drove this thing called a car. I wasn’t too happy until D opened the box and let me sit on his lap. I liked dat much better den being in the box thingy. It wasn’t nearly as scary sitting on dad’s lap. It seemed like we were in dat thing called a car forever. . (M says it really is only 70 miles away and it took us less den an hour.)

The man VET was kind of goofy, he he. But he was nice. He kept talking to me, petting me, and even kissed me on the head. Den he gave me a real nose tap. Yes – you read it right – a real nose tap. He he, it’s the first time I’ve had a ooman give me a nose tap with der nose! He told M dat he really loves cats.  I must say I really felt special and dat he truly did love me.  He told M and D he was going to take X-rays (whatever dat is) and dey should go home and wait for his call. He said I’d be there most of the day. I just knew dis was going to be a very bad day! Den he stuck me with something and I don’t remember anymore. Now M is going to take over part of the story cuz I wouldn’t understand it all anyway. Besides, I guess I was sleeping.

This is Mario’s mom talking. The Dentist explained that Mario had Stomotitis (meaning inflammation of the oral cavity) and Gingivostomatitis which is another term to describe this condition. He recommended pulling all of Mario’s teeth, but if possible, he would to try to save the 4 canines in the front. He would not know if the canines could be saved, however, until he was actually doing the surgery. He explained that it was good we brought Mario to him because it would be important to clean out the area where the 3 other teeth had been pulled. If there was even a tiny fragment of tooth chip left in his mouth, Mario would forever have problems, and the infection would probably be fatal once the it entered the blood stream.

If you would care to read more about this fatal disease, you can see Dr. Kressen’s very extensive web site, complete with many photos of actual diseased mouths, at: http://mypetsdentist.com/  Scroll to the bottom of the home page, Click on Cat Dental Care  and you will find Feline Stomotitis.  

Dr. Kressen stated that if he was able to save the 4 canine teeth, it would be very important to brush those teeth every single day for the remainder of Mario’s life. Well, I wasn't sure how we'd ever brush a cat's teeth, but we promised to try if he could save the 4 teeth and we'd face the brushing when we needed to face it.

This is enough for this writing. Stay tuned next week to see if the 4 canines were saved and to find out what happened next. 

Noteable Timeline:  Mario was adopted 10-15-08.  Our local vet pulled 2 teeth on 2-24-09 and indicated it looked like he had lost 1 tooth earlier in his life via some unknown means - pulling or accidental loss.  The Animal Dentist pulled more teeth on 7-29-09.