Lewis had not long lost his companion, Jenson, from bone cancer when he stopped eating. His very worried owners brought him in to see us. Poor Lewis had a very high temperature.
With only mild changes on his initial blood tests, we were surprised when he didn’t improve with conservative treatment and home care. Though we had noticed he had loose teeth, we didn’t think this was the cause of his loss of appetite. More testing was required to identify why Lewis had lost interest in food.
With our ultrasound scanner, we discovered Lewis had an inflamed pancreas along with enlargement of the lymph nodes within his abdomen, showing an active inflammatory process. A more specific blood test confirmed pancreatitis, as suspected from the scan. Lewis was admitted to the practice and put onto a drip to enable us to administer more aggressive treatment.
Over the course of a few days, Lewis steadily improved until he was once again happy and eating. When we were sure he had regained his strength, we addressed his loose teeth to make eating more comfortable. Both of his upper canines had ‘slipped’ so that they protruded further from their root sockets than they should and were slightly loose. Although teeth like this are easy to remove, unfortunately an anaesthetic is required to avoid causing undue pain and distress, and anaesthetic carries its own risk. Lewis came through his procedure safely and is like a new cat again, much to his owners’ great relief.
Darker yellow area at top of canines should be covered by gum, but canines have slipped down to expose this.
Loose upper canines removed