Bad tooth and not eating for a few days, losing weight

[Anna1502]

Hi,

Has anyone here had an experience of a problem with their cat's tooth or teeth and the cat losing all appetite, losing weight and getting weak?

I took my female DSH to the vet on Saturday to check her teeth and to see why she stopped eating since a 4-5 days ago.
The vet confirmed the bad tooth which needs to come out and gave her a long lasting antibiotic injection for any pain and inflammation and infection and because she has lost weight, he advised that she come back after 5 days to check if she hasn't put on any weight.
She weighed in at 4.3 kg, the lowest she has ever been for over 5 years.

However, since the vet visit on Saturday and the antibiotic injection, she hasn't improved and is still hardly eating anything at all or using the litter.
I got really concerned as today is Monday and the effect of the antibiotic should have kicked in.
I got her into to see a locum vet in the afternoon today at the same practice, who checked her over and said that she wasn't dehydrated and her temperature is normal but booked her in to come back tomorrow morning for blood tests and then based on the results, to extract the tooth under general anesthetic.

I've been a nervous wreck these past few days and wonder if the problem is more serious such as a problem with her organs etc.

Has anyone had this experience from a bad tooth?
Could it be a toothache that is still hurting 2 days after the antibiotic?

Thanks,
Anna

[Lilith]

Hi, Anna - I'm amazed the tooth wasn't extracted asap tbh and, since it obviously needs to come out, I think that's the starting point in establishing what is the matter with your poor girl. Even if the antibiotics have curbed the infection she must still be in awful pain and it's a good reason why she hasn't been eating etc.

I do hope there's not some other cause for this and that the tooth is the culprit, and that she'll be much happier once she gets rid of it. Sorry to hear you've both been having such a horrible time and hope she starts to improve once the tooth's out, poor lass, let us know how she goes on x

[Crewella]

Your poor girl, it must be sore.

Yes, I've definitely had cats off their food due to a bad tooth, and I have a foster cat at the vets tonight on fluids due to not eating because of a tooth infection. It does take a couple of days for ABs to start working; I'm sure your girl will feel a lot better once the offending tooth is gone, and hopefully she should be back to normal in a couple of days.

Give her a gentle fuss from me. xx

[Anna1502]

Thanks for the kind thoughts.
I took her to the vet practice this morning for her blood test and op but there was a mess up with communication from the locum vet yesterday saying that she would be there this morning to do the blood test but wasn't working today and I was told to drop Binky off.
When I signed the form though for the op, I realised it was the 13th today.....yikes!
Due to the miscommunication and being superstitious about the 13th and that Binky appeared to have perked up from yesterday, I decided against the op today in favour of tomorrow.
She seems a lot better now and is eating more so the antibiotic must have taken a couple of days to kick in.

She is going back in tomorrow morning for the blood test and if nothing shows abnormal, she will have the tooth taken out late morning/early afternoon.
Fingers crossed that everything goes ok and she recovers well.

Anna

[Anna1502]

Binky had her blood test done this morning and the results are not good......
Her liver is very bad, enzymes up to 500, where they should be between 70-100.
She can't have the general anesthetic to take her tooth out.

The vets are doing more tests on her for kidney function etc., and a scan and possible biopsy.
She has liver disease but we don't know how advanced it is yet.

I'm so shocked and gutted. I can hardly believe it. I always thought she was a healthy cat.

I've heard that liver disease can be treated and sometimes even reversed.

Does anyone here have experience with this in their cats and how they managed?
The high liver enzymes could partly be driven by her hardly eating over the past 6 days but it also could have been a problem for a long time.

She's not insured either.
I was planning to insure her again after her tooth was taken out but now no insurance companies will touch her.

I tried to get her on to a raw diet some years ago but without success.

Any thoughts, advice and experiences would be welcome right now.

Thanks,
Anna

[Lilith]

Very very sorry to hear - do hope they manage to stabilise her - lots of love, luck and hugs to you both x