Poor Foxy's Fat Lips, can anyone diagnose and help?

[anj999]

Please can anyone help me. I've took some great advice from lovely people on here before so was hoping I could get help again. My poor wee cat has been through the mill. He is a maine coon, never kept the best of health and a couple of years ago started getting a wee ulcer-like thing on his lip. The vet said it was called a "rodent ulcer" and was just something that might go away after treatment or might keep recurring. He gave us antibiotics and that seemed to help. They ended up recurring over time and since then each course has got longer and longer but the last course seemed to be having no effect so my son took him to a different vet (purely because the cat lives with him just now) who said that the tablets he was getting were hormone tablets and not antibiotics. I don't know what to believe as I have never had any reason to doubt the care my previous vet has given any of my animals over the years but I need to get proper treatment for wee Foxy as to top it all, he went missing 8 weeks ago and we have only just got him back. The daft thing wandered off and got lost and of course, by the time we found him he had lost two thirds of his bodyweight, was covered in ticks and his fat lips are so much worse! I've attached a picture if anyone has seen this before and knows what it is or can tell me what to do or get the vet to do to help I would be eternally grateful! xx

[meriad]

Poor lad, but thank goodness he's back home now. That does look like a rodent ulcer to me - what was your vet giving him originally, do you know?

Not sure if you've googled rodent ulcers already but this is quite to the point about what it is. Definitely a vet visit for some steroids and antibiotics needed

fusses to your boy

[anj999]

Thanks meriad, appreciate your answer. Can't remember the name of the tablets he was getting before but will defo get him to vets again. x

[Lilith]

That looks quite dreadful, Anj - poor Foxy.

I'd heard of rodent ulcers but knew nothing about them except that they aren't caused by rodents. So I went googling and found this site:-

http://www.askthecatdoctor.com/rodent-ulcer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sorry if you've seen it before btw. I'd no idea that the rodent ulcer is a recurring condition and that the poor cat is potentially stuck with it, and treatment, for life unless cause/prevention can be discovered. The owners' comments might be useful too, though not that of the person claiming their vet told them to put TCP on the cat's mouth! (It's a phenol and toxic to cats.) But I learned loads of info I never knew before.

All warmest wishes to Foxy