Donkey crunching carrots

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Mollycat
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Donkey crunching carrots

Post by Mollycat »

For the second time in his life, my elderly Boo is making an awful noise when he eats like a donkey crunching carrots.

It happened a few years ago and it is not the normal noise of a cat crunching dry food, it sounds more like teeth grinding. I thought at first he had a loose tooth and it was grinding as he chewed, but it wasn't. The vet could not find anothing wrong with his teeth other than a bit of tartar, he did have a dental and an extraction but I am 99% sure that was before the noise. He had another dental two years ago and no more extractions, vet checked his teeth in the last few months and no issues, and his health would not allow for another anaesthetic.

But does anyone else have any ideas what this could be? I've never had another cat make this awful noise no matter how bad their teeth have been and his are pretty good for his age. His appetite does not change, just this awful crunching noise. He is seeing the vet again in 4 weeks' time.
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Ruth B
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Re: Donkey crunching carrots

Post by Ruth B »

One of mine does occasionally make an odd crunching sound when eating dried food, but he also tends to pull odd faces at the same time, i have come to the conclusion that he occasionally get a piece of the dried food caught somewhere in his mouth and it takes a moment to free it. He does have problems with his teeth with viral gingivitis and an overlong canine, but has yet to have any dental work done My Mum's old cat also used to make add grinding noises when she ate, even wet food, not all the time but often enough to be noticeable, but we never found a reason for it.

Teeth do move, particularly after an extraction, and the bite changes over time, so it could just be something has shifted a bit and his teeth are rubbing together. It could also be chunks of scale coming off and getting crunched, but that would only happen the odd time I would have thought. If the vet can't see anything wrong and it doesn't seem to bother him it probably isn't anything to worry about, and sounds worse than it is. I know how much easier it is to say not to worry, than to do it.
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Mollycat
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Re: Donkey crunching carrots

Post by Mollycat »

Thank you Ruth I'm just glad someone understands what I'm talking about, it's so peculiar. I can't see his face when he's eating, he has a chip feeder in a corner, but I'm intrigued now to see if he pulls faces!

I'm not worried about it, more puzzled really. Will get the vet to see (if she can) whether there are any obvious issues in his mouth, but as it's intermittent I don't expect to get any answers there really.
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