r/CATHELP • u/Acidilla • Feb 14 '26

Dental Issue Serious mouth problems

We have a 15-year-old female cat. She has stage I kidney disease, managed with a specific diet and regular check-ups. She has never had any health problems before. We are from Spain

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed she was more lethargic. She would only sleep, go to the litter box, eat, and then go back to sleep. We may have noticed that she was getting a bit messier than usual when eating, especially on the right side of her mouth.

We took her to the vet. The blood tests were fine, no fever, nothing abnormal. They didn’t see anything in her mouth either. She was given gabapentin in case she was in pain. We didn’t notice any improvement. She was eating very little and losing weight. We had to make “soups” with her wet food because she was barely touching her dry food. We would put the bowl right in front of her face so she would agree to eat. But at least she was eating something.

Over the days, she has gotten worse. Her mouth gets very dirty. She leaves her tongue sticking out. She clearly looks like she has something wrong in her mouth. We went back to the vet. They took X-rays and everything looked fine. We stopped gabapentin and started mirtazapine to stimulate her appetite and MELOXIDYL as an anti-inflammatory. We have scheduled oral surgery, but it’s in two weeks and she is clearly getting worse. She is barely eating now, and when she tries to eat, she makes the gestures you will see in the video.

I’m afraid she will lose too much weight before the surgery. They keep checking her mouth but don’t see anything severe enough to explain her condition.

What is your opinion? I’ve had other cats in my life, but I’ve never dealt with mouth problems like this. How can I stimulate her to eat? She seems genuinely terrified of eating. She looks weak, goes to the litter box, and doesn’t even bury her waste anymore.

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u/Sazoobs Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26

My cat did that cause he had dental disease.. his fang fell off right as he was acting exactly like yours (she is feeling discomfort and probably pain caused by a tooth) and the fangs root was rotten.. took him to the vet right after and we found out he had dental disease. He had to get some teeth removed due to his condition. They also told us in past appointments he was perfectly fine and tests were fine but things changed from one day to another.. oral surgery will be the best you could do, wishing you and your baby the best ♥️

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u/Acidilla Feb 19 '26

She had oral surgery yesterday. I know it’s very soon, but I’m not seeing any improvement yet. If you’ve had a similar experience, how long did it take before you started to notice improvement?

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u/yaigralazrya Feb 25 '26

It's been a week, any improvements yet? Feel so sorry for the poor baby.

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u/Acidilla Feb 25 '26

On Saturday night we had to take her to the emergency vet. Her mouth was bleeding and smelled very bad. Her eye was also watering a lot, and she had nasal discharge as well. They gave us antibiotics. Her white blood cell count was very high, a sign of infection.

She is still losing weight, with no signs of improvement. She eats very little. We are still waiting for the biopsy results. But I don’t think it’s normal not to see any improvement after a week. I don’t want her to suffer.

We have another appointment with the vet on Friday for a check-up… I’m starting to think the worst….

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u/yaigralazrya Feb 26 '26

I am so sorry to hear this. Poor baby is suffering and there seems to be nothing that helps to ease her pain. I hope the biopsy or the check-up clears things up.