Panther Loses Her Last 4 Teeth

Panther is a really sweet abandoned cat who arrived at my door some time in 2008. When I had her spayed, the vet recommended removal of most of her teeth due to severely advanced tooth decay. So, for a while now, she has had only her 4 canines.

Recently, a different vet gave Panther cortisone for her Caleci virus symptom, throwing up. For one of our indoor cats, TigerLily, this treatment has prevented vomiting for nearly 4 months. For Panther, it lasted only 3 weeks. Then, due to repeat office visits for routine shots, I discovered Panther had lost weight. This is likely due to the fact that daily she lost at least one of her meals to vomiting.

The vet showed me the bright red from Caleci at the base of Panther's four teeth. He said that if I had them pulled, it would be likely that the Caleci virus would become less active since it would lose the area where it was thriving. She was not using those teeth anyway since she does not have to rip or tear meat. So I became convinced that it would be good to have them removed. I will be more protective of her now since she has lost four weapons she could have used against the ubiquitous coyote (fortunately, she has all her claws).

Her surgery was 11/13/2009. She is doing quite well now. The vet said she might still throw up for a while. Giving it time, the vomiting should disappear. I remain hopeful.

I got the total price for her surgery reduced from $480.00 to $275.00. Yippee!

Currently, my personal finances are quite taxed, several major expenses hitting me all at once. If anyone reading this feels like contributing to Panther's fund, it would help me keep going with this homeless cat care. Anything above the $275. which I receive goes into a savings fund which is exclusively for the medical expenses for our feral/abandoned ones. I never use that fund for my two indoor kitties.

There is a PayPal button in the panel at the right of this post.

Another reason why I posted many details of Panther's health crisis is that I hope it can be of help to anyone reading this who cares for outdoor cats. Without a competant vet, the red at the base of a cat's teeth could be misdiagnosed as tooth decay. The vet says that sometimes cats get the Caleci virus from their mothers. And it is contageous among cats. I believe a cat can be vaccinated against Caleci with one of the routine cat vaccinations. But it's too late for that with Panther.

Here are some links if you want to read about the Caleci virus

http://www.cfa.org/articles/health/calici.html

http://www.cat-health-guide.org/feline-calici-virus.html

And if you are willing please help me by copying my blog link and sending it to your cat loving friends who might not be in the cat blogosphere -

http://homelesscatcare.blogspot.com/


Thanks so much for reading this,


Debby


DTConsult@cableone.net