Twinkie had just a touch of gingivitis when I adopted him, and his teeth were moderately yellow. A few months of daily tooth-brushing cleaned up the teeth very nicely (except for a couple small permanent stains) and completely eliminated the gingivitis.

 

Moving this to Health and Nutrition :wink:

 

Tim, how did you get the cats used to having their teeth brushed? Do you use a little brush or a finger brush? I'd like to start doing this and I assume that eventually they'll get used to it and tolerated it but I'm a bit at a loss on how to ease them into it and yet retain all my fingers .

Thanks
Kel

 

Kel -

here's a couple good articles:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... icleid=383
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=56

the main thing most people do wrong is to try to go too fast:

http://www.catforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=12534

 

Thanks for the links and advice

 

You're welcome. Good luck with your kitty. :wink:

 

thanks for the info but dont think brushing her teeth will be an option as she was too abused when I got her & its taken 18 months to win her around to grooming & to understand that nobody was going to hurt her any more.
Someone did mention to me today that she could have a kidney problem as that would cause the gingivitus???

 

Actually, it's just the other way around. :wink:

 

Bubby's doctor gave me something called Nolvadent. It's a oral cleansing Solution. Because his teeth are so bad, he can't get them cleaned until we get his diabetes under control. We haven't tried it on him yet.

 

well this is still getting confusing as I said at the start Pandora has good healthy teeth, what ever it is,is attatacking her gums?????

 

I don't know what you mean by "healthy teeth." Did a vet tell you that are is that your own estimate? Teeth can look fine, but if they have a layer of plaque under the gums, then gingivitis results.

Also, there's a related illness called stomatitis which starts in the gums and ends up involving the teeth, and that can affect a cat with "healthy teeth" because it's more of a genetic predisposition.

 

thank you coaster, yes the vet said she had healthy teeth & is looking for something else that can be causing the gingivitus. I posted on here on the hopes thst someone could come up with something while I am monitoring her, the vet did show me her mouth & I can say her teeth looked really good so any other info I will apprecaite

 

Perhaps you should look into stomatitis. Here's a couple links:

http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/health/gingivitis.html
http://www.vetinfo.com/cstomatitis.html
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?articleid=368

 

thank you Coaster,
very interesting & helpful, think its going to work out little Pandora has the stomatitis but I will continue to monitor & record all the info for the vet.She has another 2 days of antibiotics to take then I'm suppose to watch & take her back to the vet when it re-appears