What have we done? Cats, 6; Tsu and Ivan, 2

[Math Is Hard]

Isaac should be a LOLcat!

 

[GeorginaS]

Hee! I've not seen a cat sleeping with their tongue hanging all the way out. The tip sticking out a bit, sure. But this? This is special. Isaac must be so entirely comfortable he can relax as far as a being can relax. He's lovely.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

LOL! That's so cute with his tongue hanging out. He looks all tuckered out from something. I like his color too...a nice light blonde.

That picture was taking soon after his teeth were all pulled. His tongue hung out a lot for a time.

He is an absolutely wonderful cat. He is extremely affectionate and almost always playful. Also, he never digs in the claws. He has rather large feet and could do some real damage, but he has never once scratched Tsu or I or gotten mean with any of the other cats. Strangely enough, he has actually helped to reduce the tension between other cats that don't get along well. It seems to be a result of his endless good nature.

 

[Moonbear]

That's great that he's such a sweetie and gets along with everyone. With 6 cats, you sure don't need kitty wars. Of course, he has to be nice...he doesn't have any teeth left to defend himself!

 

[lisab]

Wow, I've never heard of that...why did he have to get all his teeth out?

 

[OAQfirst]

Tongue out while sleeping. My dad does that once in a while. That's when I get out my stick and poke him.

 

[lisab]

Tongue out while sleeping. My dad does that once in a while. That's when I get out my stick and poke him.

On the tongue?

 

[junglebeast]

When I was young boy my dad and I were going on a long car trip to the cabin in the night, and we spotted something alongside the road...out in the middle of nowhere (nothing but forest). My dad was curious so he pulled over. It turned out to be a cute little gray kitten. For some reason we decided to take it in.

The first thing it did was squirt diarrhea all over the blanket in the car. This became more of an annoyance later on because we tried using the blanket to lay under the stars later that evening but kept finding smelly little wet spots on it.

Later that week, I went to the fair and caught a greased pig in my bare hands. Of course this meant I got to keep it, too. You can imagine my mother's surprise when my dad returned me to my mom's residence with a pig and a stray cat, haha.

We ended up finding a nice home for the cat, a friend of my mother's who had a big dog that used to be friends with her old cat that recently died. Incidentally, while we were there, I happened to be digging around in the dirt behind her house and found a pretty cool blue bottle. They also thought it was neat, and she wanted to keep it -- "but you can keep the next thing you find!", she jested.

I did not think it was funny, so I went back to digging. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later I found a silver pocket watch, nicely engraved with fine etchings all over it's surface, and what appeared to be a tiny ruby inset on the interior (although that part, I'm not sure of). Well, she grudgingly obliged to keep her promise :)

The cat turned out to become great friends with her dog, and everyone lived happily ever after, except that I grew up to abhor the responsibility of pets, and I lost the pocket watch...although I think it was actually stolen by a friend of mine.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wow, I've never heard of that...why did he have to get all his teeth out?

When he showed up at our house he had a terrible infection in his mouth and most of his teeth were partly black. Apparently he is allergic to his own teeth. This happens to both cats and dogs, and surprisingly they do fine with no teeth. They can even eat the hard kibble.

Btw Moonbear, he is actually the dominant cat around here. But he never gets nasty, he just chases everyone wanting them to play. If they don't want to play, they can't get rid of him and they are apparently intimidated by his size. I think he may have run off the last of the skunks as well. I haven't seen any for a couple of weeks.

 

[lisab]

When I was young boy my dad and I were going on a long car trip to the cabin in the night, and we spotted something alongside the road...out in the middle of nowhere (nothing but forest). My dad was curious so he pulled over. It turned out to be a cute little gray kitten. For some reason we decided to take it in.

The first thing it did was squirt diarrhea all over the blanket in the car. This became more of an annoyance later on because we tried using the blanket to lay under the stars later that evening but kept finding smelly little wet spots on it.

Later that week, I went to the fair and caught a greased pig in my bare hands. Of course this meant I got to keep it, too. You can imagine my mother's surprise when my dad returned me to my mom's residence with a pig and a stray cat, haha.

We ended up finding a nice home for the cat, a friend of my mother's who had a big dog that used to be friends with her old cat that recently died. Incidentally, while we were there, I happened to be digging around in the dirt behind her house and found a pretty cool blue bottle. They also thought it was neat, and she wanted to keep it -- "but you can keep the next thing you find!", she jested.

I did not think it was funny, so I went back to digging. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later I found a silver pocket watch, nicely engraved with fine etchings all over it's surface, and what appeared to be a tiny ruby inset on the interior (although that part, I'm not sure of). Well, she grudgingly obliged to keep her promise :)

The cat turned out to become great friends with her dog, and everyone lived happily ever after, except that I grew up to abhor the responsibility of pets, and I lost the pocket watch...although I think it was actually stolen by a friend of mine.

Wow.

Wait a minute...what happened to the pig?

 

[hypatia]

Great kitty photo, he is really a great looking cat.

 

[junglebeast]

Wow.

Wait a minute...what happened to the pig?

What do you think happened to the pig?

 

[lisab]

What do you think happened to the pig?

Pork chops?

 

[junglebeast]

Pork chops?

Hehehe... not really though. I honestly can't remember, but we didn't eat him. Someone else probably did, though.

 

[physics girl phd]

... cats and dogs... surprisingly they do fine with no teeth. They can even eat the hard kibble.

I'm not surprised... when I try to give Cha-Cha hard "tartar-control" treats, she mostly scarfs them down without chewing unless I feed them one by one (in which case I'm still lucky if I hear one crunch).

And Isaac certainly is cute with that tongue hanging out!

 

[Moonbear]

Allergic to his own teeth? Hmm...I've learned something new. I've never heard of that one before. I would have just assumed it was cavities that eventually led to abcesses from neglect and then rotted out the rest of the teeth from the roots up.

And, yeah, physics girl, I have my same doubts about those tartar control treats doing anything (Ember has decided she doesn't really like them anyway, and only bats them around the floor rather than eating them now). The one dry food I feed her is large enough pieces that she has to do a bit of crunching to swallow it (and when my parents visited with their dog a couple of years ago, she loved crunching the big dog food pieces...maybe I should give her a little dog food once in a while just for her teeth), but the smaller Science Diet food that is her primary food, I'm pretty sure she swallows whole. She might give it one crunch before swallowing, but that's it. I've gotten verification that she swallows it whole when she vomited soon enough after eating and all the individual pieces of food were still identifiable, just swollen larger with the stomach juices.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Allergic to his own teeth?

I had never heard of it before either, but apparently it is fairly common. Sometimes cortisone shots will control the problem, but in his case it was too severe. Tsu's cousin has a dog that had the same problem.

They said that we still may have to get him an occasional cortisone shot, which we just did due to some minor inflamation in his gums. But he doesn't seem to mind the shot and should only need a few a year.

 

[Tsu]

It's called stomatitis. This explains it well.

http://www.petplace.com/cats/stomatitis-in-cats/page1.aspx

 

[Moonbear]

It's called stomatitis. This explains it well.

http://www.petplace.com/cats/stomatitis-in-cats/page1.aspx

I'm glad the healthcare professional in the family finally joined the discussion. A chronic bacterial infection is a long way off from an allergy to one's own teeth!

Now I'm going to have to find out if stomatitis is different from gingivitis. Bottom line, brush the cats' and dogs' teethies! (Ember absolutely hates getting her teeth brushed, and I don't do it as often as I should...it's always a lot of work, because I have to clip her nails first, which she also hates because it involves being held still, and then brushing her teeth...the nail clipping is to avoid injury to myself when she decides she's had enough of a toothbrush in her mouth.)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Eh, the vet specifically referred to it as an allergy. Tsu, where did you get that?

 

[GeorginaS]

My big cat, Frank, came with gingivitis and needed his teeth brushed. He's a pretty easy-going guy if you play things his way. He had a few back teeth that were especially bad that needed a gum scrub daily. He sat patiently on the kitchen counter while I got out the little toothbrush and the fish-flavoured toothpaste. Wow did he love that toothpaste. He wouldn't tolerate teeth brushing until I'd let him lick most of the toothpaste off of the brush. There was generally enough left behind to help lubricate the brushing, but he wouldn't tolerate it unless I did it his way.

And, years ago my vet pointed out to me that it was nonsense that hard food helped clean cats' teeth for precisely the reason that's been mentioned here. They'll either crunch it once or swallow it whole. Cat's don't chew a whole bunch. And they aren't like dogs who can get a good tooth scrubbing by gnawing on a bone.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This seems to shed a bit of light on things.

... Feline Stomatitis is a very serious form of dental disease in cats. This is usually seen as an autoimmune disease and is most commonly found in cats that already suffer from more serious health issues. Stomatitis is caused when the body rejects and becomes allergic to the plaque on the teeth. Sometimes it can spread into the throat causing painful red lesions. When a cat has stomatitis, it will become very uncomfortable and may stop eating. You should seek the advice of your veterinarian right away...

http://www.fullpetential.com/cat-edu/dental-care.htm

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My big cat, Frank, came with gingivitis and needed his teeth brushed. He's a pretty easy-going guy if you play things his way. He had a few back teeth that were especially bad that needed a gum scrub daily. He sat patiently on the kitchen counter while I got out the little toothbrush and the fish-flavoured toothpaste. Wow did he love that toothpaste. He wouldn't tolerate teeth brushing until I'd let him lick most of the toothpaste off of the brush. There was generally enough left behind to help lubricate the brushing, but he wouldn't tolerate it unless I did it his way.

We've especially had difficulty in getting ours to gargle. They really don't like Listerine.

 

[Moonbear]

...but he wouldn't tolerate it unless I did it his way.

And I wonder why my boyfriend keeps comparing me to cats.

 

[Tsu]

Eh, the vet specifically referred to it as an allergy. Tsu, where did you get that?

Um... I got it from here?

http://www.petplace.com/cats/stomatitis-in-cats/page1.aspx

But, you're right, dear (of course). This statement of Moonbear's does describe it better...

"Stomatitis is caused when the body rejects and becomes allergic to the plaque on the teeth."

 

[Ivan Seeking]

But, you're right, dear (of course). This statement of Moonbear's does describe it better...

"Stomatitis is caused when the body rejects and becomes allergic to the plaque on the teeth."

You mean my quote.

I was asking where you got the name. I didn't know what it was properly called.

 

[Tsu]

You mean my quote.

I was asking where you got the name. I didn't know what it was properly called.

Ah. Google is my friend. So is our Vet.

 

[Moonbear]

But, you're right, dear (of course). This statement of Moonbear's does describe it better...

You mean my quote.

You don't even get credit when you do find the right thing.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

You don't even get credit when you do find the right thing.

Yeah, no matter what it is, I just assume I'm guilty unless told otherwise.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Made me think of baby Bun:

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/funny-pictures-kitten-is-evil.jpg