allaboutannie-blog1

[allaboutannie-blog1]

The day Annie lost her teeth

On Sept 17, 2015, after several years of dealing with nagging oral inflammation, our beloved cat, Annie, was diagnosed with feline stomatitis.  After consulting with several veterinarians and finally a veterinary oral surgeon, it was recommended that Annie undergo surgery to extract ALL of her teeth.

Symptoms of feline stomatitis:  Annie’s fragile body is hypersensitive to infection.  In the mouth, this causes Annie’s immune system to attack the plaque that builds up on her teeth.  This leads to inflammation of the gums followed by secondary bacterial infection of the inflamed tissue leading to further exacerbation of the inflammation to the point where it becomes unbearable to chew.  Over time, tooth resorption often sets in (tooth destruction).  And to top things off, the inflammation often migrates to the back corner of the jaw and throat (caudal mucositis) which then makes it too painful to swallow.  All of this leads to extreme pain, loss of appetite, dramatic weight loss, lethargy, starvation and eventual death if left untreated. 

Ever since Annie was a kitten her immune system began attacking the plaque on her teeth.  The first time she ever went to the Vet, they already noticed that her gums were slightly inflamed.  By the time she was just 1 and a half years old, she already exhibited heavy plaque build-up and inflammation and required her first dental cleaning to remove the plaque build-up.  But less than a year later, the plaque had already built up again with worsening inflammation.  And less than another year later, Annie required her first tooth extraction.

This disease is confusing, frustrating and frightening.  I was a veterinary assistant for several years during and just after college, but had never heard of this disease before.  My first personal frustration with Annie’s situation is that we visited at least 8 different veterinarians, including veterinarians at Washington DC’s most revered veterinary hospitals over the course of 3 years before she was finally diagnosed with feline stomatitis.  Most of the vets “shrugged” her condition off as mere chronic gingivitis.  But after her eventual diagnosis, my internet research suggested that feline stomatitis is not such a rare disease in cats.  So why did it take so long to diagnose and why were so many veterinarians so clueless about it?  Further, despite the apparent large number of cases, there is still no known cure and it continues to be a mysterious and poorly understood condition.

Adding to my frustration is that there are many opinions and courses of treatments available and offered by veterinarians, each with varying levels of success and failure, but none of which have a 100% success rate.  Annie has tried nearly all of the available treatments, but continues to be affected.

The good news for Annie is that a year after her big surgery, she is alive and well, happy, and for the most part comfortable.  In fact, I am happy to report that at the time of this posting, Annie is the happiest and most comfortable she has been since she was a kitten.  But Annie’s journey is not over yet and we continue to manage this strange disease and I can only pray that her current wellness is long lasting.  Many cats spend their entire lives in a constant battle against this condition.  

I decided to start this blog because Annie has been through too much for this not to be documented in some way.  She has responded well to her treatment and I wanted to share both her successes and pains. Annie is awesome.  Expect many more postings on her daily antics, annoyances, and just how awesome she is.  I also wanted to offer support to others that may be dealing with this.  When the dental surgeon told me that removing all of Annie’s teeth was the best hope for her long-term survival, I felt the world on my shoulders and I felt utterly alone with such a drastic decision to make. You are not alone.

Welcome to “All About Annie.”