Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Here’s our sweet, deaf cat Snowball getting an unwelcome bath with the help of Kathryn.  Snowball has had a recurring case of oral stomatitis, and the strain he has of this infection unfortunately doesn’t respond to antibiotics.  Pulling the teeth has turned out to be the only permanent ‘cure.’  We’ve had three other cats go through this and the oral surgery is the only thing that’s worked. 

Snowball has had two rounds of surgery to remove teeth, and now only has his front canine teeth left.  Our vet said she left those intact because they weren’t infected, and since the canines are directly connected to the jaw bone, trying to remove them when they are healthy could lead to a break in the jawbone itself.  And THAT would be a major medical problem.

After the last surgery he really started to bounce back, but in the last week his mouth has become inflamed again.  Once this happens, cats with stomatitis begin to ooze icky stuff from their mouths, they paw at their faces, and basically it gets all over them.

So this afternoon Kathryn helped me give Snowball a bath.  Bless his little heart, most cats will try to climb right out of the sink and up the wall (or up your face if it’s closer), but not Snowball.  He is so gentle and mellow, he pretty much sat in the sink and rarely even squirmed.  I think he made one half-hearted attempt to get out.

I suspect his stomatitis has finally migrated to his canines, which means they may have to go, too.  We’ll take him back to the vet this coming week and find out what our next step is.

You can read his original story here.

(Click on photo for larger image.)