Sophia's dental drama

Given the sheer number of critters here, I have no choice but to spend a great deal of both time and money with our local vets. Mostly it's the dogs that are frequent patients, but occasionally it's the cats too. When my cats get sick, they seem to get really sick! No fooling around with just being a bit under the weather for this clowder.

Sweet Sophia has had dental problems since I met her almost two years ago; in that time she's had three major dental surgeries. The last one was done on February 13 and left little Sophia with just two teeth in her entire head, her lower fangs. Why just have a couple bad teeth when you can have stomatitis that affects your entire mouth?

Sophia has recovered well from her previous dental procedures, but not this one. She wouldn't eat; she wouldn't move; she didn't purr; she didn't groom; she had terrible diaherra and drooled like a St. Bernard! Over the course of the past two weeks, three different vets have cared for Sophia, all at Alpine Vet. She's had bloodwork, tests, fluids and multiple medications. One of the docs was even brought home medication for her after hours last Friday night, saving us another stressful trip to the clinic. Nothing worked for long though; Sophia would show improvement for brief periods and then crash again. . She was miserable! I was deeply afraid that I would have to let her go far sooner than expected. I don't know how old Sophia is, but she's likely between 8 and 10. Really not that old for an indoor kitty.

Occasionally she would eat a bit a salmon, but not nearly enough and she wouldn't even look at cat food. Sophia is my little fat cat; she doesn't miss many meals.

A second round of bloodwork on Tuesday showed that every cell that can be inflammed in Sophia's body is severely inflammed. Perhaps the stress of surgery triggered it; maybe whatever causes the problems in her mouth spread to the rest of her body, but in any case, she just couldn't fight it on her own. Sophia started on prednisone Wednesday afternoon. I've never given pred to a cat before, although several of the dogs have taken it at one time or another. Sleet takes a form of it for her allergies every year and her symptoms stop within a couple hours of her 'roid shot.

Sophia's response that almost as fast as Sleet's. By Thursday morning, she was eating. By Thursday night she was grooming and purring. Today, she's not quite back to normal, but she's 100% better than she was 48 hours ago! Now if the inflammation will just stay gone when she goes off the prednisone!