Suggestions on treatment for stomatitis

Our question this week was:

One of my “babies”, one of my longhaired babies, has stomatitis and that can get to be expensive. And yes, I know it can be fatal because of complication of the medications. Dr. Debra, do you have any suggestions for me and my Vet? We are both at our wits end. He can’t seem to find anyone who has any GOOD answers — do you? If you do I would surely love to have you email me!! I pay my vet bills and sometimes don’t pay something else!

Gretchen Froehler – Austin, Texas

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email. You wrote that you kitty has stomatitis. As you may know (I’ll paste some information from our article on Petplace on stomatitis),

Stomatitis has many definitions and presentations. It is essentially a chronic, debilitating bacterial infection and inflammation of the oral tissues that usually begins in the periodontium, which is the soft tissue surrounding the teeth (the gums) or facial area (the oropharyngeal area). Other names include lymphocytic – plasmacytic stomatitis complex and recurrent, severe periodontal disease.

An article that might be helpful to you is on our Petplace.com is “Stomatitis in Cats“. There are some new treatments with laser and I’m not sure what all you and your vet have done. You could always discuss the possible benefits of seeing a specialist in your area.

Best of luck!

Dr. Debra

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