Question:
My beautiful, intelligent 15-year-old Siamese cat had terrible breath and cried while eating.I brought him to the vet to have his mouth checked out. I thought he might have a cavity. The vet checked the teeth and gums, found them OK and proceeded to order some very expensive tests. The cat had damage to one kidney, and I started to inject water and give him appetite pills.He cried all the time, and after two months and asking the vet many times to put the cat to sleep, I insisted on euthanasia. After he died, I opened his mouth and saw a huge tumor under his tongue.To this day, I am grief-stricken for the suffering I put this animal through and am furious with the vet. Please advise your readers to look for tongue tumors if the breath is bad in older cats. Apparently, this is too simple for many vets to diagnose.
L.K.F., Hollywood, FL Jan 14, 2007
Answer:
I share your anguish over your cat's suffering. That a thorough examination of his mouth was never performed is a tragic oversight. The fact that your cat cried while eating and, therefore, was experiencing pain in the mouth or jaws, called for a very careful examination. Even tranquilizing the cat to facilitate close inspection of the mouth would have been advisable.To err is human, and both human and animal doctors do make mistakes. Your letter may help alert cat owners and veterinarians to the possibility of mouth cancer or a foreign body stuck under a cat's tongue or at the back of the throat that makes cats cry when they eat.
Subscribe