Weight Loss

Cino (and Cino's mother) are worried that he is losing weight despite a hearty appetite. Burmese are more likely than other breeds to develop diabetes so we checked his blood glucose first. It was normal and so were his kidney and liver tests.
Hyperthyroidism is more common in older cats like Cino who turns 12 shortly. However the blood test showed that his thyroid is functioning normally.
Cino occasionally vomits. Because everything else seems normal we will zero in on his intestinal tract. First we will try a diet that will minimise inflammation in his stomach and intestines. If we don't get any response to that we will scan him from top to bottom for abnormalities.
Some cats suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, which may escalate into mild or, less frequently, severe lymphoma. Many of these bowel conditions are treatable and well-managed cats do well.

Douse that fire! - Burning mouth in Burmese

Bonno, a big Burmese boy, burst into the surgery this morning shaking blood all over his carrier. He had pawed and scratched at his tongue so much that he had cut it. His frantic carer told us that this was not the first time she’d seen him licking, chewing and rubbing at his face, but it was the first time he’d drawn blood.

We had a close look at his mouth after we’d sedated him and found that he had erosions in two of his molars (also known as FORLS). We extracted both teeth and scaled and polished the remaining ones.

Because Bonno is Burmese and has had previous episodes of distress we were very suspicious that he has a facial pain syndrome known as feline orofacial pain syndrome or trigeminal neuralgia. In people it is known as burning mouth syndrome and I think this is how it must feel to affected cats, too.

The trigeminal nerve transmits touch and pain from the face and mouth to the brain. In affected cats the trigeminal nerve doesn’t process the sensory input properly. The cats have episodes of distress and seem to recover only to relapse whenever there is a trigger.

 Triggers include dental disease especially FORLS, mouth ulcers, and dental treatment especially extractions.  Stress (as defined by the cat!) is also a common trigger.

We have started Bonno on pain relief after his extractions and an anti-epileptic drug to control the neuralgia. Nobody wants to see him in such a distressed and distressing state again.