Tooth Resorption ed. Siamese/Abyssian/Himalayan issue?

So Bandit had a check-up yesterday with the vet, and as I suspected, two of his four remaining teeth need to be extracted because of tooth resorption again. Poor guy is only going to have his lower canines left after this dental. :sad:

I wonder how long until we'll have to pull those ones, too. Anyone else have a cat with resorption issues (that's not caused by periodontal disease) that didn't eventually end up losing all their teeth? Did brushing or any other preventive measures make any difference? He's only 10.

 

Re: Tooth Resorption issues

One of my civies, Kaleigh, lost a lower premolar to FORL 1.5 years ago, and hasn't yet had any more issues. She just turned 9, and aside from that, her teeth have been amazing. They haven't had any tartar or calculus buildup really. I think a lot of it (assuming the cat doesn't have periodontal disease) is just the individual cat's predisposition to it. Does Bandit have any underlying medical issues that may be playing a factor? I know chronic calici virus can cause severe dental issues, for instance.

 

Re: Tooth Resorption issues

No other health concerns as far as we know, just diabetes. He did have triaditis a few years back, but his teeth were fine then. His teeth were fine until he was 8, and then all of a sudden nearly all of them started to resorb at once. We discovered his diabetes when he went in for pre-dental bloodwork. That's how he ended up with 4 left. He had a dental last year but I have been lax in brushing his teeth, so I don't know if periodontal disease can be ruled out completely, but it seems unlikely that it would get bad enough to cause resorption so soon.

I've never heard of chronic calici virus before. Is there a specific test that needs to be run for it outside of a regular blood panel? He has none of the other symptoms listed for it on Felipedia.

 

Re: Tooth Resorption issues

Well, I found an article that I think will be informative on the subject, but I can't access it online through my university account. :-(
I've sent a request through inter-library loan but who knows how long it will take to reach me. Maybe I'll run up to Cornell if I have time this weekend and get it.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1455579

It seems to suggest (I really wish I could read the article), that it might be an issue with Bandit's breed. So a further question would be do any other short-hair Asian cat owners have a problem with chronic tooth resorption? Was there anything you could do?

I really want him to keep his lower canines, as they'll be his last teeth left. Losing the molars don't seem to bother me so much but I cried when he lost his upper canines. No more vampire kitty poses.

 

My family and I have always had Siamese- most lived to age 15+ and NONE have ever had issues with FORLS. So don't know about a breed thing, as we have had around 14 Siamese total over the past 30 yrs....

 

my purebred cats (Manx) have worse teeth than my DSH mixed breed rescue cats.

So I would suspect inbreeding or genetic weakness plays a big role.

 

Chronic calici virus is similar to herpes virus. It's another very common respiratory virus. Most cats don't have any problems with it, but some will develop chronic symptoms (watery eyes, etc.). I'm not aware of any blood test for it - it's typically diagnosed based on symptoms, medical history, and background. For instance, a rescue cat from a shelter will almost certainly have been exposed to calici (and herpes), while a cat from a breeder may not have. We recently had two groups of cats come into the shelter I work at from hoarding situations. All the cats were young (1-3 years), and all had major dental issues already (gingivitis and most/all of the incisors gone) due to calici virus. However, if Bandit has been healthy, I wouldn't suspect calici virus or anything similar to that. I'd lean more toward genetics/predisposition. I know Himalayans are prone to dental mal-occlusions (where the teeth don't meet properly, leading to more rapid buildup of plaque and tartar), but I don't know if that plays any factor into FORLs. This link (http://vmth.tamu.edu/hospservices/dentistry/FORL.shtml) indicates that purebreds are the most susceptible, with Siamese and Persians having the highest incidence.

 

Re: Tooth Resorption FIXED LINK

Yes those breeds are more prone to them however almost any cat can get FORLs and there is no known reason. My Janeway has Chronic Gingivitis but no FORLs, Merlyn had FORLs, Carly had/has FORLs, and Conor who had no history of them in the past had them this last dental. Once they have them it seems it keeps occurring. I know there is rumor that early exposure to Calici virus might make a cat more likely to get stomatitis later but havent heard that about FORLs.

Merlyns teeth and FORL was much better after switching him to canned food for the diabetes but that does not mean a cat wont get them on canned food.

http://www.petsmile.org/owners/dental_disease/forls.html
http://www.veterinarydental.com/veterinarians/forls.php

 

According to the last link provided (the other two didn't work, unfortunately),

"Data presented at the Veterinary Dental Forum November, 2003 showed that if a cat has one clinical or radiographic resorptive lesion, the unaffected teeth show histologic changes of early resorption. Therefore, we can assume that all teeth are affected by resorption in those cats. We will want to monitor these cats carefully for progression of resorption and treat those lesions as they enter the oral cavity when they become painful."

If I'm reading this right I guess his lower canines are going to be goners at some point, too. :sad:

 

One of my cats has only one fang left - and just a few other teeth. He gets along fine - I just make sure any treats are small enough to be swallowed. (chopping up chicken breast or ...)