My Poor Lu

When Luigi had his dental surgery last week a piece of the gum the vet cut off was sent to a lab to be analyzed. The vet called me with the results today. Luckily, no cancer. However, they are not sure exactly what is going on. It could be one of two conditions - neither of which I can pronounce. I asked the assistants to write them down when I went in this afternoon, but they said they would be on the receipt printout. I didn't notice until they were closed that they are not on the printout so I will be making a call tomorrow so I can do some more research on what might be going on in Lu's mouth.

The analysis of his gum showed more neutrofills than stomas which the vet said is good. This leads her to believe he probably has the lesser of the two conditions and if that is what is going on, he has hyperactive gum growth due to a reaction to tartar on his teeth. Luigi doesn't have very much tartar buildup on his teeth, but the vet said even a little can set off this condition. If that is what it turns out to be Luigi will likely have to have the dental procedure he had done last week done at least once a year.

The gum analysis did show some presence of stomas - at least that is what I think the vet said. This could indicate the more severe condition in which the vet said the only remedy to keep it under control is to extract all his teeth. This totally freaks me out because my Lu cannot keep that soft cat food down. So what happens if he has no teeth and can't chew his food? I asked the vet this and she basically told me it's not time to freak out yet. We are going to treat him with regular teeth cleanings with some kind of dental gel I picked up this afternoon and a special food that scrapes the teeth to remove tartar.

As long as his gums stay under control Luigi doesn't have to go back to the vet for 4 months. We have an appointment in November to have his gums and teeth looked at again and can determine at that time if another gum analysis is needed or if the teeth cleaning and special food is working. Wish my Lu luck with his itty bitty teethies!