Amber to the vet Friday

**jenluckenbach** · 07-29-2004, 05:46 AM

You may recall that Amber has gum problems. We have not determined a cause but she has been taking a steroid to help keep the swelling down. It must have been working fairly well over the last months as she has kept her appetite (the most obvious symptom was an unwillingness to eat her dry food.)

She is about to run out of her medication so I scheduled her recheck for Tomorrow.
Darned good thing I did!
Last evening I heard poor Amber SCREAMING while trying to eat. She must be having a flair up.

I wish her appointment was today, but she can manage canned food with no dry kibble, so we all just have to wait until tomorrow.

I hope we can determine a BETTER solution!

Can't wait to see how much weight she's gained

The medication packed on some POUNDS!

**Killearn Kitties** · 07-29-2004, 06:03 AM

Periodically I wonder how Amber's gums are doing. I'm sorry to hear that she has had a flair up. Wishing you and Amber all best of luck at the vet tomorrow.

**smokey the elder** · 07-29-2004, 09:31 AM

Make sure she doesn't have an infection. Moby had such a bad infection over the winter the vet thought it was a tumor. I hope poor Amber feels better.

Also long term steroids can be hazardous!

**Tubby & Peanut's Mom** · 07-29-2004, 09:45 AM

I'm so sorry to hear her gums are flaring up again - poor kitty.

But maybe it's a good thing because maybe the vet will be able to make a better diagnosis while they're flaring up. I sure hope he finds out what's wrong so poor Amber can eat without pain. Although if she's anything like my two, she won't mind having to eat wet food at all.

Good luck at the white coats sweetie. I sure hope they can find out what's wrong.

**jenluckenbach** · 07-29-2004, 02:56 PM

Originally posted by smokey the elder
Make sure she doesn't have an infection. Moby had such a bad infection over the winter the vet thought it was a tumor. I hope poor Amber feels better.

Also long term steroids can be hazardous!

When she first went in she had inflamation AND infection. On her next checkup there was no infection, just inflamation. She may well be infected again.
We were suppose to be trying to wean her off the steroids, but obviously it is NOT working.
I wish tomorrow were here already.

**Barbara** · 07-29-2004, 03:53 PM

Oh, I hope so much the Amber kitty is ok

**ChrisH** · 07-29-2004, 03:54 PM

Poor baby. Hope the vet comes up with a better solution to clear up whats wrong.

**krazyaboutkatz** · 07-29-2004, 10:28 PM

I'm so sorry to hear that Amber's gums are swollen and sore again.

I sure hope that the vet visit goes well and that your vet can finally diagnose the problem. Good luck and please keep us updated.

**jenluckenbach** · 07-30-2004, 08:03 PM

Poor Amber....she's between a rock and a hard place. We can treat the inflamation with steroids (and risk those side effects) or we can extract her teeth (self-explainitory).

The vet has seen it many times, some cats actually react to their own teeth (an auto-immune factor...that is why they wanted to retest her for the FeLV/FIV as they are also auto-immune dieseases).

When she flairs up, like now, we also use antibiotics. But if we can hold off tooth extraction it is for the best. She said sooner or later we'll be pulling teeth

AND, the steroids put 2 pounds on my little girl! (since December)

Now I need some opinions on a good canned food.

**Killearn Kitties** · 07-31-2004, 04:05 AM

Aww, poor Amber. I'm sorry to hear that this is not going to go away completely.

I'm sure others will know more than me about canned food and some of our food here may be different from the food you get anyway, but I wanted to send scritchies and best wishes to Amber. I hope you manage to control the condition effectively.