Well, both Georgie and Richie ended up visiting our local, friendly, neighborhood vet this week.
Georgie had the lump on his back, which turned out to be a sebaceous cyst. The doc said it shouldn’t be a problem. Usually dogs get them, they’re fairly rare in cats. (Remember Buddog had a big one on his leg, that eventually affected his walking?) George checked out fine otherwise.
Richie, though, Richie has had the most obnoxious breath. I complained about it last month to Brian and he said he liked it. Ish. Looking in Richie’s mouth, it was very red around his gums, so I made the appointment for him.
Richie has gingivitis/stomatitis. The vet said we were lucky it was caught early, because usually owners don’t even know there’s a problem until the problem is much further along and the cat ends up losing teeth. What happens is the body’s immune system sees the normal bacteria and tartar around the teeth and starts working overtime to get rid of it. The vet said Richie’s nasty breath is known as “blood breath”. He showed me how easily Richie’s gums bleed. Poor cat.
Richie is now on antirobe and prednisone for two weeks and next week, he goes in for a dental. But the vet said we should be able to control it, well, get rid of it altogether and that it shouldn’t be a problem after this.