Hi there:

Otis just got back from having his mouth checked and scraped.  He didn't
have a full dental with anasthetic.

He had had one of those feline occlusion things under the gumline of one of
his teeth and he actually had lost a tooth earlier this year and its
completely healed over!  I had had no idea that he was going through that.
TED said that they are little cavities that happen just under the gumline
and, if they progress far enough, they eat the root of the tooth and the
tooth falls out.  The gum grows over and, as it is in Otis' case, if it
shows no infection and is nice and pink, he's okay.  TED went under the
gumline with his probe and couldn't find any other dents in his teeth that
should be causing anything right now though.  He wants me to bring him back
next week to see how it looks after the inflammation has gone down after the
scraping and poking.

Otis was not a happy cat to go there.  When we were waiting two gigantic
overweight rotties came in.  The owners had them on choke collars and the
dogs were so ill behaved and the owners so tight on the chains that the dogs
could barely breathe.  I swear that one of the dogs was practically 200
pounds.  He was super high at the shoulder and barrel chested and
*massively* obese.  They were both leaking urine just standing there.  Ugh
ugh UGH.  Poor Otis, I moved his cage behind the desk and TED carried it out
for me past the dogs afterwards - told me to pay later so Otis wouldn't have
to deal with these crazy dogs.  I told TED that the dogs were leaking on his
floor and he said that the owners love the dogs so much and that he was very
glad they only came once a year.  It was bad pet ownership.  Shouldn't let
the dogs get that fat and should train them better.  Ugh ugh UGH.  I had to
leave the clinic while Otis was getting scraped because I couldn't stand to
hear the dogs labouring to breathe and to watch them leaking everywhere.

Thanks for all your good thoughts and it looks like Otis might be okay on
the dental front.

Susan M
Otis and Chester