Any experience with interferon treatment for feline stomatitis/faucitis?

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pah41071@yahoo.com - 20 Nov 2006 09:01 GMT

Hi all,

I am currently fostering a six-year old siamese cat with mild
gingivitis and severe stomatits + faucitis. Has never received any
treatment including vaccinations from his former owners, so we are
starting at scratch here but are assuming calicivirus as the primary
cause.

He is currently on Baytril as he also has pneumonia and will be put on
Antirobe five days after he is off the Baytril. He is scheduled for a
dental (tartar removal plus extraction of bad teeth plus possibly
extraction of teeth with odontoclastic resorption lesions) plus
sub-gingival injection of interferon in early December.

Does anyone have experience with
1. benefit of extracting teeth with odontoclastic lesions and
2. interferon treatment for stomatitis?

Thanks!

Petra

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Phil P. - 20 Nov 2006 12:19 GMT

> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Does anyone have experience with
> 1. benefit of extracting teeth with odontoclastic lesions and

Stage 1 can usually be treated with fluoride varnish and some sage 2 can be
filled. If the lesions are stage 3 or higher, the only treatment that I've
ever seen to be effective is extraction. I think its a good idea to pull
the teeth before they reach stage 4 or 5 because when they reach that point
the teeth become brittle and break easy- makes getting the whole tooth and
root out more difficult.

I read somewhere that Fosamax is supposed to slow or stop or even reverse
the progression- but I haven't seen any documented evidence to support the
claim in any vet journals or texts.

Personally, I think extraction is the best choice. Steroid therapy will
probably help initially by reducing inflammation, but you'll need to keep
increasing the dose as the teeth get worse until the steroids no longer
work. Then you'll probably end up pulling the teeth anyway- but at that
point the cat will probably have developed diabetes and his immune system
will be shot. I'd save the cat a lot of pain and stress and just pull the
teeth.

> 2. interferon treatment for stomatitis?

I didn't have any luck with interferon- but that doesn't mean you shouldn't
try it- You might have better luck- Please let me know if you do.

Just curious- I know you suspect FCV but was the cat tested for FIV/FeLV and
Bart? You might want try Zithro before the clindamycin.

Btw, what happened with the 50 cats you pulled from the hoarder awhile back?

Good luck,

Phil

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pah41071@yahoo.com - 20 Nov 2006 13:49 GMT

> > Does anyone have experience with
> > 1. benefit of extracting teeth with odontoclastic lesions and
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>
> Phil

Hi Phil,

Tinin tested negative for FIV/FelV but was not tested for Bartonellae.
I personally wanted to use azithromycin but I have moved to Germany and
the vets here were adamant about using clindamycin :-( My preference
would still be to switch him to zithro post surgery, I just think vets
here are not as familiar with it.

Reason we want to try the interferon is that he is not responding well
to steroids, and it is anyways something I wouldn't want to do long
term for the reasons you mentioned above. We want to try to save all
healthy teeth in the first round - primarily due to the fact that we
want to keep surgery short as he is extremely emaciated (he only weighs
6.6lbs). The vets here are extremely positive about the interferon
treatment so I thought I'd ask around.

I ended up pulling almost 80 cats out of the household, with the
shelter taking another 40. Out of my 80, about twenty were eventually
taken and placed by other rescues after I had them fixed and
vaccinated. I had to put ten of them down as we simply could not get
them to recover from the severe malnourishment plus anaemia they
suffered. Twelve (most of the older cats plus four extremely shy ones)
went back to original owners after the house was cleared by city health
and the cats were fixed and healthy. Five are still at the rescue I was
a part of back in the US, they were too shy to be adopted during the
summer and should go up for adoption between now and February, before
kitten season hits again. The rest was placed :-)))) and from the
follow-up everyone is doing fine!

Petra

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