Hi,

I adopted a cat this week.  His previous owner had him for four years.
He's five years old now.

I took him to the vet for a complete checkup and he said the cat has
gingivitis.  He showed the gums to me.  He said luckily it wasn't too
bad, with only the very edge of the gums affected.  He gave me an
antibiotic to give him but said it was very hard to cure gingivitis
permanently and if the cat ever has trouble eating he would either need
to go on a regime of antibiotics and steroid injections or have his
teeth pulled.

This cat has strictly been an inside cat and has no contact with other
cats for at least four years which ruled out feline leukemia.  Besides
he is up-to-date on all vaccines.

I had the vet listen VERY carefully for a heart murmur because my last
cat died from that.  He said his heart sounded fine.

Anyway I was wondering if there was something I could do to minimize
the chance that this will get serious.  The vet didn't seem to think
so.

What about food?  Does it matter if I give him dry food?  I prefer it
because it seems to leave much less tartar on the teeth.

Poor cat is feeling pretty low today - no doubt from yesterday's
vaccines or maybe the antiobiotic, but before that he was just fine.
I'd like to keep him that way.

Thanks