Teething Kittens

[Perseus]

I have to admit I never knew kittens go through a "teething" process like human babies do, until my two 5 month old kittens (litter mates) just experienced this. 

I had the male kitten neutered last Friday, and everything seemed to go just perfect.  However, starting on Saturday he stopped eating.  By Sunday he still wasn't eating and was definitely acting nauseated.  We made a trip to the vet on Sunday and Monday, where he was given a shot of Cerenia for the nausea and an appetite stimulant, Mirtazapine.  The vet really thought it was a reaction to the anesthesia.

Then on Sunday the female kitten stopped eating, with the same symptoms of being a little listless and nauseated.  So to the vet for the same treatment for two days in a row, only with her the vet saw that she was teething and her molars were coming through.

Both of their symptoms were being listless, no appetite, extremely bad breath (which they never had), vomitting, diarrhea and grinding their teeth.  I racked my brain trying to figure out what they had, was it a bug, a reaction to their vaccines from 2.5 weeks ago, new toys that may be dangerous, etc.

Only after the vet mentioned the teething and I did some research that I realized this was the cause of their problems!  There's actually a lot of good info on the Internet on kittens teething and I'm surprised that after 15+ cats in 25 years I never noticed this before.  But, we've only had two kittens before these two to date, all the rest were rescued strays and ferals!

As of today, the kittens are eating great, no more nausea, no other symptoms and are back to being terrors around the house.  I just wanted to post this for any other "new parents" because quite frankly I was freaking out (ask Bonkers...) over this until the dilemma was solved!

[Bonkers]

   "Freaking out" is putting it mildly! She was so desperate for them to eat that she broke down and actually offered them some kibble!!   But I am happy to say that kitties are back to normal and hopefully so is Perseus. 

[Perseus]

   "She was so desperate for them to eat that she broke down and actually offered them some kibble!!

Ha-Ha-Ha, yes, I admit it, I actually offered them some of the bad, bad, bad kibble!
Funny thing is, as soon as the pieces of kibble hit the dish and my 9 YO male (the former kibble addict that hasn't had any for a year and a half now) heard those familiar sounds, he flew across the room thinking he was going to get some!

[Therese]

Glad to hear your kittens are eating again. Poor little guys.

I hope you got your other one back on the wagon again...no kibble relapses allowed.

[kaffe]

Oh man ---- I didn't know about the nausea stuff, but I do recall that teething pains can get a kitten off his food.  I remember freaking out too when one of my beloved Pezza's kitten fangs fell off!  Prior to that, I never even realized kittens, like human babies, also start with baby teeth!

So glad that Perseus and Athena are now eating OK!  At the wholecathealth group, they recommend aloe vera rubbed on the gums to help soothe teething pains.