Dr. Jeff and Dr. Christina,
My 20 year old cat who has kidney disease, and bouts of pancreatitis suddenly started having mouth pain when she was eating and drinking. Upon examination our vet, Dr. Jon Grant of Scaredy Cat Hospital found a lesion on the right side of her mouth which he thought looked like a possible Sarcoma. The biopsy came back negative for that and she has continued to paw at her mouth, tilt her head and struggle to eat even the softest of foods. It's a full week since the biopsy and the vet said the area with the ulceration and where he biopsied is healing nicely, but she is still clearly experiencing pain. She is hungry and looking for food, but when she takes a few licks of even the softest food, like jarred baby food watered down with bone broth, she tilts her head and clearly has discomfort dealing with the food on the right side of her mouth. The vet now thinks perhaps she is experiencing feline orofacial pain syndrome. They have offered me pain killers Buprenex (sublingual) and Gabapentin. I have been giving her homeopathic remedies Arnica and Hypericum 2x a day. The Hypericum seems to be helping more than the Arnica did. She isn't frantically pawing at her mouth or shaking her head, but she does still have a hard time eating. Even drinking water has been difficult and she is mostly drinking off of her paw which she dips in the pet fountain ad then licks the water from there. She is a bit more skittish than her usual self and runs away when I come near her. This is mostly because I have been coming at her with remedies, and syringe feeding her egg yolk mixed with probiotic goat milk! When you leave her lone she eventually does come to you and purrs. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to deal with this problem. Sabrina is a small cat to begin with, but she has gotten down to 5 pounds (usually 7). I do have a 15 minute call with Dr. Jeff on 4/29. Andrea