StemCell Therapy

We have a neighborhood cat, a big, gray tomcat very friendly who hangs out on our porch with us. He likes to rub his jowls on us, furniture, everything, like most cats do, butwell, he drools. Like, his fur actually becomes wet with it at the corners of his mouth. He sometimes drips saliva onto the porch, which is not something I have ever seen a cat do. Any ideas what might cause that?

Good question! Excessive drooling is called ptyalism. It is a medical condition characterized by the excessive flow of saliva, also referred to as hyper salivation. It can be normal in certain situations like when my children smell breakfast foods cooking on the weekends or when the dogs are eyeballing a cat eating cat food that should rightfully be going to the dog. But in lots of other situations it is a sign of an abnormality, especially in the cat. Remember the phrase, cats rule and dogs drool?

If a cat is drooling, and it is associated with a pleasurable experience like being petted or sitting on their owners lap, then it can be a normal behavioral response to a happy experience and I hope that Tom cat is just happy to be near you. If I was presented with a cat that was drooling I would start with the oral cavity and look for issues there.

Drooling and dental disease go hand in mouth. Inflammation of the gums, stomatitis and gingivitis certainly do cause drooling and pain. Teeth with neck lesions and fractures are also a source of pain and stress internally and would ultimately produce salivation.

In cats we see oral tumors on the jaws and all over the tongue. These act as a foreign body in the mouth and the automatic response to anything that is not supposed to be in the mouth is to produce drool to either swallow it or flush it away. On occasion we will see real foreign bodies, like sticks or even bones from recent hunting adventures, lodged in the mouth that will cause this behavior.

Going lower down the GI tract, gastrointestinal issues can cause a cat to drool. This is especially true if they have nausea due to inflammatory bowel disease or even esophageal reflux and the result is pain in their lower esophagus.

These cats do well with Pepcid and feeding at night more than feeding in the morning. I know this is not an option in Toms case since he is a roaming neighborhood cat, but if someone kind decides to take him in and love him forever, it could helphint, hint.

Then there is a whole group of weird issues which could make cats drool. In veterinary medicine we call theses Zebras. It comes from the lesson they taught us in veterinary school, When you hear hooves galloping, look for the horse, not the zebras.

Zebras in this case must include of course, rabies. We still have rabies in West Virginia and Tom may not have been vaccinated. Rabies is a fatal disease so that is probably not the case, but it is a rule out.

Toxin exposure could cause oral ulceration and could be a cause. I read a story about a cat sleeping on insulation and the fiberglass he inhaled caused ulceration and oral trauma resulting in drooling. Most chemicals can have the same effect on the cat.

There is a condition called a portosystemic shunt that we see in veterinary medicine in both dogs and cats that can result in drooling abnormally. This is a congenital condition where the major blood vessels running through the liver flow abnormally. Shunts are only diagnosed definitively with dye studies and advanced imaging. Shunt animals can drool and have seizures, too.

Simple blood tests will give you a clue that this is the case and a referral to a veterinary school will diagnose the issue, which is 100% curable with surgery.

Lastly, in a situation such as Tom is in, stress also can be a trigger. I see this in my patients at times on exam. They are fine at home but as soon as they come into an exam room and see me, it starts.

I like to tell the owner that I feel their mixed breed cat probably has St. Bernard in it. Sometimes they laugh and sometimes you can hear the crickets chirping. My technician always laughs, though, to save the day.

Stress can be and is real for cats. Tom is out there in the neighborhood and is untrusting at times of people so that may be affecting his behavior, too.

As you can see, drooling can be a happy response, which I hope is the case for Tom or it can be a clinical sign of an internal issue.

My best advice is, as always, come to the hospital and lets try to figure it out. As veterinarian we think drool is cool and lets find out why and see if we can fix it. Owners obviously dont get that excited but your concern is a step in the right direction.

Good luck to you all and see if you, or another kind neighbor, can take that boy in for a checkup.

Original post:
Ask the Vet: Why does our neighborhood tomcat drool so much? - Charleston Gazette-Mail (subscription)

This entry was posted on July 4, 2017 at 11:45 pm and is filed under Veterinary Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |