Being an observant and proactive pet owner.

Raven enjoys biting on my eyeglasses

I read an interesting blog post the other day by Dr. Plotnick, a vet who specializes in feline veterinary medicine. His blog, “Cat Man Do” is a mix of veterinary information and other personal experiences. A recent post, It’s snot what you think… or maybe it is reminded me of a recent experience I had with Raven.

Raven has a broken upper canine tooth. We adopted her that way so we don’t know when, or how, she did it. Every few months I take a peek in her mouth to check on her teeth and gums. She has a few tiny red areas on her gums, so I like to keep an eye on them to make sure they’re not getting too inflammed.

The last time I checked her teeth it looked like she had broken another tooth. She had a stumpy little tooth in her upper jaw and it didn’t look right to me, so I called the vet to make an appointment to have him look at it. Her mouth didn’t seem to be bothering her at all, which seemed odd if her tooth was broken. So a couple days later I took another look in her mouth.  After looking at some photos on vet web sites and my cat health books, I realized her tooth wasn’t broken. It was a normal, healthy, small premolar behind her upper canine tooth.

I called the vet to cancel the appointment and admitted my mistake. No broken tooth, just an over-protective mom. 

After having multiple cats and a dog who have all had serious health issues, I’m a firm believer in dealing with a potential issue as soon as possible. That gives us the best chance to catch things early and have good treatment options. And after nearly 15 years, my relationship with the vet is one where I wouldn’t be embarassed by taking Raven in to have a perfectly healthy tooth looked at. He knows that I put my pet’s health above everything, including my ego. And had I taken her in to have her healthy tooth looked at, he would just tell me everything is fine and I’d laugh and say thanks for taking a look at it for me.