Just an update on how my cat is doing.
Baby-kitty had two back teeth that were broken off at the root. It didn’t look a super-recent breakage, so I don’t know how long they were like that…could be a few weeks, could be months…but since that seemed like a likely culprit for his facial swelling, I gave the nod to remove them. The vet I went to was a short hop away…they seemed efficient and pleasant. When I went to pick him up several hours later, the vet whipped out a plastic mold of a cats teeth/gums - it looked like a set of dentures for cats - and proceeded to show me what teeth had been removed etc. Nice customer-service touch. More importantly to me, tho, was the fact he said he found another tooth that looked like it needed removing, so he went ahead and did that…it didn’t appear to me that he charged me any extra for it, either.

The vet gave me an amusing story about the teeth removal…how he went in and one of the back teeth came out, root and all, very cleanly. The other tooth was more brittle (even the root) and prone to breakage. So when he x-rayed Baby’s mouth to see if he’d gotten all the root, he saw a spot on the xray and thought to himself “more root” and went back in to try and get it. Another x-ray - another spot. Tried to remove it. Another x-ray, another spot. By then the vet figured he’d gotten most of it out and the remaining bit would either be harmless or would work its way out on its own….the vet didn’t want to go messing too deep into Baby’s skull, especially when the patient in question is a senior citizen of the cat kingdom. So I guess Baby had a tooth root that practically went up to his eyeball…an eyetooth? Hahaha…

Baby came home and was all wigged out from his experience - not to mention the painkillers the vet gave him - running around the house like he was on speed. He seemed to be eager to eat again, however, and for a day or so was gulping down the chow. Then for about 24 hours he stopped eating again…even tho the swelling of his face had gone down a lot. At first I worried, but then thought that maybe once the painkiller wore off, the holes in his gums were sensitive…perhaps taking big normal bites was causing the food to stick in those holes too much or something.

This evening he finally became hungry enough that when I put some food down, he used his paw to “scrape” some out of the dish, and licked his paw clean. In that fashion he cleaned his plate, which made both him and myself happy.

So he seems to be on his way to being well. The vet, btw, said Baby looked “really good” for his age…his other non-broken teeth were fine, with far less tartar than one would expect, and his actual gums seemed non-inflamed…plus his general appearance/weight/muscle etc. was very good. Baby went through a rough patch for a few months w/those seizures, but the past couple he’s been doing really well - except for the stiff hips, you’d hardly realize he was going on 18 years. I guess the move has been good for him? I wonder if Baby will be one of those rare cats that ends up living to be 20 years old. That’d be neat. Then again, he could fall over and die tomorrow.

I’m so cynical. :D

Edit: I’ve had a lot of photos I wanted to post, but between sick-cat and my thumb issues I’ve been…well, not in a big blog mood. Plus trying to reduce my computer time (again) because of the hands, so I haven’t done much photo work beyond clicking the shutter. :) Hopefully I’ll get back to some more regular posting of pictures again soon.