A Rare and Often Fatal Disease in Felines

This is a story about one of my cats who suffered with this disease, Houdini.

Plasmacytic Stomatitis An Auto-Immune Disorder In Cats

What is it

Plasmacytic Stomatitis attacks the lining sheath of the cat’s teeth. What I was told was that when a cat gets an infection in one of the cat’s teeth that their immune system tries to eradicate the infection. That is what it is supposed to do, but in this case the immune system doesn’t know when to stop and continues on to attack the good parts of the teeth. The cat’s gum’s become red and very sore. This strain is rare. 

There are other stomatitis diseases but this is one of them that are incurable at this time. They don't know if it is genetic or what switch that they can turn off or even why it only attacks some cats but not others. It is like cancer in humans, they just don't know right now. No other cat that I have or has been around has this. His mother doesn't, his brother doesn't so it doesn't seem to be genetic. The other cats that I have don't have it either. Just Houdini had it and it was not contagious. It truly is a mystery.

How Houdini Earned His Name

Houdini got his name because he earned it. When they were born I had them all in a very large doge crate, the kind that is a cage and not all plastic. It has a shelf and I put that in it for mom to get away from her kittens when she was weening them. On the back end I attached a large box for her to nest in and have her kittens in private. Well when Houdini was about 3 months old he would get out and I would see him playing around the box. None of the other kittens were out. So I put him back in. I turn around to go back in the house and turn right around to find him out again and the others still in the box. I put something heavy on the box lid so he wouldn’t escape. He still got out. To this day I still don’t know how he was getting out and the others not follow him. So he was named Houdini.

When I finally realized Houdini had something wrong with him it was during the winter months. I noticed that he would come up on the deck and lay on the heating pad that I had out there to keep their water from freezing. He would lay on the side that the dish was not on. In the beginning I thought nothing of it because the cats took turns laying on it. Sometimes they would not go under the house where I have a light there that keeps the temps above freezing. They prefer to be out in the open. I also know this is when they lay in the sun and it seems to fill them up with warmth that lasts for hours. They seem to play more after getting this sun energy power and filling up their batteries. They would run around the yard and up and down trees. I would just sit on the deck and watch them. After running for an hour or so they would come up and nuzzle me for some human attention. 

Alternative Treatments

After feeding them one day I noticed Houdini jumping away from the dish after taking a few kibbles. At first I thought a bug had bothered him. A few moments later I saw him do it again. That was when I knew something was wrong.

I never saw him get any tooth infections and this Stomatitis came on very suddenly. So I brought him in and put him in another crate but a smaller one. At first he made a fuss but that was short-lived because he was in so much pain then that he would permit me to do just about anything to him. I gave him ¼ of a baby aspirin because I didn’t have anything else and as it happens this was after Vet hours. I started him on 3 drops of Oil of Oregano (supposed to kill viruses, fungus and bacteria) in about 10 drops of Olive Oil. I gave him about 6 drops of this twice a day. I tried this for a week and nothing was happening and upped the dose and doubled the Oil of Oregano. It did seem to help and he was also calmer because it also sedates them a bit. At this time he was eating pate canned cat food that I had mashed with a fork to make smoother. I added ¼ of a pill of “B” Complex because I had read that they will get those types of infections if they are missing vitamin “B” in their diet. I also added Taurine and Glucosamine to the food. It wasn’t working enough. I had been doing this for a month. Now he inadvertently became an indoor cat through all this. 

Becoming an Indoor Cat

I had to do something so I called the Vets and get an appointment for the next day. He was put on Prednisone and antibiotics and a pain killer. Now this cat has to stay in that cage until all the meds are gone because I cannot run around trying to catch him every time I had to give him the liquid. I have 3 other cats inside. I also made sure that what he had was not contagious. This form is not and is cat specific. I felt so bad for him. He was in so much pain, but the pain killer and prednisone was working and we all thought this would be the end of it. So I let him back outside, where he really wanted to be with his brother. About 12 days later he is not eating again. He now just stands over the dish of dry food and stares at the food. So I bring him back in and call the Vet and we put him on another round of the same stuff. Again he did the same thing as the first time. Getting him to eat mashed pate canned food was difficult too. He just could not get food past the painful gums. So I was putting his food and half a can of water in the food processor and pureeing it. Sometimes I had to coax him and tell him to take it slow. This little boy was starving right in front of my eyes. This time the vet put him on a month of antibiotics, no prednisone or pain killers. They also cleaned his teeth to see if that was the problem. It wasn’t and I had the choice of them pulling all his teeth or keeping him on meds for the rest of his live. After eating he would always want to come and sit on my lap and lay his head on my chest. Sometimes he liked to be rocked and sometimes not. Sometimes he liked to just lay next to me. When he was in lot of pain he would bump his head hard up against the bottom of my chin.

A Very Hard Decision

We went on vacation and I had the vet board him. The day before, I had made up all his food for them to feed him. While at the hotel I get a call from my daughter, who had our dog for the week, and she told me what the Vet was doing with my little boy, Houdini. He wasn’t eating and they didn’t want to force him. They gave him prednisone and pain killers and he was not responding. I can understand that because between the time of the last round of his treatment and taking him to the vets I had given him half of a baby aspirin instead of the quarter and it did nothing for the pain.

Sitting in the hotel room alone I had to make the decision of pulling all Houdini’s teeth or something else. I had tried everything from alternative to natural to chemical treatments to heal this little cat and not a thing was working. I even changed his food to Science Diet so that I could possibly wean him off of canned food. I prayed and I even used my "healing touch" and they did nothing either. I thought about all this in the few hours that I was in the hotel alone. My husband was at a meeting. It was the hardest and saddest hours of my vacation. I called the vet back and set up a time to put him down. It was a very difficult thing to do but the best thing for him. I was just keeping this boy in pain and I just could not and didn’t feel it right to keep him that way.

We get back from vacation and we go to the vet to put him down. I did not linger too much but did let Houdini know that I loved him very much and that I had done everything for him and that he would be going to a place where there was no pain and that he wouldn't have to worry about eating and being hungry all the time. The vet took him back to put the IV in him and sedate him a little. I don’t understand why they have to do that though because I would think that giving him an overdose in the first place would let him and his body separate. I pet him for about 5 minutes and told them that I was ready. I never say Good Bye to them. I told him that He was going to Rainbow Bridge.

This is the third cat that I have had to put down in 2 years.  It doesn't get any easier. I could never be a vet because I could not do this and not get emotional. One of my dreams in High school was becoming a Veterinarian.  I love animals, domestic and wild.  I believe in my heart that this was a purpose for me. The other profession I wanted to do was nursing.  Well as life would have it I didn't get a *degree in either......but I do all that within my life without a degree. I became a mom and had kids and part of that role is nursing them back to health.  I have had many cats and dogs, bunnies, hamsters, goats, ducks and chickens to take care of too.  So I got a lot of Animal husbandry through that.  Where I live now the animals come to me and they aren't afraid of me---well except for the feral cats around here.  We have this kind of half joke around here that I feed all the animals. I do to some extent and I am also known as "The Cat Lady" around this part of my neighborhood.

My Houdini

Houdini was just put down in May of 2011 because he had Plasmacytic Stomatitis.