Please note: I am not a nutritionist and I am not a veterinarian. I am sharing my personal viewpoints and experiences using a holistic approach to help my cats. Please use discernment (i.e., check with your inner truth-detector) and your veterinarian of choice when it comes to your own animals’ heath issues. Thank you. Nedda
Veterinarians have told me that inflamed gums in cats are quite common these days. Some believe the problem may have genetic components. One veterinary solution is brushing their teeth and another is to scrape their teeth and clean under their gums while under anesthesia. I was told by one veterinarian that this would have to be done over and over and over again during the course of the cat’s life. The surgery/dental cleaning might even be necessary every 6 months, even if I brush her teeth.
Since anesthesia and any kind of surgery are risky, especially for cats, I went looking for another approach. When there is any infection or inflammation that is chronic, my feeling is that the immune system must be failing Therefore, I want to find ways to strengthen the immune system. I am also open to using natural approaches to get rid of the infection and inflammation.
There is a wonderful pamphlet that a friend lent me to read some years ago about Pottinger’s Cats. Pottinger was a scientist doing experiments using cats (yucky, but at least something good was discovered that can help cats). He discovered serendipitously that cats who were fed an all cooked diet developed various health problems that cats who were fed a raw diet, or a diet that included some raw foods, did not develop.
This intrigued him. He began a multi-generational study and documented that kittens of cats who were fed an entirely cooked diet were not only less healthy, but their physiological development (head and jaw size and shape) was impaired. The addition of raw milk to the diet of one group of mother cats had significant results. Adding raw food to the diets of the kittens also made a huge change for the better. By the third generation, cats whose mothers were fed only cooked foods and who themselves had only eaten cooked foods were actually unable to give birth to kittens who were viable, i.e., who could survive.
When I look at the inflamed gums of one of my cat companions, Sakhara, I accept that family history may be involved, but that genetics alone are inadequate to explain the situation. Her mother’s diet may be a contributing factor, but I never knew her mother or anything about her. For the first year and a half of Sakhara’s life I have no clue what she ate. Most probably she ate some prepared, cooked food available from the supermarket, but I don’t know that for a fact.
Since living with me, I have fed Sakhara a high quality diet that for the first year included both cooked and raw food. Today, Sakhara eats a primarily raw food diet that I make for her and Violet, my Siamese gal. But raw food has not cleared up her gums.
What to do?
For starters, Sakhara is being treated homeopathically by a veterinarian who is trained in the Classical homeopathic approach. Classical homeopathy is very powerful, but it can take a long time (i.e., months) to completely resolve a situation. I want to see Sakhara get better faster. Her gums are sore and this affects how she feels, in general. Plus, if there is a low-grade oral infection, it can eventually affect the health of her heart.
Recently, in one of the e-groups for Animal Communicators to which I belong, someone suggested LEBA III, which is an entirely natural, herbal formula you spray into a cat’s (or dog’s) mouth. LEBA III changes the saliva and thus changes the environment of the mouth. This reduces tarter. You can learn more about this product at http://www.lebalab.com where you will see some amazing photos of dogs’ mouths. They say it takes 4-6 weeks to see improvement.
Since Sakhara didn’t have tarter, but does have inflammation, I wasn’t sure what this product would do for her, but decided to give it a try. I do think it is helping. The inflammation is down quite a bit, and sooner than the 4-6 weeks – probably because of the homeopathy.
Still, I wanted to do more.
Wracking my brains for additional approaches, I remembered an old favorite: GARLIC. Garlic is, in my estimation, a wonder herb. Eaten raw, it is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, and great for keeping insects away (fleas, mosquitoes, even ticks, I have heard, prefer to bite someone else).
Years ago, when my horse, Echo, had a low-grade infection in her mouth that nothing else could handle, fresh garlic, ground up and mixed with her grain, was not only the answer, but she loved the taste of it. Ahhhh, if only a cat would eat raw garlic.
I have to say that Sakhara has been a good sport. She did eat some garlic mixed into her food once or twice. I used the recipe suggested by Anitra Frazier in The New Natural Cat, but this was not a success. Ms. Frazier also suggests stuffing garlic pieces into a capsule, but … well, let’s say I got away with that twice (although I think Sakhara would disagree), and the third time garlic was spit out and flew in every direction and all over me.
Since Sakhara is the best pill-taker on the planet, I wasn’t going to continue trying to give her garlic this way and turn her off the idea of taking pills.
What to do?
Kyolic garlic, which still has all the desirable properties of raw garlic, is available in liquid form. Five drops in Sakhara’s food twice a day seems like enough to help her gums. AND SHE’LL EAT IT.
AND … her gums are looking better and better!!