MY CAT HAS LOST A TOOTH

Evening, while playing with my cat yesterday I noticed she’s also missing a tooth on her bottom jaw. We don’t know how old she is as she’s a rescue we took in from the street... I was wondering if it’s anything serious? She was already having some dental pain, so now this... Do we need to take her to the vet? Thanks in advance for your replies. Have a good evening.

As long as he’s eating well, everything will be fine.

Just a quick anecdote: I know my sister-in-law's cat whose canines used to stick out of his mouth because they were so long; it looked a bit "odd" and wasn't exactly the most attractive thing!! They've fallen out now, but the cat is over 15! And he still eats dry food.

I'll keep an eye on him and keep you posted.

Well, it all depends really; it could actually affect his eating, yeah... Then again, it might not bother him at all, so he'll get on just fine like that. I know a cat who's missing a canine on one side too and he's doing brilliantly :)

Oh dear! Not a good sign.

He’s just eaten his dry food and it doesn’t seem to be bothering him.

I’m going to keep an eye out to see if his gum swells up. Luckily Jumpy is very easy to handle; he loves play-biting my husband’s thumb and lets us check his pearly whites without any fuss.

My husband has just checked him over—no redness, and Jumpy was very cooperative. He mustn’t be in any pain.

If it was a permanent tooth, it won’t grow back. Will that affect his eating in the long term? (It was an upper tooth on the left-hand side).

Regardless, I’m keeping a close watch and I’ll be off to the vet at the first sign of anything unusual or an infection.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, and have a lovely evening!

Hi there, that’s quite strange because cats usually lose their milk teeth by 6 months, so logically they shouldn’t be losing any more naturally... adult cat teeth don’t grow back (just like ours). It’s worth checking with a vet just in case there was a lingering milk tooth, but I doubt it... either way, you need to make sure it doesn’t get infected, so seeing a vet or even just giving them a ring would be the safest bet.