Expert: Ali - 2/24/2011

Question
I know that you are not a doctor, and that this is only advice and I should take my kitty to the vet, but I would like your opinion on what is going on nonetheless.

I have 2 kitties that are about 6-7 months old. They are brother and sister, and are inbred 1 generation. A few months ago, my male kitty got sick. He had an abscess on his cheek. We brought him to the emergency vet and they fixed him all up with pills and some special tube. In the end, he was healed completely. A week later, I notice that my other female kitty has a squishy lump on her head, right between her eyes, just like my male kitty did before it burst and we brought him into the emergency vet. We were completely broke after paying for the 1st kitty, so we just waited to see what happened. 1-2 weeks later, the lump disappeared, and in its place, we noticed something else. At first we thought it was a cut, but now I am starting to think otherwise, and would like your opinion.

There is a black lining around both my kittens mouths (I'm not sure if this is normal or not, so I am mentioning it). The female (the one with the lump that disappeared after 1-2 weeks) seems to have a cut on her bottom lip that extends from one side of her bottom lip, to the other. It almost looks like her lip is falling off her jaw. You can see all this gum lining and then her teeth.

Now we thought it was just a cut, but its been 2-3 months now, and she has not yet healed. There is a scab, but by the next day, it is torn off. She bleeds every day, and often I find blood on her paws and face. She cannot clean herself, and so she is filthy on a daily basis, no matter how much we try to clean her. She is in a lot of pain, and won't let me touch her lip. She cries out in pain if we touch it by accident.

Please tell me if you think this is simply a cut, or if anything I have said match any symptoms of any disease or anything else. I have tried looking online, and find littler of what i am referring to. You can contact me further at  if you cannot answer me here. Thank you.

Answer
Brittany,

I'm not 100% sure exactly what's happening here but to me it sounds more like injuries to both kittens rather than actual disease processes, but as you know I am not a vet and therefore I can't diagnose illnesses or prescribe treatments. The area where your female kitten has an injury is a difficult place to heal, she likely will need veterinary treatment in the form of surgery to remove dead tissue and stitch that area closed - I doubt that it will heal on its own and the longer it's left open the more potential there is for bacteria to get in there from her mouth or the environment and cause a potentially lethal infection. She may very well need to be hospitalized for awhile just to ensure that this injury to her mouth heals - but again that's going to depend on what her lip looks like and how your vet feels about the whole situation. I suspect that she's likely got some degree of infection just due to how much pain she's in so she will almost certainly need antibiotics - I just don't know if she's at the point where she needs IV antibiotics administered in the hospital over a period of time or whether she'd be okay to go on oral antibiotics, especially since her mouth is so sore...My advice at this point would be to get her to your family vet ASAP for treatment, clearly this injury is affecting her quality of life and it's not healing on its own (there may be underlying reasons for it, but I suspect it's simply because of the location of this injury and the fact that bacteria can easily find their way into the open area from her mouth and the environment). The abscesses you mention are likely injuries from fighting either between the two kittens or if they're allowed outside unsupervised other larger neighborhood cats.....If the kittens are allowed outside you should know that fighting puts them at a seriously increased risk of developing feline leukemia or FIV (kitty AIDS) both of which can seriously compromise their immune systems potentially leading to fatal complications later in life. If you have any further cat related questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me again - I'm more than happy to help in any way that I can.

Kind regards,

Ali