Loose tooth in cat - what do I do?

[sarahh]

My DH and I noticed that my almost 6 month old cat had a loose incisor this morning. After panicking for a bit I read on online that this loose tooth is his baby tooth, which they lose up to seven months of age. My only concern that we noticed both of his permanent incisors are coming through and his baby teeth are still there.

His gums where the loose incisor is are a little red, but he seems to be in no pain.

I read that when this happens the baby teeth should be removed so as not to disrupt the growth of the permanent teeth. Should we just keep an eye on that tooth to see if he loses it? How long should we wait to take him to the vet?

[jesvet]

Give it a week. If it's loose enough for you to notice it, it's really close to coming out on its own.

[charliezangel]

2 of our cats we've had from infancy. Noelle and Snowy both had this. I noticedit in Noelle at about 7 month. it was like a double tooth, i thought it was really weird, but DH said to just leave it alone. Sure enough, within a couple weeks there was only 1 tooth on each side. If it seems like kitty is in pain, or her teeth are sticking in weird directions, i would go to the vet, but for the most part i would say let nature take it's course.

[{b}]

Hmmm, i;ve had Neo since he was 9 weeks old and I don't ever remember loose teeth! It's probably just like human teeth, though.

If he swallows it, he'll probably pass it with no problem.

[NotDesperate]

Well I don't have cats but when my puppy was around 6 months of age, he started losing teeth. We saved them for his scrapbook :)

[sarahh]

Thanks so much for the advice and making me feel better. He lost the loose tooth sometime this evening. He must have swallowed it because I can't see it anywhere. We checked his three other incisors and while they aren't loose (that we can tell) he does have his adult incisors coming in. I'm sure the others will fall out soon too.

We have another cat that is a little over a year old and we never noticed her losing teeth.

[NotDesperate]

You cat may have spit it out too. My dog will eat lots of things but his teeth he always spit out.

[sarahh]

I found his little tooth on the computer desk this morning!

[NotDesperate]

Aw! Now you can add it to your memory box! ;)

[diam124]

I found his little tooth on the computer desk this morning!

Haha - I remember finding a tooth on the floor in our cat's room and DH and MIL insisted that cats do not lose their teeth like humans (they had never seen this before with any of his other cats). I looked online and lo and behold they do! I found 2 total.