Monday, January 18, 2010

Cats With Gingivitis and How to Resolve it Naturally

Cats with gingivitis are all too common. Gingivitis is the inflammation of the gums. One of the main reasons for this in cats, is the lack of raw bones in their diet. A cat who has daily bones, such as chicken necks or chicken wings, to crunch up, rarely has gingivitis.

Raw bones in a healthy cat’s diet serves at least four purposes:


  1.  bones keep the teeth clean, preventing tartar building up
  2.  bones massage the gums, keeping them healthy
  3.  the crunching of bones keeps cats happy - it’s how they evolved
  4.  ingesting bones are a natural, balanced mineral supply for building healthy bones

Sadly, many people don’t feed their cats a raw meat and bones diet, so mouth problems are rife. The normal treatment of antibiotics and teeth removal does nothing to enhance such a cat’s already badly damaged immune system.

Once the problem has started, it seems an endless round of continued and regular damaging treatment.

Is there an alternative? Is it too late to introduce a raw meat and bones diet?

There are always alternatives to everything. And it’s never too late to try anything.

Cats with gingivitis often respond very well to homeopathic treatment. The medicine Mercurius is almost a specific for this condition in both humans and other animals.

But, as with all homeopathic medicines, it’s best to have more than one strong symptom which matches the medicine, for a positive resolution. A homeopathic animal practitioner may be your best option, if you are new to homeopathy. But if you already know a bit about it, you might like to try Mercurius, as long as you can see some of the medicine’s strong keynotes in your cat’s gingivitis.

The strong keynotes of Mercurius are:


  •  symptoms are worse for heat or cold (so food straight from the refrigerator is likely to be refused)
  •  symptoms are worse at night
  •  your cat may have excess saliva which feels slimy to the touch
  •  your cat’s breath may smell foul, offensive
  •  a history of repeated antibiotic treatment

Once your cats gingivitis is sorted out and pain is not experienced on eating, then you can start introducing a raw meat and bones diet. In the early stages, it’s best to cut up the necks or wings into bite size pieces. This makes it easier for an older cat, or one entrenched in old ways.