Raising a cat isn’t always the easiest job to do. While we love and care for our little feline friend, we can’t always prevent it from getting sick. No matter how much we make sure to look after it, some things are just inevitable.
For example, the sore mouth is a common issue among cats, and it’s pretty bothersome. As a result, you’ll find the cat eating less than usual and generally fussy.
In this article, we’ll tackle how to deal with and what to feed a cat with a sore mouth.
Table of Contents
What To Feed A Cat With A Sore Mouth – The Summary
The best food option for a cat suffering from a sore mouth is meals that require minimal to no chewing. For example, wet canned cat food or blended cooked food would be the best choice in this case. Refrain from giving the cat any solid, hard-to-bite-into meals to avoid increasing its pain.
Signs That Your Cat Has A Sore Mouth
Since we, unfortunately, can’t communicate with our pets—wouldn’t it have been amazing if we could?—it can be a little challenging to notice right away if your cat is sick or suffering from an infection. That’s why it’s very important to note any signs of behavioral change or abnormality in your kitten early on.
Sore Mouth Symptoms May Include:
- Losing a noticeable amount of weight in a small period of time.
- Refusal to eat or decreased appetite—even if offered their favorite meal.
- Reluctance to eat dry food or treats that have a hard texture.
- Slow chewing or chewing on only one side of the mouth.
- Bad breath smell.
- Increase in drool amount.
- Frequent clawing/pawing at the mouth and/or face
- Shying away from pats around the face
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Reasons Why Your Cat’s Mouth Is Sore
There are a lot of reasons as to why your cat may suffer from a sore mouth.
Usually, it can be the result of an infection caused by an injury or bad oral hygiene. It may cause a buildup of bacteria, which in turn causes ulcers to appear. It can also lead to painful inflammation in the mouth, gums, sometimes reaching the throat too.
Other causes may include eating acidic food or malnutrition. If the sore mouth issue persists or keeps happening, you can always consult a vet to know the reason.
What Medicine Can I Give My Cat To Heal The Sores?
Typically, antibacterial gel and anti-inflammation medicine can help reduce the soreness significantly. However, it’ll all depend on your cat’s condition.
Sometimes, the needed medicine may differ from one kitty to another. In this case, your best option is to seek your vet’s help to make sure that your pet is getting the correct medical care.
After all, we’re sure you’d love for the cat to get better and go right back to its dearly missed 3 AM meowing sessions!
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How Long Does It Take For A Cat’s Sore Mouth To Heal?
A cat’s sore mouth can sometimes heal by itself in a few days’ time. However, like humans, this is not always the case, and ignoring it may cause bigger health issues to occur in the future.
If you ever notice your cat having any of the previously mentioned symptoms, make sure to bring it to the vet as soon as possible so they can prescribe the appropriate medication needed.
What Should A Cat With A Sore Mouth Eat?
As we mentioned before, usually, when a cat is suffering from a sore mouth, it tends to lose interest in food. Even if you put the most scrumptious meal before its eyes, the ache it feels in its gums and teeth will cause it to turn a blind eye and walk away. And if it did take a second to nibble at it, it’ll usually be accompanied by whines.
Quite a heartbreaking scene, isn’t it? Nothing can be sadder than seeing your little food gremlin ignore their full bowl—which they usually scream at you to refill—and walk away to sit in a corner and paw at their mouth.
This loss of appetite will cause cats to lose weight, and we definitely don’t want that! So to help them regain their food cravings, we can provide them with food options easy to swallow without chewing. Wet canned cat food is your new best friend for this part!
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Cooked Food Is a No-No
Due to the amount of biting and chewing it requires, cooked meals can be difficult for a cat with aching teeth to eat. On the other hand, wet canned food contains a higher water ratio than dry food or regular meat, which makes eating it easier on your kitten.
It can simply lap it up then swallow it without the need for excessive chewing.
So providing the cat with an easy-to-eat option like that can solve this problem. If you notice that the size of the pieces inside the can isn’t small enough or that your cat is having a hard time munching it, you can cut it into smaller pieces or blend it for easier feeding.
Choose the Wet Food Wisely
With the many wet food varieties available in the market, you’ll hopefully find a brand that goes well with your cat’s taste.
Going for something with a rich protein and vitamin quantity would be a good option to help your little friend regain its health and energy. Bear in mind that it’ll likely have lost a bit of its energy abstaining from food, so you’ll want to make up for that.
Choosing something that includes balanced nutrition value, as well as tasty meat options, should be your priority.
Products that contain turkey, chicken, and seafood/ tuna are the top priority as cats tend to be attracted to the smell of these particular types of food. So it may help increase its appetite to try and eat once more.
And with wet food being softer than their usual food, the kitty won’t have any excuse and can get right into licking the bowl clean like the good ol’ days!
What If Your Cat Doesn’t Want Wet Food?
Although wet food is highly convenient for cats with sore mouths, cats may not think the same.
There are some cases where your cat will, unfortunately, refuse to eat the canned food. That’s especially if you never feed it wet canned food or if it’s your first time getting that specific brand. In this case, another thing you can try out is cutting up and blending their favorite food into a doughy, easy-to-lick puree.
Even though it won’t be the texture they’re used to, the familiar smell will encourage them to try it out and hopefully enjoy it without having to worry about hurting their mouth!
Something else you can try out is bringing out their favorite dry food and soaking it in water or milk. This will cause the usual hard texture of the dry food to soften up into mush to become easier for your cat to eat and swallow without causing it pain.
How to Encourage Cat With Sore Mouth to Eat
You might notice that even though you’ve done all of that, your cat is still not eating as much as it usually did when it was healthy. This is completely normal as it might still be a little overwhelming for your cat with all this unfamiliar pain and a change of diet.
You can help it out by making the meal’s portion smaller but spreading it out through multiple periods throughout the day.
So let’s say, for example, instead of feeding it two or three large meals a day, turn them into three to six smaller ones at different time intervals. This way, your cat won’t be overwhelmed by the quantity, and at the same time, it’ll get its recommended daily nutrition intake.
Don’t forget to keep it away from any and all types of acidic food. The acid might aggravate the soreness and make the situation even worse. Instead, include some alkaline food options in your pet’s diet, such as milk, yogurt, whipped cream, eggs, and so on. Alkaline foods help soothe the soreness as well as taste appetizing to your cat.
Mushing up some bananas for a little snack is also good to add to your kitten’s new meal set.
Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed what to feed a cat with a sore mouth as well as what signs to look for to determine if it has a mouth infection or not. We also mentioned a couple of ways that may help treat the inflammation.
And now that we’ve covered the required steps to start your little feline best friend’s journey to full recovery, all that is left now is to make sure to shower your cat with much-needed love, affection, and gentle care as it starts to heal.
Accompanied by some tasty, easy-to-eat meals, we’re sure that you will grow ever closer to your family’s favorite kitty!
I’ve been living with cats since 2008 and I can confidently say I have more feline friends than humans lol. I currently live with 5 cats in different life stages; two of them are less than one year old, one is 2-ish years old and the oldest two are 9-ish years old. I’ve developed a strong bond with cats over the years and I’m eager to share my experience through this blog. You can learn more about my cats here.