Cats reaction to coconut oil
 

My cat Simon has feline stomatisis. We recently found out about coconut oil and thought it might help him so 3 days ago I started giving it to him in his food. His mouth seems to hurt less, but he's sleeping a lot and his meow is really raspy. I'm wondering if this could be a negative side effect (like an allergy or something?) to the oil, or if this is part of the process for his body adjusting to it. Has anyone had a similar situation? I'm not sure whether to continue with the oil since it does seem to be relieving the pain, or take him off of it.

Did your vet tell you to use coconut oil as a treatment?

I don't have experience with stomatisis however we do (my parents) have a fur baby , Fibrizo, with a permanent ulceration in his gums that has caused him a lot of pain through his life. We give him coconut oil and it seems to help him but he didn't present any of the other symptoms that you mention with Simon. More of their cats are on coconut oil and it has helped them from bad breath to joint pain. As I said it helps it's not a magical panacea either but it sure has a lot of useful properties.
I would talk to your vet because the lack of voice could be a respiratory infection that maybe was oportunistic due to Simon's problem. Just a theory. Could be the oil. Yoshimi had a voice problem and it turned out to be a viral disease but she was treated, now my white fluff is fine. So as you see there could be many reasons and poir Simon is in pain.
Get better Simon, stronger and healthier :pray:

Welcome to pets.ca, [B][COLOR="Blue"]khager[/COLOR][/B] !

There is a very specialized online 'forum' just for stomatitis.

It is a group of people with a single focus: feline stomatitis. It has been up and running for the past 9 years and has a membership of over 1000 members - that's also 1000 cats!

That group keeps on top of all the latest treatments.......and clinical trials, too.

In fact, there is one drug trial now announced on their homepage.

That's undoubtedly where you'll get good answers to your coconut oil question.


You'll find that group here: [URL="http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-Stomatitis/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=2"]http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-Stomatitis/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=2[/URL]

Get yourself a new email addy (Yahoo is good) before you join up - it's a busy group - that will help you manage the info flow easier.

Keep us updated!

My vet didn't tell us to use it, she told us the only thing she can do is a $2000 surgery that I can't afford. Since I've seen people say it worked for mouth sores I figured it might relieve some of the pain, which it really has.


Thank you Rustycat! I'm not sure how I missed a whole group about it, every time I go looking for new information it's all very old forums that are no longer active. I'll definitely go check it out and see what they have to say :)

Two of my cats had stomatisis, after two or more trips to have teeth pulled out, the vet said they all had to go. Both are doing great.

[QUOTE=khager;1060545]My vet didn't tell us to use it, she told us the only thing she can do is a $2000 surgery that I can't afford. Since I've seen people say it worked for mouth sores I figured it might relieve some of the pain, which it really has.


Thank you Rustycat! I'm not sure how I missed a whole group about it, every time I go looking for new information it's all very old forums that are no longer active. I'll definitely go check it out and see what they have to say :)[/QUOTE]

I think it's awful is cost so much to get help for a pet and feel this is why so many pet end up in a shelter. I hope your cat will feel better .

I can't help you much with the use of Coconut Oil, but I can advise on quality.

There are quite a number of Coconut Oils on the market and price ranging from very cheap to expensive. What I have found out is the cheap coconut oils have been rendered using bleaches and chemicals to remove the odours caused from mold in the processing of the oil.

This leaves what I call a "garbage" product that should not be used. This product does not taste or smell like the coconut oil is supposed to. Doesn't even make a good axle grease.

The more expensive ones are pricier but well worth the money. They are Virgin Coconut Oils and are cold pressed. There are several on the market.

The one we found that sold best, and which we use ourselves, is called
Alpha DME Virgin Coconut Oil. It tastes like coconut. There are other ones out there that relate in quality to this one.

Maybe the problem with the cat could be that if it's the cheaper oils, it doesn't have any smell or taste and could have a chemical residue that is bothering the throat.

Something else that you might want to try to help relieve the pain in the gums is to lightly massage the cheeks with just enough pressure to stimulate the blood flow in the gums, bringing in fresh blood and removing infection.

That web site that rustycat recommends looks like it could be quite interesting.

Just a note - I had a price quoted to me by a vet for one tooth removal and it was $750. so you don't really want to go there if there is an alternative.

I was talking to my mother in law about the oil and she brought me a bottle of refined, I haven't tried the virgin yet. They went nuts over it the first night, fine with it the second night, now they won't eat it cold or liquid. I mixed it in with canned food and he ate it, but still won't touch it alone now. I posted on that forum, so we'll see what they say.


I'm surprised cats would voluntarily eat something that tastes/smells like coconut though. Maybe it's just because personally I really dislike it, haha.

[QUOTE=khager;1060567]I was talking to my mother in law about the oil and she brought me a bottle of refined, I haven't tried the virgin yet. They went nuts over it the first night, fine with it the second night, now they won't eat it cold or liquid. I mixed it in with canned food and he ate it, but still won't touch it alone now. I posted on that forum, so we'll see what they say.


I'm surprised cats would voluntarily eat something that tastes/smells like coconut though. Maybe it's just because personally I really dislike it, haha.[/QUOTE]

I am surprised about a lot of things my dogs had eaten and I found out they could less if their dog food comes in a fancy can or plain can. I was thinking about that, as coconuts is not a food a cat would eat on it own. I know when I put lotion on my hands my dog want to lick all off.

This thread is making me wonder if what Fibrizo really has is stomatisis that hasn't been accurately diagnosed. .. And coconut oil has helped him a lot btw.
My mom buys one from Mexico. It's AMAZING. Natural, coconuts harvested from wild palm trees that are not GM or with pesticides, zero bleach or any extra process, it only has the natural smell of the coconut. Really good quality. The cats go bonkers about it and me too. I use that instead of butter now.
I have one here good too the brand is Nutiva and I enjoy it a lot although I have to try it on cats yet but me... Yuuuuum! :p

In the research I've been doing Nutiva is supposed to be one of the best.

When I originally took Simon to the vet, he told us he had Calici and would die, along with the rest of our cats since they'd been exposed. I looked it up and the symptoms didn't match at all. Not sure why I bothered taking him to that vet, when my oldest Psycho got sick he told us it was cancer and we had to take Psycho in multiple times and spend a lot of money we didn't have, and it turned out he just had an infected scratch in his mouth!

Anyways. We took Simon to another clinic that just happened to have a dental specialist on staff and the vet and the specialist looked him over and said he had stomatisis. They also said not a lot of vets will think of it if they're not used to dealing with it, so you could always ask.



Edit: I got one response about this on that forum before my thread got hijacked so... no help from there, lol. He's doing so much better I think I'll wait another 2 or 3 days and if his voice doesn't clear up I'll call the vet and ask them about it. Doubt they'll tell me anything without seeing him but you never know.

Best healing vibes for Simon :goodvibes:
My Pibi (Fibrizo) has suffered so much from that perma sore that I know how it is.
I'll avise my mom to have him re evaluated for stomatisis.
Nutiva is very similar to the awesome, organic one from Mexico and it's not overly pricey. I like it a lot.
Get better soon fur baby Simon! Strenght!