Weird mouth issues with my cat

by Amanda
(USA)

Hi, I have a 7 year old female cat with feline leukemia. For the most part, she's pretty healthy, so I have had no reason to get her euthanized, nor will I unless she shows symptoms of suffering, or poor quality of life.

Anyway, a few days ago, she got outside for a few hours. When she came back, I noticed that her mouth was bobbing up and down. This is extremely hard to describe without seeing it yourself, but if I had to pick the closest thing it looks like she's doing, it would be popping her jaw. There is no clicking noise that I've noticed, and I don't really think she's popping her jaw, but that's what it looks like.

She doesn't appear to be in any pain whatsoever. She's eating and drinking, sleeping and purring just like she always has. The only difference is, when she does anything that requires her mouth to open, (ie, meowing, eating, drinking, yawning) after she finishes whatever one of the acts above, immediately afterward, her jaw pops open.

Umm... if you whisper the words, 'yeah, yeah' fast, and look at yourself in the mirror while you're doing it, that's what she looks like. I know this sounds weird, but like I said before, it's hard to describe.

Other than that, nothing is weird with her that I can tell. She had a tick on her about 6-8 weeks ago, but I'm pretty sure I pulled the entire thing out. But I figured I'd include that just in case you thought it was a lyme disease symptom.

If the problem persists, I'm going to take her to the vet, but I figured I'd ask what you thought it might, or could be.

Thanks so much!

Reply
Hi
I think I know what you mean. One of my cat doe this sometimes. He has a sore tooth which needs some attention soon, it may be a similar case for your cat. They may be moving their jaw around to make it more comfortable some how.

The other possibility is that there may be mouth sores which can also cause the cat to do strange mouth actions. It can be difficult to see unless you can get her mouth open, but i always like to leave that for the vet who knows how to do it without too much distress.

As you say if this continues for more than a couple of days then yes, a trip to your vets is the best thing to do.

Hope all is well again soon

best wishes kate

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