# Chewing gravel sound, please help/advise



## hoosier2b (Feb 4, 2009)

Hi everyone, This is an unfortunate continuation for my cat Lexi (previous posts - had ear biopsy & given a Depo-Medrol shot this past Thurs), she's been doing great since I brought her home Fri., more like her original self - eating well, seeking pets, and alert. Suddenly this morning, she was halfway through her wet food, walked away, gagged, then sounded like she was chewing gravel/grinding her teeth. I thought, ok, she regurgitated a piece of dry food. Couple hrs later after eating a piece of dry, she walked away and made that same horrible sound. I took all food away, waited 4 hrs. then tried the wet again, this time watered down some. She hesitantly walked up to her plate, ate about 1 tsp's worth, walked away gagged up some saliva, then sat looking out the front door making those awful jaw grinding sounds again for a couple of minutes. Have any of you ever heard of this? Her blood tests show anemia, nothing else, no diabetes, etc. She has been through so much this past month, that I hate to stress her out unnecessarily. Particularly since her specialist thinks she may have latent FeLV (it can be reactivated w/ stress). I have put a call through to her vet and hope to hear back from her. Thanks, Kathy


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## Woodsman (Jan 9, 2007)

Maybe she has a loose and/or damaged tooth. It could give her problems eating and cause the salivation.

I am just guessing, I never experianced this. If you find out let us now. Hopefully it is nothing serious.

regards,
Brian


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## hoosier2b (Feb 4, 2009)

Just so you all know, I spent 6+ hrs. searching the web for what this could possibly be, various sites and vets online list it as a symptom of Chronic Renal Failure (which Lexi doesn't have, since tests have come out normal for this) but most don't get into what makes this happen or why it occurs. A few sites do however, and claim nausea or dehydration as the cause. It's a very loud, un-nerving, crunching sound and something you won't forget once you hear it (and unlike the "chittering" when eyeballing prey), so just wanted to make you all aware. P.S. Her vet thinks malocclusion, but prescribed 1/4 tab Pepcid in case it is gastric-related. After a day on the Pepcid, the sound is gone, now it just appears that she has difficulty swallowing whatever food remains in her mouth once she's finished eating. Otherwise, everything else about her is great. Strange, very strange.


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## bluemilk (Oct 3, 2005)

Can cats get TMJ?


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## hoosier2b (Feb 4, 2009)

*Re: TMJ*

I tried googling it, but didn't find anything on TMJ, so I'm guessing not.


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