Cat tooth apocalypse

[roadrunnertwice]

Can't remember if I mentioned it here or on Masto, but a couple months back we had to take our cat Annabel to get most of her teeth pulled — they told us when we adopted her that she has a congenital autoimmune Thing that makes her body flip out at the bacteria on her teeth and just go ape on her gums. Pretty much all cats who have that just do 1000% better when they don't have teeth, and also apparently indoor cats don't actually use their teeth all that much, even for kibble?? Who knew.

Anyway, we went ahead and had it done when we noticed her appetite was down and she wasn't grooming herself and her gums were looking like a disaster. Dr. Emily judged that we could leave her canines in place, which was good (she uses those for carrying spring toys around the house while yelling at us, it's very important), and as advertised, she's been doing fantastic ever since.

OK. All fine and well. But now.

Halla has the exact same autoimmune Thing, and we gotta get her teeth yanked too. Scheduled for next Thursday.

What the fuck. These cats aren't at all related, by the way; they only came as a set because they got along well in foster care.

Apparently 10% of cats have a chance of developing this, so I guess the answer to my incredulous "WHAT ARE THE CHANCES" is, "definitely high enough that it's gonna happen to someone." Still tho, neither I nor Ruth has ever had to deal with this over the course of how many cats?? (Although some of that might be the selection situation out where I come from — about half of our family's cats were involuntary adoptions who just showed up and started asking for food and couch space, and it's so rural out there. Basically the culmination of generations of raccoon fighters.)