If you have noticed that your cat has started drooling or dribbling, you may be wondering if this is a cause for concern? Cats sometimes dribble when they are relaxed and happy. However, sometimes excessive drooling (also known as hypersalivation) can also be a sign of underlying disease and health issues. This article will discuss and explore possible causes of cat dribbling.
Table of contents
Is it normal for cats to dribble?
Yes! It can be normal. Often this may happen when your cat is most relaxed and happy, some cats drool when they are petted or when they are ‘kneading’ on a blanket. Often this dribbling behaviour will have started very early on in life as a kitten and is something that is identified as normal for your cat to do. However, if your cat doesn’t normally do this kind of behaviour and has suddenly started dribbling, this would indicate a potential cause for concern.
What health issues may my cat have?
Below will list and discuss some of the most common conditions which can cause cats to abnormally dribble (this list is not exhaustive).
Dental disease
As many as 85% of cats over the age of three carry some sort of dental disease. Like people, the older the patient, the more likely they are to suffer from dental problems. Cats can suffer from gingivitis (inflammation of the gingiva) and stomatitis (inflammation of the oral cavity) and sometimes this is as a result of viral infections. Dribbling occurs secondary to oral pain. Cats with severe dental disease may dribble ‘blood-tinged’ saliva. Furthermore, these patients may also be experiencing strong halitosis (bad breath)!
Nausea
In many mammalian species, dribbling can be a sign of nausea. For example, if your cat is experiencing gastrointestinal disease such as a foreign body, they will consequently feel sick or actually be vomiting.
Stress/travel
Motion or car sickness in cats is a common occurrence as it is something that they are often not used to. Most cats only ever go inside a cat carrier to be transported to the Vets! During motion sickness they experience a feeling of nausea and often vomit.
Trauma/injury
Veterinary practices are sometimes presented with emergencies including road traffic accidents in cats (RTA’s). During an RTA, cats frequently experience jaw fractures or tooth fractures. These types of injuries often lead to drooling due to oral pain and, sometimes, the inability to completely close the mouth.
Medications
Cats are very sensitive to taste and if they are fed something that they do not like the taste of they often drool excessively. Sometimes this can even occur following topical medications such as flea spot-on treatment if your cat manages to lick some of the product off their coat (which we do not recommend!)
Toxicities
Toxicities do occur but thankfully not too often! In these cases, their clinical history is extremely important, ensuring whether they have had any access to potential poisons, plants, caustic substances etc. Drooling may occur secondary to toxin ingestion as certain toxicities will lead to nausea and vomiting. In addition to this, if your cat has licked a toxic substance such as cleaning products they may have sustained ulceration or direct trauma to their tongue or oral cavity, leading to vomiting due to oral pain.
Kidney disease
Chronic kidney disease is a very common disease of older cats resulting in weight loss. Cats with kidney disease have a build-up of kidney toxins (urea and creatinine) in the blood. As a result of this build up, these toxins make cats feel sick/nauseous. And if prolonged they can develop a ‘uremic’ breath which some people described as a ‘pear-drop’ smell. In chronic cases, this uremia leads to oral inflammation and extensive mucosal ulceration/stomatitis. As you can imagine, this condition is painful and leads to excessive drooling.
Neoplasia
The growth of a tumour, or cancer, in the mouth is quite common with the most common type of oral mass in cats being a squamous cell carcinoma. Unfortunately, these types of tumours have a poor prognosis. And they are often very difficult to manage due to their aggressive nature and the location. Often when oral tumours are discovered and noticed by their Owners that are already substantially large in size. Cats with oral tumours may demonstrate pain during eating and drooling.
What will my Vet do?
Once your Vet has taken a full clinical history, they will then perform a thorough clinical examination of your cat. This will include checks of their dentition, lymph nodes, oral cavity and weight etc.
The underlying cause of drooling/dribbling may be identified from the clinical examination and history, especially if dental disease is apparent. However, some underlying conditions may not be as obvious to diagnose and therefore your Vet may suggest starting further investigations including blood work.
If dental disease is the underlying cause, your Vet may prescribe pain relief and advise a dental procedure to be performed, which often involves multiple extractions being carried out to take away your cat’s oral pain.
Conclusion
To conclude, there are a multitude of causes of hypersalivation in cats but it is important to consider and understand the underlying cause. If you notice that your cat has started to dribble abnormally, please contact your local Vet. It is a clinical sign that should not be ignored as some conditions which lead to drooling can have very variable outcomes for your cat.
Discussion