A Case Series Analysis of Dental Extractions’ Outcome in Cats with Chronic Gingivostomatitis Carrying Retroviral Disease

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate and compare the clinical outcome after dental extractions of cats with FCGS infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV). A retrospective case series included cats with diagnosis of FCGS, availability of detailed clinical records, full-mouth dental radiographs, and retroviral disease test results. Effectiveness of surgical treatment (EOT) was registered. Three groups were defined: control, FIV and FeLV. In this study, 111 cats were included: 60 controls, 29 FIV- and 22 FeLV-positive cats. When compared with control cases, FeLV-positive cats had significantly less proliferative stomatitis lesions, and they tended to have more lingual ulcers. Concurrently, FeLV-positive cats had significantly less tooth resorptive lesions. No other significant differences in FCGS clinical signs were found between groups. FeLV-positive cats had a significantly worse outcome after dental extractions compared to the other groups. In fact, FeLV-positive cats had 7.5 times more chances of having no improvement after dental extractions. This study concludes that the response to dental extractions in FeLV-positive cats is significantly worse, when comparing to cats that do not carry retroviral disease. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge the effect of FeLV status on the prognosis of these cats.

Placebo-Controlled Trial of Daily Oral Cannabidiol as Adjunctive Treatment for Cats with Chronic Gingivostomatitis

“…As FCGS is considered multifactorial in origin, both young and old cats can be affected, and some may carry retroviral disease and/or other viral infections such as feline calicivirus (FCV) and feline herpesvirus (FHV-1) [2,3,11,12,15,16]. As expected, both groups included mostly adult cats living in a multi-cat environment and/or originated The average amount of rescue analgesia registered throughout all time points was 1.1 and 1.3 in the CBD and placebo groups, respectively.…”

“…All cats were tested for FIV and FeLV viruses due to their potential systemic impact beyond FCGS. No FeLV-positive cat was included in the study since co-infection with this virus is associated with a different response rate to dental extraction [16]. On the contrary, FIV or FCV infection does not seem to be related to a different response rate to dental extractions compared with those not infected [16,17].…”

Placenta‐derived mesenchymal stromal cells as a treatment for refractory chronic gingivostomatitis in cats: eight cases (2018)

“…Positive viral status (FeLV; FIV; Calicivirus) can have an impact on clinical outcome (Silva et al . 2021) although this is a matter of debate (Lee et al . 2020).…”

Feline chronic gingivostomatitis current concepts in clinical management

“…This study concluded that FeLV-positive cats had a 7.5-times greater chance of having no improvement after dental extractions than cats that did not carry retroviral disease. 40 The subgingival microbiome has also been characterized in cats with FCGS. 9 A higher alpha diversity was found in these patients, together with a higher relative abundance of Peptostreptococcus species as compared with healthy cats (P = 0.0052) and cats with periodontitis (P = 0.0127).…”

“…7 The impact of concurrent viral infection on the success of extraction therapy has been evaluated in a recent study which showed that FeLV-positive cats had a 7.5-times greater likelihood of no improvement after dental extractions. 40 Coinfection with FCV and PFFV has also been found to be significantly more likely in cats with refractory FCGS than in cats with responsive FCGS. 10 At this juncture, PMEs (extraction of all premolar and molar teeth) and FMEs have continued to provide the best long-term results.…”