Swollen lip

Dr. Marie replied:

This is a tough question to answer without being able to see Cinnamon. But, I do have some ideas for you.

You may want to ask your vet about the possibility of this being something called an eosinophilic ulcer. These cause lesions to appear. The most common area is indeed the lips, but they can appear anywhere.

Sometimes they are mild and go away on their own. And sometimes they can get very swollen and bothersome.

If they don't go away on their own they need to be treated with a steroid injection. Some cats will need a second injection 2 or 3 weeks later for them to go away completely.

Unfortunately for some cats these can come back repeatedly. In these cases, sometimes an allergy is the cause and we try the cats on a hypoallergenic food and switch feeding bowls (if they are plastic) to something else (as some cats are allergic to plastic).

If your vet doesn't think it is an eosinophilic ulcer then the next step would be to biopsy one of these lesions. A biopsy will almost certainly tell us what is going on.

If her cheek is really swollen though, there may be an abscess. While most abscesses go away with antibiotics some of them will not heal up unless they are surgically opened. And some of them can be resistant to antibiotics. The vet may need to do a test called a culture to determine if there is a resistant infection present.

Hope she is better soon!

Dr. Marie.

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