Hard Palate Damage- What Symptoms Does The Cat Have?

[harhardf]

My FIP cat opened a window and fell 2.5 stories Sunday morning. I took her to the vet and she had skinned her chin and nose but all teeth intact and vet saw no further damage. Her jaw was not majorly swollen so the vet believed that it is not fractured. She was growling the whole time they examined her and not keen on having anyone near her(she HATES the vet with a passion, even the smell of the vet's office makes her growl). Its been 48 hours and she is moving around fine, eating wet and dry food and going to the bathroom. She is sore, you can see when she tries to yawn and cannot get her mouth all the way open. I am wondering if there was hard palate damage and if the vet missed something. When a cat has hard palate damage, what are the symptoms?

 

[silkenpaw]

Why do you think her hard palate is affected? I don’t know what the symptoms would be, but would not the easiest thing be to X-ray her skull and lower jaw?

Is your cat eating well? Do you feed wet or dry? Doing everything else normally? Can you see any bruising inside her mouth?

I hope she does not have any fractures, please keep us updated.

 

[harhardf]

Why do you think her hard palate is affected? I don’t know what the symptoms would be, but would not the easiest thing be to X-ray her skull and lower jaw?

Is your cat eating well? Do you feed wet or dry? Doing everything else normally? Can you see any bruising inside her mouth?

I hope she does not have any fractures, please keep us updated.

She eats dry food and wet food, although i limited her to wet food mixed with tuna water for the first day after the fall. I worry only because the vet was not exactly the most thorough (not our normal vet) and seemed almost scared to look inside her mouth since she was growling so much. Vet felt that x-rays would be unduly stressful at the moment and I should just monitor her.

The only thing that is not great is that she cannot fully yawn or open her mouth, but she eats dry food and greenies like nothing is wrong. I am not sure what the symptoms of a hard palate fracture look like but I assume she is not exhibiting too many of them. Her mouth is bruised, mainly the chin. And she was very quiet Sunday and Monday. Yesterday she was moving around and sleeping in her usual spots.

If she still cannot open her mouth to fully yawn on Friday, I will take her in. It was quite a fall so it may just be soreness. Her paws are also scraped but nothing serious.

 

[catlover73]

Did you ask your vet about medicine for pain? If you do not feel comfortable with the explanation the last vet gave or he is not really answering your questions then I would go to another vet for a 2nd opinion. You can always see if the vet you are more comfortable with is available. If not ask if there is another vet that is more comfortable handling scared cats that act semi-feral. If your vet practice does not have anyone with this experience then see if you can locate a feline only practice. You can call around and ask what their procedure is for dealing with scared cats that act semi-feral during an exam. There are vets out there that have experience handling cats that re-act badly to exams.

If you feel comfortable posting more about your location perhaps someone here could help you with researching for either a feline only practice or a vet with more experience with scared cats. If there are any organizations in your area that care for feral colonies or do TNR you could try reaching out to them to see what vet they use.