How Do I Care For A Cat With Broken Jaw?

[NadiaRey]

I have been hopping from pet forum to pet forum the last few days looking for information. I hope you can help me. My cat Sueño just went through cancer surgery that ended up removing part of her jaw. I don't know how to care for her in any particular way.

Background:
The title might be a bit misleading but it's the shortest way to put it. The whole picture is, this is her third surgery, the last one went wrong because it was supposed to be a minor intervention: we didn't realize she had a tumor hiding in the jaw bones until the vet tried cleaning the area and the whole thing broke apart. He put everything he could together - and being honest, the tumor part of the situation isn't completely taken care of either. More than half her jaw is gone. The objective became keeping the quality of life.

It's been a week since the surgery and she's finally able to eat solids, but every so often, she starts hitting her own jaw, as if it was dislocated. Also, the thing makes this horrible sound when she opens and closes it with force, which she does, almost compulsively. So it's not exactly broken, at least I have no confirmation that it is... but it's incomplete and with problems opening and closing. Also, there's a resulting gap that I worry may make her vulnerable to infection. (I'm cleaning her mouth the best I can, when I can and she lets me. I don't want to stress her too much.)


Look, I'm not gonna lie. I know just how dense cancer talk is, everybody'd rather not read further. So let me add this.

Despite all this happening, she's eating, she's hungry more often than not, she now lick/baths herself again - she's incredibly willful, but also very frustrated.

If anybody else went through something like this, I'm looking for general tips on how to care for a cat with her jaw compromised. I turned to the internet looking for advise but only found so much. So I will very much thank you for any help, in advance.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

First, TALK WITH YOUR VET about this. Let him/her know exactly what is going on, and ask what you should do about it. IF you don't get answers that make some sort of sense to you, consider finding another vet. We have some articles that I can link for you, should this become necessary.

You say that she is eating. That's to the good. What might be of help is giving her chamomile tea via syringe. It can do a couple of things. First, it is gently calming, and may help with her frustration. Secondly, it will spend a bit of time in her mouth, and it does have some mild antibiotic qualities, and may actually help avoid a bacterial or fungal infection. Brew a cup of the tea, using commercial tea bags from your grocery store's coffee/tea aisle. Use ONLY plain chamomile, no blends (they will be clearly marked on the box). Chill the tea in the fridge, and administer 1-3 teaspoonfuls up to 3 times a day. If there is an external suture line, you can use to tea to clean the area, as well. It will promote healing, and it does sooth discomfort in the area.

 

[Furballsmom]

First, TALK WITH YOUR VET about this. Let him/her know exactly what is going on, and ask what you should do about it. IF you don't get answers that make some sort of sense to you, consider finding another vet

Absolutely, and see if you can get a video of her behavior so the vet can see and hear it.

Use the tea, and try not to stress too much. That tea will help you too

You have an amazing cat!!

Despite all this happening, she's eating, she's hungry more often than not, she now lick/baths herself again - she's incredibly willful,

:

 

[NadiaRey]

First, TALK WITH YOUR VET about this. Let him/her know exactly what is going on, and ask what you should do about it. IF you don't get answers that make some sort of sense to you, consider finding another vet. We have some articles that I can link for you, should this become necessary.

Yes, don't worry, my vet is duly informed of the situation. He's a vet traumatologist, and the explanation given is that he removed a lot, so there's little to hold the whole thing together. She doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger, that's why so far we are just monitoring her. With the diagnosis of cancer weighting on us, this is the... smaller issue. It's just that it's still very hard watching her get frustrated because every two bites, the thing seem to be bothering her.

I have thought about giving her light massages at the sides of her jaw joints to see if that alleviates her somewhat. Not that she appreciates it, heh. Food, I give her a medically-recommended paste, which she usually loves, but sometimes she insists on eating solid, so I cut the thinnest slices of meat and chicken I can manage to give her. So far, she's able to eat even that. And yeah, very happy about her being always willing to eat. She has always been pretty thin, even before the whole diagnosis. I can't let ease up in her feeding.
Anyways. I don't know if anybody has ideas, outside what I'm already doing? I know it's a weird subject but I was hoping, if it's not all that rare with broken jaws, somebody would know something about this.

Btw. I actually bought chamomile some days ago. But then I read that it will upset her stomach. So instead, I left the chamomile (dried or as tea) near her so she can take in the scent, without drinking it. I did the same with catnip that I started growing a few days ago. Though, it doesn't seem to have much effect in her other than ocassional sniffing. Are you certain the chamomile can't hurt her? If you are, I may attempt what you said.

 

[NadiaRey]

You have an amazing cat!!
:

I know, right?

Sorry, I didn't see your post until after I answered Mamanyth, and I haven't figured out how to edit. Hoping the forum is not too strict about double-posting.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

While there are a few instances of upset tummies, I have NEVER, personally, seen it happen. And I've used it on cats a LOT. You might try it once, and see how it does.

 

[ArchyCat]

Maybe feed her wet kitten food? Higher nutritional density, fat and protein. Need to ear less, less jaw movement. Maybe use kitten milk replacement for her drinking fluids? Additional fat and protein. Use the powdered form, then you can just prepare as much as you need.

Please keep us informed. Hope things go well.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hoping the forum is not too strict about double-posting.

you're all good, no worries

 

[Furballsmom]

I searched the site, there aren't many threads about broken jaws, although @FeebysOwner has had a kitty with one.

 

[rubysmama]

If anybody else went through something like this, I'm looking for general tips on how to care for a cat with her jaw compromised.

I did a site search for "broken jaw" and came up with several hits. Not sure if they'll be helpful in your situation or not, but here's the search results:
Search Results for Query: broken jaw | TheCatSite

Sorry, I didn't see your post until after I answered Mamanyth, and I haven't figured out how to edit. Hoping the forum is not too strict about double-posting.

No worries. Once you reach 20 posts, I think you'll get editing privileges.

 

[Leomc123]

Ask your vet if there is a paste you cat can eat with vitamins to keep the weight on as this may be very stressfull for her as she may be in pain . Websites say it will take around six weeks to heal a cats broken jaw, and to only feed food that your vet recomends . Wiping and cleaning the jaw area after eating to prevent infections and fur matting. Confining the cat during recovery. Also to assist your cat to eat, feeding the cat with a spoon is the best option. Hopefully the pain meds is helping her. Also lots of love and affection if she allows it. Poor cat i am sure she will heal well. Sending healing thoughts and prayers.

 

[ArchyCat]

NadiaRey -- Updates, please! How free Sueno?

 

[Uncled]

Wow! So sorry about your cat. Glad to read she is eating for you.

 

[NadiaRey]

Hey, everyone. My computer broke three days ago and only now I got a replacement while that CPU is getting fixed. Thus my absence. In fact I was mid-way relpying rubysmama's post when it crashed. (what luck, right?)

I did a site search for "broken jaw" and came up with several hits. Not sure if they'll be helpful in your situation or not, but here's the search results:
Search Results for Query: broken jaw | TheCatSite

Thank you, seriously thank you. I wanted to tell you this is exactly what I had been hoping to find. I still need to browser through it to check what I can find but it looks like the right place to start.

As for your suggestions, Leomc123:

Ask your vet if there is a paste you cat can eat with vitamins to keep the weight on as this may be very stressfull for her as she may be in pain

This is the "Recover" wet food I was talking about earlier. Yesterday I managed to make her eat it again, but lately she has been rejecting it, even though she used to love it.

Websites say it will take around six weeks to heal a cats broken jaw, and to only feed food that your vet recomends . Wiping and cleaning the jaw area after eating to prevent infections and fur matting. Confining the cat during recovery. Also to assist your cat to eat, feeding the cat with a spoon is the best option. Hopefully the pain meds is helping her. Also lots of love and affection if she allows it. Poor cat i am sure she will heal well. Sending healing thoughts and prayers.

The cleaning and help her feed (I use my finger to help the food inside) I'm doing. The confinement... I'm afraid these may be her last days. And she's stubborn about spending all her time outside... so I decided to respect her wishes. Even though it's not easy for me, because of various things... I will elaborate in another thread.

I wanted to give you an update and a suggestion of my own for future cases like Sueño's... Let me start by saying the situation is not... good. These last few days, she has spent daytime not eating anything and looking rather tired (she does little other than sleep, though admitedly all my cats are with little appetite and sleeping loads. Probably because it's hot these days). At night, well, she ate a lot yesterday, which gave me hope, and something more today. (More on this in suggestion number 2.)

So, first off, the feeding. Just so you know, I alternated between Recovery (medical wet food), chicken bits and tuna.

> The Recovery food is sticky and, when she tried opening her mouth to clean herself, her jaw gave and that scared her away from eating Recovery (up until yesterday, but today she rejected it again).

> Before, if the bits were too small, they fell off her mouth and she couldn't eat them. Same with tuna. (She 'drank' both when I mixed them with a little water, as a sort of soup, but some of the food propper -sometimes a lot- always remained.) This is what I helped her eat by holding the bits in my finger so she could fit them inside her mouth (btw, never force it. she has to take it herself. it's just the spoon was too intrusive).

So, first suggestion: I switched from chicken thigh to chicken breast because the texture seemed to make it easier for her to grab with her tongue/mouth. The thigh was more slippery. I think this helped, but it was still a battle to keep things from falling off from the new gaping hole and probably because of the jaw bothering her. But this looked like a step in the right direction...

> And now, she even rejected the chicken bits.
Let me be honest, I'm losing it. I wonder if there's any space for her to eat. I don't even want to especulate about the damn tumor having something to do with it. This constant battle, and I feel ill-equipped, I think I reached a new low today...
Back to what I was saying. I tried tuna again, in case. Again, she drank, not ate. So I looked for ways to make tuna an easy to grab and chew. And I finally managed it, so:

Suggestion number two: combine tuna with melted cheese / (light) cream cheese. Cheese being sticky but not overly so seem to help her grab tuna bits with her tongue, and apaprently stimulates appetite.

Those are my suggestion for future cases like my kitty. I'll be honest, I am hoping all this can help anyone else at this point... I now remember I took a video few days ago to try show you what I meant about her being hungry and willing. So long as she can find ways to eat, she will. That's how wonderful strong she is. I'm just running out of ways to help her, really. I don't even know what kind of help I'm asking for any more. But I just want to ask anyways. (I wonder if I'm just trying to be at peace with myself at this point. Sorry about this... I just know I don't lose anything trying anything. And just talking about it helps. Maybe I'll get ideas out from the conversation like earlier.) Thanks for your comments so far, and dropping by, and asking about her. Just wanted to tell you that.

 

[rubysmama]

I'm so sorry you're going through all this with Sueño. Hugs to you and Sueño.

 

[SweetiePie1]

Hi NadiaRey,
You are trying sooo many things and I think that's all you can do. She is a strong girl and she will let you know what she needs so stay close. You should be at peace because you know you are doing everything you can. Sending encouragement and support.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And lighting a candle for her!

 

[Leomc123]

maybe its better for her to eat liquid soup wih vitamins for a bit until she gets strength back in her jaws. If you think about it, she did have surgery and with surgery there is pain, numbing of nerves. So feeding her pasty food would probably be a little exhausting for her to lick it or try to swallow pasty food.

You say she is prefering to drink thin liquid easier, as it is 1: easy for her to pick up with tounge, 2: no chewing involved (less pressue on jaws ) and 3 : its easier to swallow. Maybe leave a few bowls of soup around so she can drink as she needs to to fill up. I would keep away with the sticky food and stay with liquid watery lapable soup for her to drink .

I think chicken soup mixed with vitamins would be a good solution , or tuna soup with vitamins. If she had surgery on her jaws, the incision sights in the mouth may be making it painful for her to swallow or have numbed her nerves so she cant grip the food properly. Pain also causes inflamation and she could be having dificulty swallowing, from the air tubes from surgery which irritated her throat, or inflamation of the whole mouth.

Poor Sueño i think she will be ok, she may be a little drained from the pain that she may not be showing that is probably why she wants to sleep. You are doing a wonderful job, dont give up on her. She will be ok.

 

[NadiaRey]

The thing is, the surgery was a week and half ago (sep17). Sure, she still has the stitches (which she tugged at yesterday and hurt herself) but we stopped the analgesics because she didn't seem to be in pain (and I have to be careful not to hurt her liver). She shouldn't be, really. She got stronger, strouts around wherever she pleases and has even been playing with me - the rate of recovery of this lady is amazing, honestly. If I had to say, more than the surgery, what's bothering her is probably the dislocated jaw (a lot less now, mind) and... I don't want to think about it but it might be that the tumor is re-emerging and making the throat space constricted. That's what's scares me. But so far, she's eating - in fact, she even put up weight! so yay!

As for liquids, I think I mentioned it before but, the first days, she ate through a foley catheter... so yeah, liquids, and this medical paste, which I diluted in water. It was her that took it off and tried to eat solids (and has been rejecting the medical paste ever since; she previously loved it). So, actually, it's her that wants to eat something non-liquid and I'm trying to help her achieve it. But yeah, I was thinking the same thing as you: something easy to pick up with the tongue and swallow, and easy chewing. Plus, I usually make chicken in a bowl and make it a sort of soup, and she does eat that up gleefully so, yeah, the soup idea is great.

Also, I switched Recovery (medical paste) for good old classic wet food... and she's eating! With some difficulty as everything else but, with some patience, she can eat most of it on her own! So, thanks, Leomc, you were right!

So yeah, a sort of update that's half hopeful, half... the other thing. I'm going to start immunotherapy today. My worry now is if I mix medication with food she'll stop eating. In fact, she's so 'back to normal' she's as stubborn as ever... And if I use a syringe, well, the daily stress can't be good. I know it deviates from the original question but, does anybody have a suggestion about feeding a stuborn cat medication? (I'll browse on my own the search results later, as I'm sure this has to be a common question.)

 

[NadiaRey]

*not strout. "Prance." I now see I have been using that word wrong...

 

[rubysmama]

Awww... sweet girl. I hope she beats this. How old is she again?