Q:
Great website! really interesting content!
We have a 7 year old male cat who was hit by a car two weeks ago, fractured jaw, trauma to left eye (ulcer), brain swelling.
On day 2 he was pretty much in almost a comatose state, he has made remarkable improvements. We have him home now. He does shows signs of neurological issues, lethargic, doesn't move confidently, when out of the cage he finds it hard to settle, but the hardest bit he is not eating by himself.
He does show little signs of improvement with his movement and behaviour. He does chew and swallow if we put the food in his mouth. We had him on a O tube, this fell out yesterday and the vet has suggest to leave it a couple of days before putting it back to try and help him eat, the vet also said we should not let this go on longer than 8 weeks..
I feel until the wire in his jaw is removed we will not know if that is causing him not to eat. He seems relaxed and happy. My question is in your experience, will these functions come back or continue to improve to a point and should we put a time frame on this?
We both adore Alex and would do anything for him but put him through more than is fair on him.
Does anyone remember the movie Lorenzo’s oil?
It’s a drama about the search for a cure by the parents of a young boy with severe neurological trauma.
It’s a window into the highs and lows, hopes and dreams when someone you care about is traumatically, effected….yet hope can always be found if you turn over enough rocks…then pebbles…then grains of sand.
I'm late writing back to you, but at the time that you wrote your question, you had the rocks turned over.
Getting him to eat is turning over the pebbles.
Hopefully that is as far as you need to go - cats can be remarkably strong and able to heal from trauma.
Let us know how he’s doing.
Dr. Kris