Bubble Trouble!

Bubble trouble - on scratching postBubble toruble - cuddling ownerBubble trouble - sat upright

Meet Bubble! Like many cats, she spends several hours each day resting, relaxing, and snoozing, interspersed with mad moments of playfully tearing around the house.

One day things must have gone a bit too far when her owners were out at work as they came back home to find that Bubble had her tongue sticking out and appeared unable to pull it back into her mouth.  An emergency visit to Peak Vets was in order that evening to get to the bottom of the problem.  On arrival, Clinical Director Nigel examined Bubble and found that she had bitten through her tongue and chipped one of her canine teeth. There was also a scratch along one of her ears, and most worrying of all, her jaw was pulled to one side meaning that she couldn’t shut her mouth. The jaw was drifting to the right-hand side causing her upper and lower canine teeth to clash, preventing the full closure of her mouth.  It remains a mystery as to what she had been getting up to that afternoon in the house to land herself in the trouble she did, and goes to show that cats don’t always land on their feet when they fall from a height!

After some pain relief, Bubble was anaesthetised to allow Nigel to examine her mouth in greater detail, and for x-rays of her skull and chest to be taken by our nurse Katy.  The results showed that Bubble had dislocated her jaw (the left temporomandibular joint).  Luckily it wasn’t fractured, and the chipped tooth and tongue injuries were minor enough to heal on their own.  Nigel was able to reduce the dislocation using a pencil (seriously!) by placing it between the upper and lower molar teeth on the side that was dislocated and turning it with one hand, whilst closing her mouth with the other hand. This allowed the jaw to be pushed back into position within the joint, meaning Bubble could now close her mouth.

After recovering from the anaesthesia Bubble was sent home for two weeks of soft food and some additional pain relief.  We are pleased to say that she has made a full recovery and hasn’t looked back since!