Feline Trigeminal Nerve Damaged When Aggressively Intubated

Bette Sees Dentist Who Rules Jaw Issues are Likely Trigeminal Nerve Damage  

From Aggressive Jaw Opening When Intubated

I know it looks scary that her tongue is hanging out. But the photo from last Wednesday when I took her to the ER and her tongue was really hanging out and her mouth was really wide open and she was breathing hard is scarier. 

But we saw her dentist today and he observed and checked her and he said that she is actually doing much better than what I described that she was doing a week ago and then last Saturday and last Wednesday at the ER. She’s no longer holding her mouth all the way open, she’s no longer sticking her tongue all the way out, not moving it. She’s able to close her jaw even if it is somewhat still open. She can move her tongue which he said is a good sign even if it still hangs out a wee little bit. He believes that someone once, or more than once got aggressive, not in a mean way, but in a “they aren’t paying attention” way when they opened up her mouth, opened her jaw wide for intubation. That damaged or inflamed her trigeminal nerve. It’s a nerve that connects throughout the face, the jaw, the eyes as in the outside of the eyes not the optic nerves. That is why he suspects her right eye is not responding, that’s why she was drooling, had open mouth, her tongue sticking out while she was swallowing hard a few days ago. He believes that she’s on the mend. He said to give it another 7 to 10 days. If after 10 days it hasn’t completely improved then maybe something else needs to be done but right now he thinks she’s on the mend. She may not be perfectly healed, because once the damage is done, depending on how severe it is, it may not heal all the way. He said he doesn’t think there’s a reason to get an urgent MRI either. And don’t intubate her for the next two weeks. Just let her rest. So we will not go ahead with the last two radiation treatments. We do have to see them and go over whatever. But we’re going to skip the last two treatments so that she’s not intubated and I called her neurologist, and I said we will no longer need an urgent MRI but we would like to get one sooner than the one that we have five weeks from now if possible. So we are back to at least she’s no longer drooling. That is a major improvement over this this past week and she’s able to not drool and spit out her food or medications. Now we just need to eventually get her to eat on her own, and hopefully that will happen when she’s more comfortable, licking or chewing and swallowing more solid food. So better news, good news, etc.

He also gave her a shot of the antibiotic Convenia. He suspects that there’s an infection and given that she supposedly had a UTI and then her radiologist said she didn’t he suspects, she probably did, and Zenequin can be too strong. It gets the job done but it’s too strong and so he said Convenia is nice and slow and quiet will work its way through a system and fight off anything.

Bette at home head on counter

Bette May 9 before ER visit-mouth opened, tongue out, fast breathing.