Jaw and head injury, can anyone offer helpful advice?

[lightblack]

Our 5 month old cat was attacked by dogs on Christmas day. She is an outdoor cat. We were able to save her. There are no vets in the area of the world where we are living.

She was bleeding through her nose and eye. After her initial shock she is breathing normally. She is lethargic but is walking about. Her head is swollen and her jaw dislocated, or at least I think so. I also think she has a concussion. Sounds like liquid or blood squishing if you touch it.
She cannot eat or drink. I have fed her with a syringe. She went to the bathroom twice since the accident. Her top and bottom jaw seems to be okay, not broken, from what I can feel. They are totally misaligned.

I've put warm compresses on her head and next to her body. There is a lump on the side around her stomach area.
If we stroke her she purrs and has been purring and making sounds like she used to. She doesn't seem to be in pain, no yowling. She has opened the eye which she was bleeding out a little. Now it remains shut. From what I could see is that there is a scratch on the white eye covering.

Is it possible to realign the jaw by ourselves? Should I just let her be? How many times a day should I feed her.
Our main concern is the jaw. I don't know if it would make things worse if w try to realign it.

We have other cats two adults and another kitten, same age. When we feed the others she sniffs at the food and makes licking motions but cannot eat.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[zodiacqueen]

Savas, you don't think this is too dangerous for her to be trying to reset the jaw herself AND use herbs to tranquilize??  I think it is way too dangerous for her to try and she'd wind up using too much force on the jaw or wind up overdosing the kitten on those drugs.  I think Wolfie is right in suggesting the doctors that deal with livestock.  I think they're the better choice than a human doctor.  A human doctor wouldn't know jack about animal drugs!

[Savas]

I'd suggest trying the human doc first.

As to drugging... I'd have to know what you have access to. There are herbal drugs like skullcap and Valerian, but the amount you'd need would be close to a dangerous toxicity level which would be hard to administer.

You would likely need help in holding down the cat. If you can't get help, you could try wrapping her in a sheet and bracing your body against your cat to immobilize her. I've used this method, but never for something as tricky as this involving fairly exact hands manipulation as well.
I'm picturing how it would go and I think the angles would be all wrong to perform the maneuver.

[lonewolf07]

Even a vet who deals with livestock has had training in working with cats and dogs.  This I know because I had such a vet.  If I were in your position, I'd do everything it took to take the cat to the vet.  Based on your initial message, your cat has more than just a possible broken jaw.

When our Akita accidently got too rough with our lhasa apso (I know this is a cat forum) we took the small dog to the vet and he had a broken jaw.  If it had not been treated, he would have developed complications.  I'm far from being an expert but I'd take my pet wherever I had to so he/she could get the help she needs.  Easy to say, not so easy to do.

[zodiacqueen]

From what you described about the jaw, it really does sound like it's dislocated!  Your kitten is trying to fix her jaw-I don't think she would if it was broken.

I'd call every doctor in your area, whether it's human or not!

Please check out our health pages in the upper or lower right corner.  There is some good info there!

[lightblack]

Yes there is a human doctor. I was planning on doing that while I'm asking around for an animal doc suggestion. It's just unusual for people to keep house cats here.

[zodiacqueen]

Well, I found a couple of places in Cape Verde-you weren't very specific about where you are.  There is a Dr. Dottora Fatima Santos operates a veterinary clinic in Santa Maria, Sal.  I looked for the phone number and couldn't find one.  I also saw that there are vets in Santiago and S.Vicente.

Please, make sure that you look at the 3 or 4 posts before this one-because there's some good info that you should see.

Please, keep us updated!