Nix's Jaw
Nix is a rather high-stress kitty, and awhile back (Feb 2004) one of my roommates had a cat that would spray. He was a male cat, and he'd been fixed, but he continued to spray. This was not okay by Nix. She repeatedly attacked him, and we would separate them, and finally we started her on cat-antidepressants to see if it would help her mood. Two weeks after that she attacked him again. This attack ended when he jumped to escape her, she bit into his tail and tried to follow after him--however, her weight ending up breaking her tooth off in his tail--and she fell, breaking her jaw. Nix's lower right jaw was shattered, requiring a plate and multiple screws, and the rest of her lower jaw was repaired with a wire and a pin.
Then a month ago, one of those screws started to come out, as the jaw healed pushing it out through her gum. The vet decided to remove the plate to allow the jaw to heal completely and to prevent potential complications if the plate stayed in and allowed for infection.
Now, we're waiting for Nix to heal. Since she only eats dry cat food (refuses to touch tuna, cat-milk, baby food, cottage cheese, or anything soft and cat-food-esque), we use a coffee grinder to grind up her dry food, and then we mix it with water so she eats. Hopefully, she'll heal soon and be back to chomping happily on her dry food, and romping about.
Update
Nix is doing well enough with her jaw, but a week ago we found a small lump on her that looked strange (unlike a normal cat-scratch bump, and matching the bad mast-cell tumors found via Google). We thought it was a simple fatty tumor (she is queen sized), but it was a mast cell tumor and she had surgery to remove it. She seems fine now (and it's only been a week) and it shouldn't recur. She seems happy and she sure looks cute in her e-collar.
