Looking for any advice or someone who might have experienced a similar thing. I have included pictures.
History: Got kitten from a breeder about a week and a half ago. She is about 15 weeks old, unspayed as of yet. Kitten developed weeping eyes and runny nose, took in to vet and received eye drops (Tobramax?) to give her every 8 hours for the next week. Today would have been a week of eyedrops. They seemed to improve it eventually, but she still has issues. I was keeping her separate in a spare bedroom from my other cats, as she was slinging snot everywhere and I assumed it was contagious. I checked on her about 10:30pm, and was going to check on her one last time before I went to sleep around 1:30am, and immediately noticed her chin. It is very obviously swollen. I took her into emergency vet, who explained it could be anything from an allergic reaction to her bumping it really hard. As far as I am aware she has not had anything new introduced to her environment. She felt her neck and jaw all over, checked in her mouth, temperature etc. There is no obvious rash or scratch we could find. The kitten would cry when she touched a certain place on her throat/jaw. Said she had a high temperature, and due to her upper respiratory issue not resolving, she would give her oral antibiotics (azithromycin every 24 hours) as well as an antihistamine shot just incase it was an allergic reaction. We both had no idea what could be causing such a strange swelling. She told me to continue the eyedrops past the week first prescribed. The vet made me feel better about her respiratory issues, but seemed to have no idea how to pinpoint the issue of her very swollen chin/jaw. Like I said, I noticed it immediately upon seeing her 3 hours later, so I feel like it developed quickly, but its possible I didn't notice before then. She has also been ... I don't want to say gagging, but kind of a half gag? It only occurs maybe once an hour or so. Her breathing is fine.
We have been home a little over an hour now and she seems quite sleepy (though it is 4:30am), and still trying to eat but almost decides at the last minute not to? She will hover over it, lick a few times and then stop - like it hurts. She last ate at roughly 10pm-1:30am when I checked on her? At what point should I try to feed her with a syringe? I will be taking a short nap for 2 hours and checking on her again. I will be sleeping in the same room as her though. I administered her antibiotics as soon as I got home.
I am very panicked at the moment and very worried. I have had cats all my life but this is my first experience with a sphynx. She is such a sweet little baby and I don't want to lose her.
Update: I went in to check on her and she finally slowly ate some of her wet food for me. She still looks bright and fairly alert through all of this but it's still alarming :O
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Poor baby! I do understand your concern. I haven't had a problem like that, but I would guess that the gagging and dislike of eating is probably related to the swelling. So good to hear she's finally eating a little, so maybe the medicine is starting to help. I take it they didn't do x-rays? I'm kind of surprised they wanted you to continue the eyedrops since that may be the cause if it's an allergic reaction. Maybe follow up with an appointment with your regular vet?
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Oh man how scary. These guys can get I to so many things. We have a member PrimateLove who's baby fell off their balcony and did a doozy on their chin. Here is a link.
http://sphynxlair.com/community/threads/minies-fall.27370/
Their baby bruised up badly as you can see. For that to swell so fast it must hurt. I am assuming vet gave a good check at teeth and lymph nodes?
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Hopefully you will see the swelling go down and the URI clearing up. If you feel this is really hampering eating perhaps vet will give another look over and something to help the pain for a couple of days. Please keep us updated. Lair Prayers are sent.
Patti
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Poor baby! Always stressful when something is wrong with our babies and we don't know what exactly. I would follow up with your regular vet to keep them in the loop. Hope the swelling goes down soon.
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I too second a trip to regular vet- I am so sorry you and your baby are going thru this-
We are here for you- this community is great at pulling together and sending huge get well soon vibes and hugs!
______________________________________________________
We worry like kitty is one of our own-
Please keep us updated ( healing hugs)
Tammy and the zoo
______________________________________________________
I agree I would be off to the vet. It maybe a abscessed tooth
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welcome to sphynxlair, good to have you. Sorry to hear your baby is sick. URI, is common when they come to a new home.
That swelling looks bad. Could she have hurt herself someway? Are you keeping her in a cage? It looked that way in the pic, I didn't know?
She does need to be checked out by your regular Vet again. Let us know how she is doing.
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@newpowers - keep us updated. I would definitely take her into the regular vet to have that looked at. When they are that small things can go downhill quickly. Hope it is nothing serious!
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She is being kept in a spare bedroom, but she does have a crate for when I am cleaning the room, or when I wanted her to rest. She has a pet heating pad, I check the room temperature every time I am in there (once an hour at least recently), and with her URI I have run a humidifier every once and a while to help her nose. Her swelling has gone down quite a bit, probably 85% gone? Just a little puffy on the chin area. I have already called her current vet just to check, told her all that has happened, her new medication, and improvement earlier this morning, and said that since the swelling has gone down so much and as long as she is still eating (which she is, she ate her normal amount about 20 minutes ago), I don't need to take her in - but to keep an eye on it. Which I am! Its all I've thought about :/ Her vet says to get her better and then come in once her oral antibiotics are finished and we will try to look into the possibilities of what happened. She is also back to purring, yawning (she seemed uncomfortable/unable doing that when she was very swollen), eating, trying to play, etc.
My thoughts are now on - what happened?! How quickly the swelling appeared, how the antihistamine shot has appeared to work (it went down again just as quickly as it appeared) ... it does lead to an allergic reaction. I'm absolutely paranoid of everything now! I am just stumped. No new food, no new toys, no new detergent or anything used on her bedding. I have went through and cleaned the room again, double checked for any new stuff - nothing; I did not even use any new lotion or handsoap on myself! Years ago I used to foster kittens who would routinely come to me sick, so I know the basics about infection, medication, quarantine, etc.
I just can't get over the shock of how swollen she was and how I have no idea how to stop it from happening again. I am an animal lover my whole life, and I can usually feel out what is wrong with my pets before the vet even sees them, but this I just have no idea. Its so strange, her skin wasn't pink or irritated, her airways are good as she was breathing just fine through it all. I thought serious allergic reactions would cause her throat to close up or very bad rashes? So confused!
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@newpowers That is great news the swelling is going down so fast! Cats heal at amazing rates and even more amazing is the stuff they get in to behind our backs. Glad to hear you spoke to your regular vet and they are aware and gave you sound advice.
_____________________________________________________
Keep updating us..you have many concerned owners sending positive vibes your way.
Patti
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That's great the swelling has went down that fast and that much. Just hope whatever it was, it won't happen again.
They do get into things we never know about or hurt themselves sometimes and we wonder how.
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Crazy it came and went that fast. Does sound like an allergic reaction. Hope your able to pin point it and she continues to get better. Always scary the speed these things can happen at. And always a challenge to get them to "rest"! Good that's she's eating normally. Let us know how she does.
_______________________________________________________
Update:
So sometime in January I posted here about my kitten's jaw swelling up inexplicably. Since then there has been a new development and I just want to share my experience so far in case anyone else ever encounters these strange things!
So in short, she first had a URI which was being treated, her jaw swelled up quite suddenly, remained swollen for roughly under 8ish hours, and then returned to normal. We never really found the cause for this. But she did go into emergency and they did a thorough inspection of inside and outside of her mouth, I also personally looked in her mouth and saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. She was then introduced to my other cats and everything has been fine and dandy until a little over 24 hours ago. Gaining weight and growing like crazy!
We were cuddling in bed and she yawned. It was at this point where I suddenly noticed something not right, so I checked her out and immediately saw the large growth next to her tongue. Up until this point I had no reason to be suspicious of her health, like I said eating fine, acting like a little terror to her cat siblings and me. I quit my job because we are moving soon and I am finishing up my school online - I am around my cats a lot recently. I reeeeally looked at it and decided it could wait until morning. I took her into the same clinic as before, where 3 vets looked at her. All three were absolutely clueless and really did not make me confident in their abilities to spay OR do a biopsy. We waited until our appointment later that day at a cat clinic to get another (hopefully) more expert opinion.
I have to say the cat clinic vet was amazing and really seemed more knowledgeable; she has two sphynx herself, which is why I picked her. I had spent the entire night before comparing her growth to that of tumors I could find online and educating myself on the possibilities. She told me that it did not look cancerous due to the fact it was fairly smooth and had a very small root, or attachment to her gum/under the tongue area. Scully (the kitten) was just in this morning for her spay and biopsy/removal and everything went fine and is home safe now. I am now having to wait until the biopsy results come back next week. I am still concerned it is cancerous despite everything pointing towards benign. It was a bit infected by this point, most likely due to it rubbing on her teeth/biting it and she's on antibiotics. It grew quite large within (almost exactly) a month since she first went into emergency for the mystery swelling. It was slightly under an inch and was pushing her tongue to the side. I was very surprised that such a large growth could be in such a small mouth and go unnoticed. It is a very lucky thing I noticed it by chance.
Like I said, just here to share my experience. She's barely under 5 months old and already been through so much. I have had pets my entire life and never once experienced this much trouble until they were elderly.
This also serves as a reminder for March's dental health month! Take a look in there, you never know what you'll find :O Attached is the picture of the original swelling and some normal pictures of her being adorable
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Wow...thank goodness you were so observant. Hoping biopsy comes back clear. Will keep positive thoughts going your way. Please update us.
Patti
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Glad the biopsy and spay went good. Praying the results will be negative. Keep us updated.
________________________________________________________
How very odd. Thanks for the share and hope Scully's get come back fine. Good luck with your move.
History: Got kitten from a breeder about a week and a half ago. She is about 15 weeks old, unspayed as of yet. Kitten developed weeping eyes and runny nose, took in to vet and received eye drops (Tobramax?) to give her every 8 hours for the next week. Today would have been a week of eyedrops. They seemed to improve it eventually, but she still has issues. I was keeping her separate in a spare bedroom from my other cats, as she was slinging snot everywhere and I assumed it was contagious. I checked on her about 10:30pm, and was going to check on her one last time before I went to sleep around 1:30am, and immediately noticed her chin. It is very obviously swollen. I took her into emergency vet, who explained it could be anything from an allergic reaction to her bumping it really hard. As far as I am aware she has not had anything new introduced to her environment. She felt her neck and jaw all over, checked in her mouth, temperature etc. There is no obvious rash or scratch we could find. The kitten would cry when she touched a certain place on her throat/jaw. Said she had a high temperature, and due to her upper respiratory issue not resolving, she would give her oral antibiotics (azithromycin every 24 hours) as well as an antihistamine shot just incase it was an allergic reaction. We both had no idea what could be causing such a strange swelling. She told me to continue the eyedrops past the week first prescribed. The vet made me feel better about her respiratory issues, but seemed to have no idea how to pinpoint the issue of her very swollen chin/jaw. Like I said, I noticed it immediately upon seeing her 3 hours later, so I feel like it developed quickly, but its possible I didn't notice before then. She has also been ... I don't want to say gagging, but kind of a half gag? It only occurs maybe once an hour or so. Her breathing is fine.
We have been home a little over an hour now and she seems quite sleepy (though it is 4:30am), and still trying to eat but almost decides at the last minute not to? She will hover over it, lick a few times and then stop - like it hurts. She last ate at roughly 10pm-1:30am when I checked on her? At what point should I try to feed her with a syringe? I will be taking a short nap for 2 hours and checking on her again. I will be sleeping in the same room as her though. I administered her antibiotics as soon as I got home.
I am very panicked at the moment and very worried. I have had cats all my life but this is my first experience with a sphynx. She is such a sweet little baby and I don't want to lose her.
Update: I went in to check on her and she finally slowly ate some of her wet food for me. She still looks bright and fairly alert through all of this but it's still alarming :O
__________________________________________________________
Poor baby! I do understand your concern. I haven't had a problem like that, but I would guess that the gagging and dislike of eating is probably related to the swelling. So good to hear she's finally eating a little, so maybe the medicine is starting to help. I take it they didn't do x-rays? I'm kind of surprised they wanted you to continue the eyedrops since that may be the cause if it's an allergic reaction. Maybe follow up with an appointment with your regular vet?
__________________________________________________________
Oh man how scary. These guys can get I to so many things. We have a member PrimateLove who's baby fell off their balcony and did a doozy on their chin. Here is a link.
http://sphynxlair.com/community/threads/minies-fall.27370/
Their baby bruised up badly as you can see. For that to swell so fast it must hurt. I am assuming vet gave a good check at teeth and lymph nodes?
_________________________________________________________
Hopefully you will see the swelling go down and the URI clearing up. If you feel this is really hampering eating perhaps vet will give another look over and something to help the pain for a couple of days. Please keep us updated. Lair Prayers are sent.
Patti
________________________________________________________
Poor baby! Always stressful when something is wrong with our babies and we don't know what exactly. I would follow up with your regular vet to keep them in the loop. Hope the swelling goes down soon.
_______________________________________________________
I too second a trip to regular vet- I am so sorry you and your baby are going thru this-
We are here for you- this community is great at pulling together and sending huge get well soon vibes and hugs!
______________________________________________________
We worry like kitty is one of our own-
Please keep us updated ( healing hugs)
Tammy and the zoo
______________________________________________________
I agree I would be off to the vet. It maybe a abscessed tooth
______________________________________________________
welcome to sphynxlair, good to have you. Sorry to hear your baby is sick. URI, is common when they come to a new home.
That swelling looks bad. Could she have hurt herself someway? Are you keeping her in a cage? It looked that way in the pic, I didn't know?
She does need to be checked out by your regular Vet again. Let us know how she is doing.
______________________________________________________
@newpowers - keep us updated. I would definitely take her into the regular vet to have that looked at. When they are that small things can go downhill quickly. Hope it is nothing serious!
______________________________________________________
She is being kept in a spare bedroom, but she does have a crate for when I am cleaning the room, or when I wanted her to rest. She has a pet heating pad, I check the room temperature every time I am in there (once an hour at least recently), and with her URI I have run a humidifier every once and a while to help her nose. Her swelling has gone down quite a bit, probably 85% gone? Just a little puffy on the chin area. I have already called her current vet just to check, told her all that has happened, her new medication, and improvement earlier this morning, and said that since the swelling has gone down so much and as long as she is still eating (which she is, she ate her normal amount about 20 minutes ago), I don't need to take her in - but to keep an eye on it. Which I am! Its all I've thought about :/ Her vet says to get her better and then come in once her oral antibiotics are finished and we will try to look into the possibilities of what happened. She is also back to purring, yawning (she seemed uncomfortable/unable doing that when she was very swollen), eating, trying to play, etc.
My thoughts are now on - what happened?! How quickly the swelling appeared, how the antihistamine shot has appeared to work (it went down again just as quickly as it appeared) ... it does lead to an allergic reaction. I'm absolutely paranoid of everything now! I am just stumped. No new food, no new toys, no new detergent or anything used on her bedding. I have went through and cleaned the room again, double checked for any new stuff - nothing; I did not even use any new lotion or handsoap on myself! Years ago I used to foster kittens who would routinely come to me sick, so I know the basics about infection, medication, quarantine, etc.
I just can't get over the shock of how swollen she was and how I have no idea how to stop it from happening again. I am an animal lover my whole life, and I can usually feel out what is wrong with my pets before the vet even sees them, but this I just have no idea. Its so strange, her skin wasn't pink or irritated, her airways are good as she was breathing just fine through it all. I thought serious allergic reactions would cause her throat to close up or very bad rashes? So confused!
_____________________________________________________
@newpowers That is great news the swelling is going down so fast! Cats heal at amazing rates and even more amazing is the stuff they get in to behind our backs. Glad to hear you spoke to your regular vet and they are aware and gave you sound advice.
_____________________________________________________
Keep updating us..you have many concerned owners sending positive vibes your way.
Patti
_____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
That's great the swelling has went down that fast and that much. Just hope whatever it was, it won't happen again.
They do get into things we never know about or hurt themselves sometimes and we wonder how.
________________________________________________________
Crazy it came and went that fast. Does sound like an allergic reaction. Hope your able to pin point it and she continues to get better. Always scary the speed these things can happen at. And always a challenge to get them to "rest"! Good that's she's eating normally. Let us know how she does.
_______________________________________________________
Update:
So sometime in January I posted here about my kitten's jaw swelling up inexplicably. Since then there has been a new development and I just want to share my experience so far in case anyone else ever encounters these strange things!
So in short, she first had a URI which was being treated, her jaw swelled up quite suddenly, remained swollen for roughly under 8ish hours, and then returned to normal. We never really found the cause for this. But she did go into emergency and they did a thorough inspection of inside and outside of her mouth, I also personally looked in her mouth and saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. She was then introduced to my other cats and everything has been fine and dandy until a little over 24 hours ago. Gaining weight and growing like crazy!
We were cuddling in bed and she yawned. It was at this point where I suddenly noticed something not right, so I checked her out and immediately saw the large growth next to her tongue. Up until this point I had no reason to be suspicious of her health, like I said eating fine, acting like a little terror to her cat siblings and me. I quit my job because we are moving soon and I am finishing up my school online - I am around my cats a lot recently. I reeeeally looked at it and decided it could wait until morning. I took her into the same clinic as before, where 3 vets looked at her. All three were absolutely clueless and really did not make me confident in their abilities to spay OR do a biopsy. We waited until our appointment later that day at a cat clinic to get another (hopefully) more expert opinion.
I have to say the cat clinic vet was amazing and really seemed more knowledgeable; she has two sphynx herself, which is why I picked her. I had spent the entire night before comparing her growth to that of tumors I could find online and educating myself on the possibilities. She told me that it did not look cancerous due to the fact it was fairly smooth and had a very small root, or attachment to her gum/under the tongue area. Scully (the kitten) was just in this morning for her spay and biopsy/removal and everything went fine and is home safe now. I am now having to wait until the biopsy results come back next week. I am still concerned it is cancerous despite everything pointing towards benign. It was a bit infected by this point, most likely due to it rubbing on her teeth/biting it and she's on antibiotics. It grew quite large within (almost exactly) a month since she first went into emergency for the mystery swelling. It was slightly under an inch and was pushing her tongue to the side. I was very surprised that such a large growth could be in such a small mouth and go unnoticed. It is a very lucky thing I noticed it by chance.
Like I said, just here to share my experience. She's barely under 5 months old and already been through so much. I have had pets my entire life and never once experienced this much trouble until they were elderly.
This also serves as a reminder for March's dental health month! Take a look in there, you never know what you'll find :O Attached is the picture of the original swelling and some normal pictures of her being adorable
_______________________________________________________
Wow...thank goodness you were so observant. Hoping biopsy comes back clear. Will keep positive thoughts going your way. Please update us.
Patti
________________________________________________________
Glad the biopsy and spay went good. Praying the results will be negative. Keep us updated.
________________________________________________________
How very odd. Thanks for the share and hope Scully's get come back fine. Good luck with your move.
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