Miss Belle..

As I mentioned in the last post, I'm sick. My throat hurts pretty bad and, as such, I've been having to keep a bottle of water by my bed to prevent the onset of a coughing attack. Well, around 5 am I woke up coughing. I reach over to get my bottle of water and realized it was empty. I lay there for a few mins and realize that I'm gonna have to get up and head to the kitchen. So I did. I got up, got my water, and headed back to my room. Then.. I was like.. well I should go to the bathroom so that I don't wake up in half an hour having to pee. Well after I came out of the bathroom I went to switch the light off when I saw Belle out of the corner of my eye. She was rubbing her paw on her face.. and with still blurry eyes.. I assumed that she had some of her hair caught in her mouth. Normally, I would just jump back in bed and she'd get the hair out herself.. but this time I went over and bent down .. the room was still pretty dark b/c the only light on was my bathroom.. not to mention I could barely hold my eyes open from the meds I have been taking for the cold. Went I went to sweep the hair out of her mouth I felt something that just didn't feel right. Normally, I grab the nape of the neck .. pull up on the cat.. and do a quick sweep across the mouth to remove the hair ( persians and their long hair!! ). But this time.. when I put my hand down.. I felt her teeth. As I kept fumbling around.. I could feel her tongue... and no matter where I put my hand.. I couldn't find her chin! I knew something was wrong.. I stood up.. switched on the bedroom light and glanced down at belle. HER MANDIBLE WAS DISLOCATED!! I begin saying " OH MY GOD.. OH MY GOD.. " Since she is a persian and she has so much hair.. it basically looked like she had no lower jaw. I could see the back of her throat clear as day. Her mouth was gaping open.. she is freaking out.. and I reach down and try to rub the sides of her jaws.. HOPING that it would pop back in place. It didn't work.. the muscles were so tight that the mandible was not going to budge. When it didn't work I realized that I was going to have to rush her to the vet ER. I ran into the closet .. grabbed a sweater and prepared to rush out the door. As I bent down to pick her up.. her jaw somehow popped back into place. I set her down.. open and close her lower mandible.. rub under her chin.. feel her throat ( b/c her mandible was pushed backwards into the throat.. persian anatomy is a lil different than other cats.. ) and I get her to start purring. It was SO scary. About 15 minutes had gone by since I first had gotten up to get water and I instantly grab the phone to call mom. Mom had told me earlier she was going to keep the phone by her ear so that if I needed anything ( b/c I'm sick ) she could hear me call. I praying that she would hear the phone and she would tell me what I needed to do. I called. It rang. She picked up instantly.. she had just woken up herself in the middle of a night sweat. So it was really weird timing for the both of us. Mom told me in all of her years workin in the vet clinic.. she had never ran across a dislocated mandible. She told me to keep an eye on her and she was call the vet in the morning.

.. with all of that being said.. Belle is goin in for xrays on Monday.. just to make sure she doesn't have a medical condition that is causing this to happen. IF it happens again before then.. I've been advised to take her to the ER.

So .. that is that. She seems to be fine.. but I am still freaked out by the thought of what it looked like and how it felt. Strange.

... Oddly enough.. one time.. Tolkien's shoulder got dislocated. It was actually dislocated to 180 degrees. So instead of the leg being straight down ( like when he is standing on it ) it was sticking straight up on his back. Acting on pure panick I had picked him up and popped the joint back in place pretty quickly. I'm not sure how this always happens to me!! Or how I manage to not pass out when I see such deformities.

Anyways.. just wanted to post on that right quick. It's been the big event of the day. Now I'm going back to rest! Of course I have to post a couple of pictures of the fluff ball, Belle. Bless her heart..