Help Kurtis Through Her Recovery

Hey y’all, this is Kurtis (Kurtis Loew). A few days ago, we had some construction going on at home (new roof). Kurtis was terrified by all the noise and snuck into the engine bay of a nearby car. Not knowing she was in the engine bay, when the car turned on, she fell out and just laid on the road. We thought she was dead as she was not moving nor making any sort of noise; no crying, meowing, nothing... A kind neighbor came out to help to try to get her into a cat carrier. Once we started moving her is when we finally heard a tiny noise from her, so we knew she was still alive. We could also see that her face was severely injured and very swollen.

We rushed her to the closet vet, and they began giving her pain medication as well as trying to figure out what exactly was wrong. The vet quickly realized that they did not have the equipment to help her, so they referred us to a specialist about an hour away. Once we got to this second vet, they took her back to begin examining her. Her right eye was swollen, her upper jaw was crushed/split, and her pain levels were so bad that they could not do a full examination. However, they did say she was alert and looking around so that was good. They suggested that she stay overnight with full supervision/monitoring to make sure she would live through the night and suggested the next day we take her to a feline dentist specialist. Also, throughout the night she was given many different medications covering her pain, nausea, muscle swelling, excretion of toxins as well as any other bacterial infections inside her body, reduce pressure in her skull, and killing possible bacterial infections within/on her right eye.

She made it through the night, and we took her to the third vet (a feline Oral Surgery and Dentistry Specialist). Here, they did even more testing as well as a CT scan to see what exactly is injured and to determine if it would be in Kurtis’ best interest/quality of life to proceed with surgery. The results from the CT scan as well as the other tests they performed showed that most of her injuries could be repaired so we gave them permission to start the surgery. This was a very extensive surgery; she had to be completely under anesthesia the entire procedure which also meant even more medications, a catheter placed, constant monitoring of the anesthesia levels along with the other medications and fluids, and her jaw fracture was completely repaired. With the repair, she currently has a Jaw Fracture Repair Symphysial Wiring which is like a retainer except this must stay in for 8-10 weeks. With this in, she cannot close her mouth at all. She will have to go back to this Oral Surgery and Dentistry Specialists to get it taken out under complete anesthesia and medications again.

We are very hopeful that over these next 8-10 weeks, her jaw heals normally with no complications. We are still unsure on how her right eye will heal; we are not sure she can even see out of it at the moment… All that was done for her eye was draining the fluid build up and medications for the swelling as well as an ointment we have to put directly onto her eye every day. As you can imagine the bill from not one, but two specialists as well as a jaw repair surgery were insanely expensive. Not to mention the list of medications given throughout her visits/surgery as well as the medications we must give her for recovery. Anything and I mean anything helps so much to go towards these vet bills… Thank you!