Idk what to do about her....:( What would you do?

[4theSNAKElady]

Ok, so Ill give you a brief lowdown about Nadia... our little bee we adopted in January. She was born with a deformed jaw, and refused food until we got her. We forcefed her a few times, as she was almost emaciated.. then got her to eat fuzzy mice on her own. A BIG step. She began to gain weight. Then, starting in April, she began to refuse food again. At the end of April, she began to drool and bubble. I took her to my vet first week of May, and also asked him to take a good look at her jaw and assess how functioning it is, how bad the deformity was, etc., and what her future was going to be like. After a thorough inspection he said her bottom jaw is very weak from lack of calcium, since she is almost a year old and only able to eat fuzzy mice, which have a tiny undeveloped bone structure. Made sense. He also said the way the jaw was formed, it seemd to "wag" or just "float" there. I also took a close look, and on the bottom right, there almost no jaw there at all. Her tongue sticks out the side when she flicks it more than half the time, and its always partly open, never completely closing. The vet said she still has some fight to her, and to not give up yet. So, he prescribed 10 days of antibiotics just in case for the bubbling, and He told me to put her on a regimen of moistened pureed puppy food kibbles, tubefed every four days or so, to give her extra calcium and calories. In addition, he said DO NOT forcefeed her. Her jaw is already so weak forcefeeding isn't an option because it could break easily. Shes put on a little weight, but shes miserable. I hate having to tubefeed her its so stressful. Last night, I gave her a live fuzzy asf and watched her from across the room(shes in QT) She grabbed it! However, after an hour struggle to try and swallow it, she gave up and spit it out. Watching her really upset me. It was at this point I realized she cant "walk" the prey down her mouth and into her throat like a snake with a normally functioning jaw. Nadia will be a year old in a few weeks. She weighs 146 grams. Tubefeeding is so stressful for her but she puts up a good fight, and it seems like shes trying to survive. Im just so torn.. My husband and I discussed this last night, but couldn't come to a decision. Should I euthanize her? Or should I keep doing as Im doing? I hate to see her soo stressed and miserable. I keep going back and forth. I don't now what to do. What would you do? Phone users, sorry for the "epic wall o' text".

[Mike41793]

If they're eating, shedding and pooping on their own, then im all for letting them carry on. She can't eat on her own. Tube feeding is probably stressful for her. It's like a person being on a feeding tube. Thats no way to live imo. I'd personally euthanize her.

[SaintTawny]

Lady, you only have to satisfy yourself with your decision. If you got the impression that increasing calcium deposits in her jaw could eventually let her eat semi-normally, you might have to try that just to exhaust all potential options. Personally, I might hold onto hope for that. If tube feeding to supplement calcium intake got her to a point where she could take fuzzies, you could do your own version of gut-load by filling a pre-killed fuzzy's mouth with a calcium supplement paste.

[4theSNAKElady]

Thats the thing.....i dont want her to eat "semi-normally" i want her to eat normally...on her own. She couldnt eat the asf crawler on her own. She wanted to, but couldnt.
Im going to try a mouse fuzzy tonight.
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[TheSnakeGuy]

it would be heartbreaking, but I would euthanize it. The stress is probably making the animal's life miserable. And it's gonna be a constant stress on you.

[SaintTawny]

By semi-normally I didn't necessarily mean still with assistance. Again, I don't even know what's within the realm of possibility for her, but if calcium supplements strengthened her jaw enough that she could figure out her own way of eating by herself that might not be 100% normal, would you be happy?

I also understand that your situation is pretty tough right now, and the other question you have to ask yourself is whether what you could do for her with extensive care and effort is worth it, considering all of your other responsibilities.

[bcr229]

I wouldn't give up on her just yet if she's still trying to eat. Did your vet say that increasing her calcium intake will help her jaw development? Did he suggest supplementing her water with liquid calcium since mouse fuzzies don't have much? I think you can also put a drop or two on the mouse fuzzy, or use the paste as was suggested.

[4theSNAKElady]

I think im gonna give the calcium supplements a try on the fuzzy before i give up. She is putting out some effort to eat on her own. If thst doesnt help to the point where it strengthens her jaw enough to be able to consistently eat on het own, i unfortunately think euthanasia is best for her. But im at least going to try, because she is trying. Thanks Jen. Thanks everyone.

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[bubblz]

I don't know if you have yet but I would have xrays done to make sure there are no other underlying health issues or deformities going on. Since she's still young and growing it can go either way with adding more calcium to her diet. Over time it can help to where her body starts to compensate and fix itself to a point where she's able to eat what would be normally for her. Or the deformity could get worse and just cause more issues.
For now I would give her a chance to see which way it goes. Continue with only tube feedings for now to give her jaw time to recover with out having to do much from feeding on her own. I would skip the dog food and this may seem gross to some but I would just get an old used blender and blend fuzzies, hoppers or what ever, maybe even an old meat grinder. To make your own raw slurry that you can keep on hand. Add some calcium (preferably real bones) with pedialyte, a vitamin pill and maybe every other feeding or so add something like Flukers Rept - Aid and see how she's doing a few months from now.
Since she'll be on antibiotics for a while a raw slurry made from whole animals will be a much better choice. Antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria in the digestive system for both people and animals. This (whole prey) will help keep up her probiotics and aid in digestion, which means less stress on her body.

[4theSNAKElady]

Shes actually already done her antibiotics. And the vet mentioned xrays, but he said its kinda pointless at this point in time, because we already know whats wrong. And as far as the raw slurry goes, Im already there Im giving her raw ground chicken with the bones(a raw diet sold at the store for cats).