Woman Comes Home To Find Her Cat With Mouth Open
Karlee Trafford didn’t first detect anything wrong.
On Sunday night, Jaxon, her 3-and-a-half-year-old cat, leaped up to join her on the couch as soon as she got home.
Actually, it was very terrifying, Trafford tells The Dodo. “She spoke with her mouth wide open. It couldn’t have been opened much broader, in my opinion.”
Jaxon’s tongue was still moving, she adds, “like she was drinking,” and from somewhere deep inside the forlorn feline came a tiny meowing sound.
“She was breathing,” Trafford, who happens to be a nurse, explains. “No weird sounds, just couldn’t close her mouth. I tried to massage the area, but it was like it was frozen.”
A panicked Trafford made a hasty trip to the nearby emergency clinic. She ended up waiting there for nearly three hours.
And just as the vet arrived to look at Jaxon, her mouth closed on its own.
Trafford went home that night. But the very next day, it happened again.
he next stop was the veterinarian. This time, Jaxon was put under anesthesia while having her jaw gently put back in place. She was told by clinic workers that they had never seen a cat in this condition before but that she could have lockjaw, an uncommon illness in cats.
It is slightly more typical in humans and is also known as tetanus.
Jaxon had no prior symptoms of the disease, according to Trafford.
The most prevalent cause of lockjaw is an infection brought on by a bacteria that enters open wounds.
Outdoor cats are more vulnerable to lockjaw because bacterial infection of an untreated wound is the main cause of the condition.
But Trafford says Jaxon has never been outside and is all caught up on her vaccines.
This leaves the case of the mysterious face freeze unsolved. For now.
But, at least Jaxon got her smile back.
