Thanks for the replies. Two vets checked her jaw and said they thought it would settle on its own. It's clearly bothering her but not causing a lot of pain -- she will clean herself a bit, drink water, and rub her head including jaw against objects in the room. They didn't feel she needed tube feeding.



She started eating some dry food -- oddly enough that's what she prefers, and seems to swallow it down without too much difficulty. And she licked up some pureed sardines. But I'm worried at how little she has eaten overall so did forcefeed some of the invalid cat food from the vet today -- she swallows it down with no problems. This time I gave her a decent amount too just to get something in her stomach. It seems (I hope!) she is beginning to feed herself gradually.



And-- hurrah -- she pee'd in the litter box, but she also likes to lie in the box now! I've never seen this (there wasn't a lot of damp litter -- it was way down on the bottom; at least she had used it...). I don't know how to discourage that, except to hope if she uses the box more it will then not appeal in whatever way it does now. Sigh. I will try a bit of soil mixed in to the litter to see if that helps.



I am just assuming she was an outdoor cat since the litter box seems alien to her -- or maybe it's just the injury. Perhaps she slept in a wicker catbed or something that is boxlike and thus she wants to sit in the litterbox. Her coat is lovely though so she is definitely not a real 'stray' -- she was probably just doing her daily rounds when she was hit.



I really appreciate the suggestions as in this kind of case you're really looking for alternatives to try as well as a bit of assurance that you're doing generally the right things.



PS She's purring on the sofa next to me right now -- sure hope she pulls through as she's a little charmer. Here's a pic I took today. At least she looks like a cat again -- her face was like a balloon at first.

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