Mr. Face Update — 15-Feb-2002

Last night, Wendy was planning to leave Mr. Face at the her veterinary hospital instead of bringing him home (she typically takes him in with her in the morning (he’s fed, watered, held, & cared for all day) and brings him home in the evening). But, because she was planning to do a feeding tube (e-tube) surgery on him on Friday (today), she was planning to feed him and leave him there.

So she went in with his gruel (a smelly mixture of water and food called “A/D” which is for sickies). Instead of having to squirt this noxious concoction into Mr. Face’s mouth a messy syringe-ful at a time, Mr. Face got ALL EXCITED when the food was brought within range of his little nose, and stuck his whole face into the food dish to gobble it as quickly as possible. This is new behaviour, and was exhibited again when Wendy brought him home and it was feeding time.

We’re thinking that he’s starting to get his sense of smell back a bit (which is good), and is starting to be aware of the right side of his face, which has been nerve-dead to this point.

Wendy also did a visual examination of Mr. Face’s soft palate and said that it is healing very well (it had been split in the accident). It appears that Mr. Face’s lower jaw wire might need to be adjusted — sometimes his tongue gets hung up underneath it.

A good day for Mr. Face!

See pictures of Mr. Face here. To read the rest of the articles about Mr. Face, please click here.