Update on Tulani - kitten with mouth injury

I'm not sure if anyone remembers - there are so many kitty stories here - but just in case here is a little update on my foster kitten, Tulani, who came to me right before New Years with a mouth injury that I first thought was a deformity. Her bottom lip had been torn off the gums (called a lip avulsion), a canine cracked and the gums infected. At first the vet said that she would need surgery to fix the lip or the results could be devastating. The only problem was that the surgery would cost upwards of a thousand bucks, something our tiny rescue doesn't have.

Luckily we got help from another rescue and got to use their vet with their discount. The vet is four hours away from us but Tulani and I went down there a couple of weeks ago. It took a week or so to figure out how to help Tulani and then we had to postpone the surgery because of the horrible snow storms we had here in Illinois.

In hindsight it was good that it happened this way because in the time we were waiting Tulani's lip healed! Her bottom lip used to hang down exposing her gums but as the days went on it started to come up more and more to where it's now fully covers the gums when her mouth is closed. So when we went to the vet to have it fixed it didn't need to be done and only the cracked canine was pulled.

She had a very hard recovery, unfortunately, and wouldn't eat on her own for several days but with the help of cyproheptadine we got her eating again. Now she's over five pounds (up from three pounds when she came) and looks great! Her lip is not completely in the normal position but it's only noticable if you look closely. She's also feeling better now that the tooth is gone and she's racing around the house like a kitten should. Now all she needs is a forever home.

Here are some before and after pics of the pretty girl:

Oh she is absolutely adorable and that's great that the injury healed on its own. I hope she finds a Furever home soon--is it you!?

Such a great update!     I do remember Tulani's story, and I'm so glad that she didn't need surgery after all. Look at that face...she is so cute! 

She has healed up wonderfully! I am so happy to hear she did not need surgery to fix her lip. What a beautiful face she has

Tulani is a total honey, she was gorgeous before and now she is even more delightful because she looks so relaxed and engaged with you in those recent pictures.      It is good she didn't need that other surgery given how difficult her recovery was from the tooth extraction. What a difference having surgery and feeling well have made, and hopefully it will give her more chances of finding that loving furever home she deserves.  She looks pretty irrisistibble to me! 

Thank you for this lovely update.  The next one will hopefully be hearing she has found her new people servants.

Wow!  That is really neat it healed on it's own.  She is adorable.

Oh what a wonderful update!  So happy she seems to have healed on her own.  And she's is simply beautiful!  I can hardly wait for the next update - the one that lets us know she has found her new forever home!