He hasn't eaten on his own since his Jaw was broken

Hello everyone.

I am in need of some advice. I am a volunteer for a cat charity, and I was recently sent to pick up a cat who was badly injured. When we arrived we found a very dirty, 4 year old, neutered male who had had severe trauma to his face. Resulting in a broken Jaw and the lose of his right eye. Despite the fact that he must have been in agony he was friendly and affectionate, and he even started purring when we put him in the car. You can imagine we fell in love straight away!
We took him to our lovely vet who performed surgery on his eye and wired his Jaw. My friend had agreed to foster him so we picked him up and took him to his new home. We noticed that he tried to eat but was struggling when he still hadn't eaten by the next day we took him back to the vet and found out that somehow his Jaw had not stayed in place so he had to have another surgery to redo his wiring. That was 10 weeks ago! And since then he has not eaten anything on his own. My friend has been syringe feeding him every 5-6 hours.
We have tried different foods wet and dry we have changed flavours, but nothing is has worked. I should say he has complete use of his mouth and tongue. He drinks water, cleans him self and chews his nails, he plays with toys etc.
Our vet us stumped as to what the problem is. He is having the wiring removed today in the hope that might be the problem.
As you can imagine my fiend is exhausted and stressed.
Any advise or suggestions anyone could offer would be amazing.

Thank you

Gosh, I've heard of cats possibly getting  "hooked" on being syringe fed, but never actually heard of it happening.  Normally I wouldn't advise withholding food, but I wonder if your friend put food out for him, and didn't syringe feed him for 24 hours what would happen...whether or not he might eat a little on his own?

Do they know what caused the trauma to his face.  Could it have been some sort of trap that he got caught in...possibly one with food  in it that has now got him afraid to put his head into a food dish?  Just trying to speculate here

We actually have a kitty (Chloe) that had gotten the kitty flu (according to the vet) and refused to eat so I started to syringe her.  She fell in love with this and did not want me to stop, I had a heck of a time getting her to eat food on her own again.  If I remember correctly I started with putting a little of the food from the syringe on a saucer (during her feeding) and lifted the saucer to her mouth.  It took a little bit to get her back to eating on her own but she did get it gradually.  Good luck in getting this little boy eating on his own again. 

Hi thank you for getting back to me.

Sadly the vet suspected he was hit in the face with a bat or bar.. [emoji]128546[/emoji]

He hated syringe feeding at the start. He very nearly starved himself. We were so grateful when he started allowing us to syrine feed, that we gave lots of cuddles and praise. Oh dear we might have created an addict.

He also had cat flu at the start and one of our theorys maybe it was the sensation of all the mucus running forward.

We are trying the withholding of food today. He is very vocal when hungry. So I have suggested friend goes out for work early trying not to feed him this morning and then doesn't go back till late.. let's see.

We have tried putting food on the syringe (which he totally associates with food) but leaving it on the floor. Will try lifting to his face.

Thanks again for all the advice! I will keep you posted [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Poor boy I have no advice for you, but wanted to send healing and eating vibes
Hopefully when the wires are removed he will come around.

Have you tried hand feeding him little bits of chicken or meat? I have a FIV+ cat that sometimes needs a lot of encouragement to eat, but it I hold a little piece of food under her nose she's take it.

Sorry i has taken me so long to let you know the out come of this. After trying for a few more weeks to tempt blue to eat, we decided to try a different tactic. We got him a friend, and sure enough after a couple of days of watching Xena eat, Blue started eating. [emoji]128515[/emoji][emoji]128515[/emoji] so much so that the vet informed us last night that he is a little over weight![emoji]128513[/emoji] thank you for your advice and good wishes!

That is the best update ever!!!

He looks fantastic!  You'd never know that anything so horrible ever happened to him (yeah I know the missing eye and all.....but his actual face looks perfect!!)

Thank you so much for helping this poor guy - you are an angel  

That's such good news. He looks fantastic, love his pretty new girl friend too.

Thanks guys

The vet did fantastic job! I know he is a wonderful cat! And Xena is lovely. Happy ending! [emoji]128525[/emoji][emoji]128525[/emoji]