Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi My cat is over a year old and i noticed this evening she was trying the groom under her chin and her jaw spasmed for a few moments, she licked her lips and tried again and her jaw spasmed again. Now when I think about it i dont think I have seen her groom herself anywhere apart from her paws but tonight this looked a struggle. Is this lockjaw or something more serious?
She is fine with eating, yawning fine but she did have an issue when we first got her, she had a mouth infection, she took antibiotics and it cleared up.
Side note -She has never peed anywhere but her litter box however last night she peed on our bed do you think this could be connected? Although recently i have been working from home and last night was the first time in a while she was on her own. (thinking out loud there sorry! hah)

I'm looking at her now and shes sleeping fine, and she enjoys her mental 5 minutes when we play so generally she seems fine but that spasm really did freak me out and no where can I read up about it at all.

The vet is a 50 minute drive away and she has panic attacks, so I really don't want to put her through that if its just a stiff jaw and a normal thing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

I know what you mean about the long drive and panic attacks - I didn't bring our Whisper to her third neutering check up for the same reason. But she had checked out fine on her second appointment and we watched her very closely. Failure to groom is not a good sign, nor is suddenly peeing on the bed. It may be something small and the longer you leave things she might get worse. Brave the awful trek, but come armed with lots information so you don't go away feeling you've missed something that might help an accurate diagnosis.
Hope it all goes well.

I'd suggest too getting a few photos of her jaw spasms to show the vet

I agree, the sudden bed peeing and inability to groom is a sufficient warning signal to bite the bullet and brave the stressful vet visit. With cats, very often the sooner conditions are diagnosed the easier (and cheaper!) they are to fix before they get much worse. I would certainly be carting mine off with the symptoms you describe. Good luck.