Is this just a scrape?

I trapped a feral kitty in a drop trap tonight, and noticed she's banged up her face. Is it indeed a scrape from ramming her face into the netting, or do you think it's something more serious like squamous cell carcinoma?

I assumed it was a scrape, then saw the area around the mouth, and wasn't sure if that was some blood from her nose on her mouth, or something more serious. Her fur is kind of matted under her neck, and she's barely moved since she's been in the cage, whereas my ferals are usually very healthy, and at least turn their head when I peek in at them.

Given she's a feral, no vet will handle her, and my only chance is the shelter who won't be open again until Tuesday. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Ok, so the pic isn't very clear - but I'm looking at the area around her mouth just under her nose - see how it's dark?

She's moved this morning, and definitely isn't completely feral, but I haven't shoved my arm in to see how brave she is.

She's a beautiful cat! I can't see anything that looks a miss to be honest. Is there any blood at all? She could have a uri, is it cold where you are? Is she sneezing or breathing a little heavy? She looks like she has a very wet nose. My kitties nose was a little sore and had sneezed blood. She is probably scared at the mo, has she settled down at all? What are you going to do with her?

It's hard to see as the wire is covering the area just under her nose. I had a cat with squamous cell sarcoma and that looked different to me - more like crusted over puss (sorry to be graphic). Can you get another picture?

Sending that nothing is seriously wrong with her!

Here's a better photo - you can see her nose looks a bit swollen, and there's pink tinged fluid dripping from - her nostrils? That would explain why her mouth area looked dark - it's just wet. And can you see her chest area - that looks "wet" as well, and she was like that when we first got her home, so I wonder if it's been like that a while? Maybe she was knocked by a car? I don't think she would have been able to hit her face THAT hard in the trap.

She still hasn't eaten yet, but I caught her because she went straight to the trap, and seemed to be eating the food in there.

I see what you are talking about now - not sure what it is? I wouldn't think a trap could do that, but at the same time, if she hit it with enough force as it was coming down, I suppose anything's possible. I guess I have no idea what to suggest, sorry.

She definitely didn't get hit with the trap, and she did throw herself against the side of the cage, but only at the soft netting part, and she did calm down pretty fast.

I don't know if I should take her to a vet today/tomorrow, pay a fortune to get her seen (more if they need to anesthetise her to examine her), and have her freak out from the experience, only to do it again on Tuesday to get her spayed and checked out at the shelter if she's up for it, but at least have it paid for (the shelter bills hubby's work who have set up a fund for the TNR I do on their property).

I doubt a delay of one day will mean a lot if she has some serious problem, and the extra stress is probably not worth it. But we DO like to "make it better" right away, don't we?

I can't offer any help, but hope it's not too serious for her. She seems to have a calmness about her eyes - I hope she's ok

Thanks guys She definitely wasn't completely stressed out. She looked much better from yesterday - her nose was less swollen, her nose had stopped dripping, and she started eating and using the litter tray.

She's at the vet now getting spayed (or maybe neutered... but I have my money on her being a girl), so fingers crossed for a good recovery!

She did really well, is female, and wasn't pregnant or nursing (whew!), and woke up pretty fast, and doesn't look too spaced out.

They cleaned up her nose, and you can see a big graze down it She must have bashed it into the wooden frame of the drop trap at some point after all. Poor thing!

I'll post a new pic once she's settled in a bit.

Here she is now:





You can see her nose is much less swollen, and you can see the redness on the right side (as you're looking at her) of her nose where it's scraped. That must have hurt

Oh and it's a funny ear notch - you can see how it's curled up! At least I'll be able to tell her from the other tabbies - they all have the ear notches at the side of their ear.

I'm a little late to this thead, but i'm glad her spay went well and all is good

I'm so glad to hear that the news is good. It's a shame that she banged her nose, but at least that little graze will heal quickly and is far better than the alternatives that ran through your mind

Will she be adopted or released when she has recovered from the spay surgery?

She'll be released. She's a nice little cat, but not socialised anywhere near enough to be adopted out.