Ally fell 20 feet! Then later rolled down the stairs!!

This morning, Ally went up the stairs, then poked her head through the top rail where the top of the stairs meets the second floor..... then slipped and fell 20 feet to the ground onto solid marble!

She seemed to have the wind knocked out of her, and was startled/scared for about 10 minutes... but then went back to being herself and otherwise seemed ok. I really pushed to take her to the vet to check, but my family told me that there is no reason to take her to the vet unless she seems injured later today.

Then later, going down the other stair-case, she slipped and rolled down half a flight!

I've checked her out, moving every limb around to see if she shows any sign of pain, I've pushed/poked at her insides for the same (checking for internal injuries).... everything seems ok. Her hearing seems to be a little less than before, but that could be in my imagination.

What should I do? She seems ok, but I'm still freaked.

I'd just keep a close eye on her. You might also want to restrict her to a downstairs place for a day or two, as she is likely stiff and sore from all of her adventures. Of course if you see ANYTHING out of the ordinary, a vet call at least would be a good idea.

Bless her heart. Two lives in one day!

I don't know if she had two freak accidents in one day or maybe something more. You may want to go to the vet just to make sure everything is okay.
Be careful, Ally!

Poor Ally! I'm a paranoid person, so if I were you, I'd take her to the vet just in case. That's a lot of falling for one little girl in one day!

I decided to take her to the vet tomorrow. First she will get checked to make sure she's ok.... then if she is, she will get her second vaccination.

Perhaps she is having some inner-ear problems that are affecting her sense of balance?

I'm glad you're taking her to the vet. Cats don't usually have two big falls like that in one day - a cat may roll off something while asleep but they usually don't just slip while wide awake.

Also, I'm not sure 20ft is enough to allow a cat to fully maneuver to prepare for impact. iirc there was a study done, by collecting past reports, of cats that had fallen. Those who fell distances under 2 stories tended to have more injuries or even be less likely to survive due to the fact that they had less time to turn around while falling. I can't remember what the cut off point was for max height that could be survived and types of injuries sustained.

My point, at the very least there could be some soft/connective tissue damage from the 20ft fall. The other fall could have even been because of some weakness caused by the prior injury.

Maybe you need to explain to your family that just because a cat can land on it's feet and keep going (without showing pain) after a fall doesn't mean it's fine. Look at how many people get up after traumatic injuries (adrenaline can cause people not to feel the pain right away) that are not ok - and we don't have to hide pain to keep potential predator species from eating us like a cat's instincts tells it to.

Poor Ally!! I agree with ZanesPal that her balance seems to be impacted somehow. Sending prayers and vibes that all is well and she just gets her innoculation tomorrow

How's Ally today? What did the vet find?

for Ally.

I'd like to know, too. I hope everything is ok for her! I can only imagine how sore she is, poor kitty.

vet thinks she's ok. He said that the only injury she might have sustained won't present itself for a year. She got another shot today.

I came to your thread a day late...
You were wise to have your vet check Ally because cats try to hide pain so perceived predators won't try to attack them.
I am glad your sweetie pie seems OK.

Stop falling down stairs Ally.

The most common injury in a fall of that type is a broken jaw, oddly enough.

I'm glad you had her checked out.

I'm glad to hear Ally is alright. That was quite a scare for both of you. What kind of injury would show up a year later?

supposedly something involving her diaphram and organs being where they shouldn't be.

The vet says that if that's the case, in about a year she'll start vomitting a lot and showing a lot of pain... then they'd be able to do a bunch of dye tests, x-rays, etc. and figure out how to fix her.

He says that it's more common in cats that have been hit by cars than cats that have fallen from high places though. Additionally, he said, "There's a reason people say that cats have 9 lives. They can do stupid stuff that would kill you or me, and walk away from it thinking 'oh ok... I probably shouldn't do that again.'"

Originally Posted by LawGuy

The vet says that if that's the case, in about a year she'll start vomitting a lot and showing a lot of pain... then they'd be able to do a bunch of dye tests, x-rays, etc. and figure out how to fix her.

Click to expand...

..wow, preventative medicine at it's finest.
Lets all hope she's fine and never reaches that point, otherwise it might be to late for the vet to "fix" her.

It seems wierd to me that you will have to wait a year for this to show up, but I'm not a vet and I've never had a cat take a long fall.

Ally.

Oh no!! I just saw this thread..Poor Ally! I'm glad the vet thinks she is okay. Let's hope she is more careful from now on!

Strange Wings had a point. Many years ago my 10-month-old male cat Orfie fell from my 3rd story apartment window. He hit a metal awning 2 floors down, then bounced to the ground. I was at work, and upon arriving home for lunch the "awning" neighbors came knocking on my door - apparently he had made quite a noise and startled them when he hit the awning. They picked up my terrified kitty, thankfully, and kept him till I got home.

The vet checked him that day and told me that falling from 3 stories instead of 2 actually helped the situation, as Strange Wings mentioned. Orf was fine; just had a skinned chin. He never had any later adverse reactions from it. (My family might disagree regarding his mental state at times). He lived until almost 13.

I hope Ally is feeling better.