My cat might have broken his tail?

This is my first post...Looks like a great forum for all of us cat lovers!

Anyways, this morning when we got up my favorite cat, Wednesday, was sitting on the island like usual watching us make breakfast. I picked her up and kind of cradled her in my arms like I usually do and she just screamed and cried like crazy. She has never done this before. I immediately put her down, wondering what was wrong. I didn't immediately see anything but I could tell that she just wasn't herself. After a while I noticed as she was walking away from me that her tail looked different. Right at the base of her tail it seemed like it was crinked to the left a bit and the right side was bigger than usual. I went up to her and tried to touch her tail and she didn't want me to have anything to do with it and immediately ran under our bed where she was for a few hours already today before finally getting up and sitting on the couch, which is where she is not. This is not normal for her. Usually she's running around all over the place, so I know something is wrong.

Does anyone have any experience with this, or what it may be? I'm not even sure how she could have done this....She doesn't go outside and we didn't shut it in a door or anything since if we would have I'm sure we would have heard a loud scream from her. I'm baffled. We do have two other cats in the house and they don't get along that great but I can't imagine one of the other cats did it?

Thanks in advance...I'm really worried about her!

This CAN be a very serious issue, so a visit to the vet ASAP (tomorrow morning would probably be soon enough) is called for. That location is closely enough connected to the spine that it can cause bladder and colon problems (lack of control), in addition to immense pain.

That does sound like it could be a broken tail. You should get Wednesday into the vet. They can make sure its not a pinched nerve or something, and they can reset the tail so it heals well if it is broken.

we plan on bringing her in tomorrow morning probably if this blizzard we are having ever ends. i just can't figure out how she did it....anyone have any ideas?

Who knows how it happened. Maybe she jumped off something and landed on her tail. Or maybe she got caught in something. My dog had her hip bone jump out of its socket over night one night. I woke up because she was sitting on the floor next to me crying and panting. I have no idea how it could have happened and I didn't hear anything until she was next to me crying. I think I would have heard it if she had an injury but I didn't. It's quite possible that your cat had an injury that you didn't hear either. Cats are, after all, experts at hiding pain.

I hope she will be okay until you can get her to the vet tomorrow.

Good luck!

I don't know what could have happened to her tail, but it's very good that you are bringing her to the vet tomorrow. I hope she's ok!

I've been doing a lot of reading about it, so based on that and on what the vet told me, here goes... Domestic cats don't use their anal glands much (especially ones that are indoors and have been spayed/neutered) so they are generally only used a little when they go poop to scent it. Apparently Wednesday's right gland wasn't letting anything out, so the mucus was building up. The mucus builds up and then hardens and gets infected. The infection causes an abscess (a big bump of sludge) to form. The bump ruptured to the surface of her skin and is what made her tail shift and look crooked. The vet cleaned the area out, but also had to remove a lot of damaged flesh. So she got the tube placed at the abscess site and then it exited out her tail (the pain makes her not want to lift up her tail, so that is why he put the drain there, so it will always be facing down). This was supposed to help push all the crud out. She was doing fine and draining well, until a few days after I noticed that it looked like her sutures had burst open. I brought her in and what happened was her skin near the site wasn't strong enough to hold a drainage tube and her flesh together (he did take a big chunk out, so I can see why this happened). He decided to remove the tube and just leave it heal as is. She still has a few stitches, though I'm not quiet sure where they are. When you look at it now you can see a big chunk of meat that was carved out and you can see a hole (about the diameter of a straw). It's pretty nasty, I feel so bad. She is being a very good sport. Hopefully nothing else happens and she heals up just fine.

The vet said that ruptured anal glands rarely happen in cats (it's more common in dogs), so at first he was thinking that she got in a fight with one of the other two. Most common abscesses in cats are from fights.

Thanks for all the help on this. She still has the cone of shame on and will probably keep it on her for another week or so till it heals more and she can't pick at it.

Poor Wednesday! Very painful problem. I have heard of infections in the anal glands of cats that require surgery to remove the gland because it ruptured. Hopefully this will heal on it's own but it does sound pretty bad. Hope she feels better and recovers soon

Thanks for the condolences I'm sure she appreciates it! Anyways, she's ALMOST the normal cat that she was before....Not quite as hyper but I think that has to do with the cone on her head.

One thing I forgot to mention....When she was brought in they think she has hyperthyroidism. Does anyone have a cat with that or know anything about it? The doc gave us a quick intro to it but wanted to do more research.

Thanks!

Yes, there are quite a few threads about this. I don't know much about it but there are meds your cat will need now and will begin feeling much better. did they do a blood test to determine this condition?

yes they did a blood test and the vet gave us some info on it. not cheap by any means. i'll have to check out the other threads. thanks!