Skinned Tail

[cheef]

our new 5 month old tortie got her tail caught in the recliner. We did not know this at the time as she did not yep or anything. However, my granddaughter went into the kitchen and saw blood on the floor. As we investigated we saw that her tail was bleeding. On the underside it has an area approx 4 inches long which is missing the fur and is down to the skin. It is bloody and looks bad but she appears to be ok. Is there anything we need to be worried about? Will the fur grow back? I hope so. Thanks

 

[hissy]

You should take the cat to the vet. Recliners are dangerous when you have cats or kittens. What we ended up doing was going to walmart and buying foam. We put the foam under the chairs, cut them to fit. We did the same with under the foot rest, because one of our cats could get up and under there to sleep. I know that recliners are capable of breaking a cat's back, so you have to be careful. There are so many bones in the tail, your cat should see a vet. He will be able to tell from the xrays if there is any problem

 

[callista]

Yeah, 4 inches is a big wound on a cat. I am assuming that if the fur is gone, the skin is damaged as well... If so, the vet will probably have to stitch her up... The sooner you get her to the vet, the better; if you wait too long, the edges of the wound start getting scar tissue, and there's a bigger chance of contamination, which means the wound can't be stitched anymore since it would just get infected. If that happens you have to let the wound heal as it is, and there's a big chance of infection, a really long healing time, and possible scar tissue that limits the tail's mobility.

You will probably have to give your cat antibiotics, to prevent infection; but these are not very expensive. Try to get them in liquid form if your cat hates taking pills; or else you could be getting stitches to match your cat's!