When I came home on Monday night, something was wrong with my cat - he was in pain and sitting with his butt all high in the hair; on closer inspection, his tail was limp and pointing straight down (like full 90 degrees) and it didn't look like he could move it. Cue the ER visit - they evaluated him and did a bunch of x-rays, but saw no fracture so their best guess was that it could be a soft-tissue injury or and injured nerve and he was sent home with gabapentin and we were told to monitor. This morning (Thursday), it's still pretty limp and down, maybe just a little tiny bit better; he doesn't appear to be in pain anymore. Has anyone had something similar happen and did it eventually resolve itself? How long did it take? I'm not sure what our next steps will be here if it's not better by Monday or so; I would prefer he doesn't have permanent damage. His tail is very long so it drags on the floor behind him and because he likes to get under our feet, I'm constantly worried we'll accidentally step on it now.
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Injured tail - limp and straight down
- Thread starter trishia42
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I had a cat with the same problem, it took about a week for it to start healing. I think he fell on it from the cat tree. It did return to normal though, it just takes time!
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Oh, that's good to hear! Thank you for the reply. He's 15 years old so I guess things could take a little longer to heal; I just really hope it does soon because it breaks my heart to see his usually happy-up tail just dragging behind him! : (
I hope your little guy's tail will quickly heal! Please keep us posted - I am wishing to hear good news very soon!! 
My cat was about ten when it happened. It seemed to take forever!
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So when we brought him home on Tuesday, we gave him 40 mg of gabapentin (they had prescribed 60 mg, but we wanted to err on the side of caution). He ate a lot and slept all night and in the morning, apart from the limp and dragging tail, he was alert and more or less himself. Wednesday morning, we went with a 35 mg dose to taper since we felt he didn't really require pain killers. He slept most of the day but when I got home, he hung out with us on the porch in the sun. This morning we gave him 30 mg and when I came home, he hadn't really moved and was a little lethargic - eyes barely open and he didn't rush outside when we opened the patio door (something he always does). I picked him up and he felt quite limp and somewhat lethargic; when I put him down his back feet were sort of slipping on the floor like they didn't have much strength - he's not really himself for sure.
Could this just be the gabapentin? We find it odd that he's worse with a lower dose? Is it possible he just ate/drank less today and it's affecting him more? It's been like 11.5 hours since we gave him that dose? We don't want to bring him back to the ER for no reason since it stressed him out and they already checked him out on Tuesday? Anyone ever experienced anything like this? I don't want to be paranoid, but I'm sort of worried!
Could this just be the gabapentin? We find it odd that he's worse with a lower dose? Is it possible he just ate/drank less today and it's affecting him more? It's been like 11.5 hours since we gave him that dose? We don't want to bring him back to the ER for no reason since it stressed him out and they already checked him out on Tuesday? Anyone ever experienced anything like this? I don't want to be paranoid, but I'm sort of worried!
The pain med is most likely starting to build up a little in his body, I would just stop it for a while and see how he does. my cat didn't have any pain meds and did fine.
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He was much better the next morning (24 hours after) so that was a relief. We assume that it could have been due to a buildup. Now we come across another issue since Thursday and it's he won't eat, but I'll make a separated post about it so the subject line is more descriptive.
That is most likely from the pain meds. Get some lickable treats and see if you can tempt him. I use Delectable Lickables in the stew flavors. Im so glad he's better!
I feed my boy delectables stews in whitefish & tuna or chicken & duck. I also always keep a couple of servings of fancy feast petites chicken or fancy feast broths chicken & vegetable for if my cat has an upset tummy. If your cat doesn’t eat anything for 24 hours I would bring the cat back to the vet. Kitty may need antinausea meds.
I hope your cat has a speedy & complete recovery!
I hope your cat has a speedy & complete recovery!
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I’m so sorry you’re going through this. A very similar thing happened to my cat about 2 years ago. Sudden tail limpness and pain. We tried X-rays, etc. and visited 3 vets who couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
Eventually, he stopped eating because he was in such pain when he crouched to eat. That’s when we took him to an ER practice that also had a neurologist and got a diagnosis of IVDD / a slipped disc. We had to do an MRI since X-rays and other tools wouldn’t show the slipped disc.
I’m not sure if this lines up with what you’re seeing with your cat, but thought I’d mention it. Does he still seem to be in pain? Ours was very stoic and only showed a bit of pain until he went downhill and wouldn’t even drink canned tuna juice because the pain was too much for him to handle.
Sending you and him positive thoughts right now
Eventually, he stopped eating because he was in such pain when he crouched to eat. That’s when we took him to an ER practice that also had a neurologist and got a diagnosis of IVDD / a slipped disc. We had to do an MRI since X-rays and other tools wouldn’t show the slipped disc.
I’m not sure if this lines up with what you’re seeing with your cat, but thought I’d mention it. Does he still seem to be in pain? Ours was very stoic and only showed a bit of pain until he went downhill and wouldn’t even drink canned tuna juice because the pain was too much for him to handle.
Sending you and him positive thoughts right now
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Also just wanted to add that the feet slipping bit you mentioned sounds like a possible symptom of IVDD or maybe some kind of other spinal issue.
IVDD is pretty uncommon in cats from what I’ve heard and difficult to diagnose, so general practice vets may not think of it as a possible diagnosis. At least that was my experience.
IVDD is pretty uncommon in cats from what I’ve heard and difficult to diagnose, so general practice vets may not think of it as a possible diagnosis. At least that was my experience.
Yes I had a near feral cat I adopted scaling the walls at the vets office at his neuter appt. He came back with his tail in the down position. It took about 3-4 weeks for the tail to go to normal. He may have did something to his back bouncing around at the vets office. May just need time to heal.
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- #15
The tail started improving a couple of days after; he could then lift it off the ground. We think the gabapentin is what caused the weakness in the hind legs on Thursday since by Friday morning, it was much better. The tail has continued to improve as well over the week, so we are assuming it's nothing serious. But he developed another set of issues (coincidence, I guess) and has now been at the ER vet for two nights. He is terribly nauseous and wouldn't eat and wouldn't have a bowel movement (I have another thread about it). We're at a total loss right now.
