My cat’s tail got caught in a door.

Jzk220

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My indoor cat, Bella is 3 years old. She
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was entering a door in our house with springed hinges which makes it close on its own. Unfortunately her tail got caught into it while she was walking in, luckily i was there and i didn’t let the door close in on her tail completely and immediately opened it back up while she hissed and ran away.

Its been about six hours but my cat’s tail has started to droop about halfway from the base. When she tries to erect her tail It seems as if she is only able to move the first few inches of her tail and the other half is limp but even so, she continues to move it about in all different directions as she normally does.

When i try to touch it to check for any lumps she meows in pain and bites to stop me from touching so it’s definitely painful. Untouched, however, shes moving and jumping about normally.

Shes a persian so the hair makes things much more difficult to diagnose but from what i could feel, it also seems to be a little swollen. I dont have immediate access to a vet so i thought i’d post this here.

Should i be treating this as an emergency or should i wait for a while and see if everything goes back to normal?
 

Furballsmom

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Hi
It sounds as though it's getting worse, rather than improving. I don't think this will go back to normal. If you can, try and see if you're able to work out a way to get her to a vet.
 
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Jzk220

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Hi
It sounds as though it's getting worse, rather than improving. I don't think this will go back to normal. If you can, try and see if you're able to work out a way to get her to a vet.
Thanks for the response!
Where i live, veterinary x-ray places are separate from veterinary hospitals. I am going to take her in for an x-ray today but unfortunately the only place where i can get someone who knows about cats is 7 hours away from me, i could be terribly wrong but the main reason i am reluctant to do it is so she stays calm and stresses as little as possible because she hates car rides.

I would however like to clarify, the drooping and all other symptoms i mentioned began immediately after the incident and they continued for 4 somewhat hours until she jumped on her cat tree and fell asleep. I worded that a bit incorrectly, my apologies.
 
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Jzk220

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Its about 6:30 in the morning, my cat just woke up and i was glad to see that she can defecate and urinate normally. She even let me feel her tail more than last night and didn’t react too violently, there is a distinct bump at one of the spots where the tail begins to droop.
I reckon this is probably a fracture but the x-ray will clarify the rest.
I cant see any scraping or external damage to the tail. I hope an amputation isn’t required, fingers crossed :crossfingers:
 
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Jzk220

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I got the xray done. Can’t immediately tell if something is wrong since there’s no apparent fracture visible but i would love for someone to take a look and see if i am missing something.
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neely

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What did your vet or the radiology tech who took the x-ray tell you? Did they mention a follow-up exam?
 
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Jzk220

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What did your vet or the radiology tech who took the x-ray tell you? Did they mention a follow-up exam?
To be quite honest, when i was 12 we moved to a place where veterinary knowledge about felines is almost nonexistent and keeping cats as pets is quite rare. The people who performed the radiology didn’t seem to know if something was wrong, most veterinarians repurpose their knowledge of dogs and apply it to cats which isn’t very helpful while the other times they would refuse to treat your cat and recommend you to visit another hospital.

About 7 to 8 hours away from me is the capital city of the country which has like two hospitals that i know of to somewhat have veterinary knowledge of cats but visiting there regularly with 5 cats is very hard.

I do know a few veterinarians online back in america and i’ve sent the xray to them to take a look at.
 

neely

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I do know a few veterinarians online back in america and i’ve sent the xray to them to take a look at.
That's a green idea. 👍 I hope the US vets will be able to help give you some further information. I did not realize you were in a location with little to no veterinary knowledge of cats so thanks for the explanation.
 
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Jzk220

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This was quite a long time ago so i thought i’d post a final update.
Bella’s tail was slightly bruised due to the incident which healed a week later.
The vet recommended to trim the hair to reduce the weight a little to help the recovery which i did.
Thanks to everyone who responded and helped 😊
 
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