Advice please

gunsandbanjos

My hubby accidentally trapped my cats tail in the door earlier, took him straight to the vets and they had to amputate at least 2 inches off the end:(
He is back and eating fine, however the wound is bleeding a little. Not sure what to do? He is leaving little smears of blood on the floor when he sits down etc.
Is this normal? There is no dressing round the tail just stitches in the end.

Any advice appreciated:)

Shoshannah

It depends how much blood there is - surgical incisions will ooze a little bit for a while before the blood starts to clot, but if the surgery was performed this morning I wouldn't expect a significant amount of blood by the evening.

Try not to dab at it because you will disturb the wound and may stop the blood from clotting. Ensure your cat doesn't lick or chew at the tail tip, because animal tongues are a common cause of wound breakdown!

I would suggest calling your out-of-hours vet and speaking to them - if they are concerned then they can check your cat to ensure the bleeding isn't a sign of a problem.

Hope pusscat is OK.

Caroline_a

Aww poor thing! and I'm sure your husband feels really guilty too. Tails are really difficult things to heal, my old Dane once had a cut on the end of her tail, it took months to heal because it would scab over... then she'd wag her tail and it was like a !!!!! x-rated movie! Your poor puss is probably missing the end of her tail, and may be waving it so tht it's just caught it. Hopefully a good sleep will allow it to heal over enough to stop the bleeding.

I never managed to keep her tail covered (although she did have a very long, strong tail) and tried a variety of things from one of those things that go over your big toe to a series of plasters! Cats however are much cleverer than dogs and I'm sure she'll be right as rain very soon!

gunsandbanjos

Shoshannah wrote: »

It depends how much blood there is - surgical incisions will ooze a little bit for a while before the blood starts to clot, but if the surgery was performed this morning I wouldn't expect a significant amount of blood by the evening.

Try not to dab at it because you will disturb the wound and may stop the blood from clotting. Ensure your cat doesn't lick or chew at the tail tip, because animal tongues are a common cause of wound breakdown!

I would suggest calling your out-of-hours vet and speaking to them - if they are concerned then they can check your cat to ensure the bleeding isn't a sign of a problem.

Hope pusscat is OK.

Thanks, surgery was done about lunch time. It is not a huge amount of blood, not even enought to drip. Just when he sits down and the end is on the floor he is leaving smears.

I've been trying to stop him licking, he definitely isnt chewing. Just a little lick every now and then. I have a buster collar for him but he went a bit mad when i tried to put it on and i was worried he would hurt himself!

Shoshannah

Is he due to see the vet tomorrow morning for a post-operative check? If he isn't already booked in I would suggest making an appointment if the bleeding hasn't stopped by morning. Keep an eye on him in the meantime and if you have any concerns that the bleeding is increasing then call the vet sooner.

The lampshades are awful, I hate them too, but if he's going to be licking overnight when you are asleep it may be better to persist with it - we don't want the wound opening and poor little chap undergoing more surgery.

Best of luck.

gunsandbanjos

No follow up booked, they just said if i had any concerns to phone them.
I even took the night off work to keep an eye on him:o Will see how he is in the morning.

Shoshannah

Ah bless you - well, definitely see the vet tomorrow if it hasn't stopped because it should have settled by tomorrow morning.

Waterfalls

dressings are very difficult to stick to tails and are very annoying for the patient. You could always ask your vet for a primapore dressing to place over it (lightweight, like a melolin pad with sticky edges) tails are also rather vascular and are bound to ooze, if in doubt, contact ur vet

Humphrey10

When our dog had an injured tail (the side not the end though) the only thing that worked was to put a melolin dressing on it then lots of stretchy sticky bandage, we couldn't use a collar.

gunsandbanjos

We tried the collar again last night and he just got too distressed:(

Left it off and hubby slept in the living room to keep an eye on him. He seems better this morning, tail looks like its dried up, can't see any more blood on the floor.

Thanks everyone who replied:)

pinkcandyflossprincess

I keep lovebirds , when one of ours went for the other ones toe causing bleeding (blood loss is dangerous as they can die very quickly) I put cornflour upon the wound- it stops the bleeding and is an effective first aid emergency treatment.
I dont see why it wouldnt work on your cat if you dipped the tail end in some?