It's my girls first day out after losing her tail....

hp3 · 21 June 2014 at 8:03AM

I have two cats we adopted from a rescue, they are wonderful and best friends. We always give our cats the option of going outside (secretly hoping they don't like it and become indoor cats) all our cats so far have loved the outdoors. A couple of weeks ago my girl came in looking very sorry for herself and was unable to life her tail properly, I notice she was bleeding from it and limping on her back end. She wouldn't let me touch her tail to see so we took her to the emergency vets as I had no idea if she'd been hit by a car and couldn't leave her until the morning. Basically he looked and said she had a tail pull injury and it would have to be amputated. He thought a door might have been shut on her or she's got caught somewhere. We took her home with painkillers so she could sleep and our usual vets did the amputation the following day. She has been in for two weeks so her tail can heal and we can make sure she can manage with her new 'stumped' tail around the house etc. she has been fine and adapted really well to it. Vet said she can live a normal cat life as it won't affect her as much as we think. She has been howling to go outside since and I feel so mean keeping her in. Today is the day we have opened the back door and let her out by herself (hoping her friend will look out for her) has anyone else had experience of this and how have you found it? Our knee jerk reaction was to keep them as indoor cats but it would just be for selfish reasons as they love being outdoors.

Polmop · 21 June 2014 at 8:24AM

Has she come back in yet

GwylimT · 21 June 2014 at 8:27AM

Yes, quite a few years ago I had a cat that had to have his tail amputated as he had an abscess that just wouldn't clear up, he had a stump that was maybe three inches long at most. He was perfectly fine, a loss of his tail didn't effect him at all.