Cat tail injury/ incontinence

SillyMangoX

Hey guys, many of you know Dude was hit by a car last night and has broken his tail. He still has bad swelling and bruising at the moment so it will take time to see the full effects of this but the vet is worried that there may be incontinence. Has anyone had any experience of this? Most of my reading has been that if they have't recovered control of their bodily functions after 6 weeks that it won't happen, and possibly the kinder thing to do is to end suffering, but I'm hoping that someone may have experience of this in the long term or know if there are any specialists that may be able to help? I know I'm getting ahead of myself a bit but I just want to be prepared with all the information I possibly can. Thanks!

Mr.Fred

We had a cat which was hit by a car. Poor old thing lost an eye and a broken tail followed by incontinence. It was an easy decision before long that putting her to sleep was the best choice. She went down hill quickly and was in an awful state. Probably not what you want to hear though. :-(

mymo

My daughters friend has a huge white cat that lost his tail (and was badly injured) by a car, he had some incontinence at first, but a week or so on he seemed to, be able to try and get to the litter tray and after 3 weeks was mostly making it in time.
By the time his broken leg healed he was fine again, so don't worry yet.
There is probably a bit of trauma in the area, you should know in a few more days.
Fingers crossed for Dude. X

SillyMangoX

Great to see 2 sides of the story, I'm trying my best to be realistic and I know if he will be suffering I'll make that tough decision but I just would want to exhaust every possible option I can first. Apparently it can take anywhere from a week to a year to be fully recovered but the fact he is happy, walking and eating make me a bit more cautiously optimistic, don't want to get my hopes raised too high though at the same time..

SillyMangoX

Finding it really hard to express Dudes bladder, I'm hoping it's just because he was emptied before leaving the vets but can't help but feel I'm letting him down

aonb

poor you. poor dude. You know the vet will make expressing a bladder look so easy - they have the knack - you will get there - we are always scared to hurt our pet when we have to do something new - dont stress about it too much or you will tense up and get upset. You'll manage it. Best wishes for the little chap!

SillyMangoX

I had to bring him to the vet this morning to be expressed as I just couldn't do it, even the vet had difficulty because his muscles are so seized up but I've to give him Valium this eve and see if that will help and if I can't do it then bring him back in. But on a slight positive, he scratched his litter tray before going and pooing on the floor so it makes me mildly hopeful that something may be coming back..

SillyMangoX

Even the vet could get very little out of him this evening, so he's going into the vets again in the morning to get a catheter fitted so that will hopefully make things easier over the weekend

sparkle_23

SillyMangoX wrote: »

I had to bring him to the vet this morning to be expressed as I just couldn't do it, even the vet had difficulty because his muscles are so seized up but I've to give him Valium this eve and see if that will help and if I can't do it then bring him back in. But on a slight positive, he scratched his litter tray before going and pooing on the floor so it makes me mildly hopeful that something may be coming back..

Fingers crossed it's only been a few days & I guess these things take time to heal right?

SillyMangoX

sparkle_23 wrote: »

Fingers crossed it's only been a few days & I guess these things take time to heal right?

Yeah nerves are notoriously difficult to heal, i would have No problem if he was just leaking urine all the time but he's the opposite and not passing anything at all which is quite dangerous, he could get very sick from it

blakerobinson

"Today, after letting Dude out of his crate he ran straight up to me and gave me loads of lovely headbutts"

God, i'm nearly crying here

Dude sounds like such a lovely kitty, I hope he makes a full recovery. Best of luck to you man.