Cat been in a fight

[Glastogirl]

Heard terrible noise outside so rushed out to see my cat fighting with another cat. Tried to spray other cat with water but he didn't care and kept attacking my lovely little boy.

After the nasty cat finally left he hid but has now come in limping with a scratch on each ear. He limped up the stairs to see me and sat down on a blanket to lick himself. He was only in it a few minutes and there's blood on it.. Although I can't where it's coming from.

He limped back down the stairs and has been eating and drinking. Seemed to walk better on flat ground.

I'm going to call the vet first thing tomorrow but not sure what else I can do for him tonight. He has the spare room bed to sleep on with his favourite blankets so hoping he will go and sleep.

It also woke dd3 up who is now crying incase anything happens to him over night. I am assured her he will be fine I hope he will. He's never been in a fight like this before!

[JadeJ123]

I remember hearing my cats getting attacked by the neighbour hood bully cat, was horrible however letting the dogs out soon saw him off and stopped him coming back

[JadeJ123]

But I do hope your cat is okay!

[Lally112]

He will be fine, Just banged up a bit. If you had been in a fight you wouldn't appreciate taking the stairs either. How much blood are we talking? a little or full on hammer house of horror? If the bleeding doesn't stop you will have to try and find the wound and put pressure on it but I am sure it will be fine.

[Glastogirl]

Not a massive amount (if it were I've be calling the vet tonight).
He's now alseep on the back of the sofa :)

[Lally112]

The vet will likely just check over and make sure any wounds are healing and don't look infected, might give some medication either topical (to be rubbed into skin) or in tablet form if there is a possibility of infection but he will be ok. He might get shaved with clippers though to get a proper look so prepare for one grumpy moggy tomorrow.

[Glastogirl]

Thank you for your helpful advice I feel more reassured now!

[Lally112]

no probs, If sleeping on the back of the sofa is normal for him (like every other pampered cat) then its not serious, When cats are injured badly or frightened they take themselves away somewhere dark and quiet and usually hard to access like under the bed or in the back of a cupboards etc. I qualified as a vet nurse years ago - I just don't practice small animal much anymore so not sure what the current prescriptions are for them. Give me horses, cows, sheep and pigs anyday.

[cozietoesie]

A full-on cat fight sounds like the end of the world is coming so I'm not surprised you're upset. (You sometimes see people on this board asking 'Are they fighting with each other?' and they can seem a bit quizzical when other posters say 'Oh - you'd know, believe me!') It's not all noise but you do have to remember that noise is a part of a cat's armoury so it's probably not quite as bad as it sounded.

The main problems are from dirty bites and claw puncture wounds (or also, in my own experience, the effect on older/less robust cats of that big adrenalin rush and stress on their whole system.) The vet should check him over this morning and see if he's generally OK so good luck with that.

Let us know how he gets on.

[Lally112]

How did we get on this morning? Did he even need a clean up or meds?

[dogfish22]

Make sure his eyes are ok. Cat-girl was in a fight last week, and got her eye injured in the process. She's ok, but unfortunately expensive business to get checked out, but better than an infection and losing the eye.

[Glastogirl]

DP took him to the vet this morning. He had three very nasty bites on his legs (2 on the same leg) and one on another. He also had bruising (although how you tell that on a cat I have no idea). The vet thought it had gone through to the muscle and that's why he was limping.
He's been given an anti inflammatory objection and painkillers plus due to the severity of the bites he's on antibiotics for 21days. He doesn't like pills so the vet have him an injection for the whole course in 1 go... I think do said it was slow release over the 21 days? (Cost a lot but worth it!)
So we don't have to give him anything, just look after him at home! :)

[Glastogirl]

Sorry for all the dreadful auto corrects!!!!

[cozietoesie]

Seniorboy gets AB injections like that - they're a 14 day effect though, if I recall. He's just so phobic about pills that the vet wouldn't any longer even bother with anything orally - it's more expensive but at least you know that it's inside him. (Pills only stand, say, a 1 in 4 chance of staying in and when you're dealing with a long course of ABs that's not on really.)

Glad he's been seen. He'll likely be a bit subdued for a few days and then it should be uphill. Have you seen any sign of the mean intruder?

[Glastogirl]

We think he's moved with the new neighbours over the road. How can I keep him away?

[Sparklingbrook]

Your poor cat. Sparkling Cat got set upon by the local ASBO cat and had much the same and we had a £95 vet's bill as she had an abcess where the bite was.
Same cat has done it again to another neighbourhood cat in the last month or so.

I think whenever you see this cat you need to get the supersoaker out. and chase him off.

[cozietoesie]

As Sparkling said, some sort of supersoaker/water pistol whenever you see him in your garden. Also, have you got a chip cat flap so that your lad can dive for cover if you're not around? (If not, best to keep him in anyway after dusk and until breakfast.)

[cozietoesie]

PS - although you don't know but that your cat gave a good account of himself, small though he may be, so the other cat may be wary of coming in to his territory too much. Best to take precautions though: the other cat sounds a bit mean.

[Glastogirl]

He was so cocky, when I chased him off last night, he walked about 5 feet and stopped to stare at me. I had to chase him about 4 times to simply get him out of the close.

We only have a tiny water pistol which didn't have any impact!

[cozietoesie]

I'll confess to using one of those pressurised garden water sprayers - which are actually very useful for other household tasks - and can send a spray of water about 12-15 ft if pumped up. It got to the point where I only had to go out to the back door and do some pumping and any cat in the garden would scoot away sharpish, just from the noise. They really hate being wet.