Cat keeps getting beaten up

[NastyOldBag]

Any suggestions on how to stop my dickhead cat getting into fights?

He’s 18mo, pretty small, neutered, very friendly to people and to other cats when I’ve seen him around them. I used to let him come and go as he pleased but now I only let him out during the day.

Today he’s been at the vets for the third time in 6 weeks for an enormous cut which I genuinely thought might have needed to have his tail amputated for. Each vet visit has been for a separate injury, he regularly comes in with cuts to his face which suggests he’s the one being aggressive. He had a nasty cut on his tail about a week ago then another today but the rest have all been face and ears.

As we’re quarantined I’m trying to only let him out while I’m in the garden so I can keep an eye on him. Within minutes of losing sight of him I’ll hear screams and then he’ll come sauntering back covered in blood.

Am I going to have to keep him in? I’ve checked on various local FB sites to see if he’s injured anyone else’s cat and a few people have said they’ve seen him kicking off but then he’s just been beaten up.

It must have young to protect. Well this is a new one.

Poor love. Beaten up by a squirrel and then having to wear a baby-gro.

Another thought, if he is recently refusing to use his usual litter tray, is that because he is finding it painful because of his repeated attacks by the psycho squirrel? What kind of litter tray is it?

I don’t know what I can do about squirrels. The trees in our float den are protected and I’m not allowed to touch them without permission from the council. I’ll just let him in the front garden for now, no trees there.

He stopped using his litter tray last summer when I first started letting him out after he’d been neutered. He seemed to realise he didn’t have to do it in a litter tray and just won’t even try it anymore. He used to have a covered one with a flap door. When he first got attacked I put him in my bedroom and ensuite for a couple of days to make sure the kids didn’t bother him. I put his old litter tray in there plus an open one in case it was the lidded bit that he didn’t like. He just peed and pooed all over the bed, then on his bed, then got into my wardrobe and did a shit in one of my shoes which I didn’t discover for several weeks .

*float den , should be garden

Oh dear! No wonder those bites have been so severe if they were made by a squirrel. Squirrel teeth look as if they would be really painful. I suppose you could try and deter the squirrels a bit - eg use a squirrel proof bird feeder if you feed the birds and net any fruit bushes. The only positive is that you have identified the culprit and, with luck, you poor chap will be ok if he just goes in the front garden.

Could you stick a camera on him, to see what he's up to?

Ahh delete my message - just read that it was a squirrel!

www.google.com/search?q=how+to+deter+squirrels+from+garden+naturally&oq=how+to+deter+squirrels+from+garden+naturally&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l4.9088j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Squirrels don't like cayenne pepper so sprinkle some of that around your fence?

try sprinkling cayenne pepper, pepper flakes, and/or garlic pepper on and around your plants when they are ready to bloom. Squirrels won’t eat anything with cayenne—which you can often buy in bulk. Birds don’t mind the taste

Hey, myname bingo!

Wouldn’t they get burnt if they get cayenne in their eyes though?. This squirrels a royal pain in the bank account but it might have young to feed.

•Wouldn’t they get burnt if they get cayenne in their eyes though?. This squirrels a royal pain in the bank account but it might have young to feed•

Maybe better then to deter your cat from going into that part of the garden:

www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk01QdvANykqtDzJyNWelLXDpIdYt3A%3A1585750548302&ei=FKKEXsCHEtqR8gK0_YroAg&q=how+to+keep+your+cat+away+from+certain+areas+in+garden&oq=how+to+keep+your+cat+away+from+certain+areas+in+garden&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIFCCEQoAE6BAgAEEc6CAghEBYQHRAeUInWAVit6AFgoOoBaAFwAngAgAGAAYgBigiSAQM4LjOYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjA4YiRtcfoAhXaiFwKHbS-Ai0Q4dUDCAs&uact=5

Is there any kind of squirrel trap you can use and then let it out miles from the house?

Block off the bottom of the tree so he cant sniff around. Squirrels can be vicious and may be protecting their young.

If it’s a grey you’re meant to kill them as it’s not a native species.

I’ll try and get a pest man round and see if he can do anything about squirrels

If it’s a grey you’re meant to kill them as it’s not a native species

😱They have a right to life!

I know, I’m not advocating squirrel ethnic cleansing. It’s only if you trap them, you can’t release them.

It’ll have young to look after by now.

He’s somehow managed to reopen the wounds by his tail this afternoon. They look so much worse than they did when I took him to the vets this morning.

Do you think he needs to see a vet again tonight or will he be ok until morning? He’s eating and playing but also constantly licking them. He growled at me for the first time ever when he saw me with the antibacterial powder. My poor cat, he looks such a state!

Do you have a lampshade collar to stop him licking at wounds?

I might have been right but still not what I was expecting! I was thinking along the lines of a squirrel defending itself from his attack, not a squirrel attacking. Poor boy.

I wouldn't like to comment on whether he needs the vet tonight, its impossible to say from a photo/ description. I'd probably judge it on whether he was in discomfort and the likelihood of infection.