My beautiful cat losing 1/3 of her tail

[ooooohnoooooo]

Hello fellow kitty-litterers

My beautiful (but quite grumpy) 15 yo girl came home at the weekend with a totally broken tail 🥲 We don't know how it happened but she in surgery now having her tail amputated as it was un-fixable.

She will have less than a third of it left.

Does anyone have any experience with tail loss / partial tail loss please? She is a hunter and likes to balance and walk on high walls and fences so I'm not sure how quickly she will adapt.

Any ideas, hints or tips for helping her to cope would be much appreciated.

My poor girl. She's so distressed and in pain. 🥲

Oh no! No advice but just wanted to offer sympathy and give the thread a bump

Thankyou @Pudmyboy

We've just brought her home and she has just as little stump left - far shorter than 8 expected. Once the fir grows back she will look like she has a bunny-bum pom-pom ❤️

Bless her.

She's doing remarkably well and has managed to jump up onto a windowsill despite being off her face on morphine 😂

Aww ❤️ sorry to hear this but glad it isn't holding her back 😼

Mine got his very lovely long tail caught in a door last year and the tip was stripped. Utterly horrific. He has a shorter tail now but honestly I think the whole thing was more traumatic for me than him. It didn't really seem to bother him, he's still as active and he has less range of motion at the tip of his tail but you can still tell his mannerisms through it?

I'm so sorry.
I've no experience of tail loss but one of my girls had to have a leg amputated, she coped really well and is perfectly fine now.
I hope your kitty is too.

Manxes manage just fine in terms of balance, so I'm sure your poor kitty will be okay even if takes you and her a little time to get used to her new look.

I have a bunny tail cat who lost his years ago. He's absolutely fine without it and is agile and nimble and also cute as anything with his little stumpy tail!

So don't worry OP. Your cat will be fine

There's a lovely cat near us with only a small amount of its tail left -it certainly doesn't seem impeded by this; it's very agile and runs up our trellis and along the fence no bother; and likes teasing my two! I am sure your lovely girl will be just fine.

@SevenSeasOfRhye
My three legged cat is exactly like that too!

We've got one with a stumpy tail - not sure how she lost it as we adopted her like that. Never slowed her down.

In fact she's got better balance than one of our other fully tailed cats

when she was young and was playing it waggled - so cute

Our little black cat had his tail amputated about half way along about 14 years ago now - he's been absolutely fine with it, doesn't seem to have stopped him doing anything at all.

Mine had his full tail but lost an eye so presumably his depth perception is a bit fucked. Still launches himself around the house, makes massive leaps and eats a vast quantity of the local wildlife so doesn't seem to have slowed him down too much. They adapt.

Thankyou everyone, this is so reassuring. @angerelle mine now has about half the tail of yours.

I'm just nursing wounds of my own after giving her pain killers. I might have to don a suit of armour for the next dose😂😂😂

They're very adaptable. I've seen quite a few kitties on rescue pages that have had to have a leg amputated and they seem to manage fine.

love to you and your furgirl x

Our beautiful boy got run over and the tail was broken. The vet in his wisdom said leave it a week it might recover. It did not. Poor cat had this thing dragging behind him and it was such a relief to have it gone. Left with maybe 1-2inch stump which healed no problem. He went on to live a good 18 years. Didn't impact his style at all! Never bothered him or us xxx

My girl cat had to have her tail amputated after it being badly damaged in an accident. It honestly didn't slow her down at all. Within a month she was back catching mice and generally rampaging.

We may have nicknamed her Stumps..😊

This happened to my 22month old boy, he came home with his tail hanging off, limp last month.
He had emergency surgery and he is doing really well. Jumping, climbing straight away and luckily no lasting damage with going to the toilet as he had all his tail removed as it was so near to his bum where it was hanging off.
Try not to worry, she will adapt.
He is an indoor cat from now on though, die to his breed I don't think he's very street wise and don't think he will be as lucky next time.
Will try and upload a pic of him now (still waiting for fur to grow back).

Awww all of these poor kitties with their injuries. It's heartwarming to see that they have all recovered and been happy. My little fluffball still has a lot to linger for.

Within weeks she will be back terrorising the local mouse population.

That happened to one of my cats. It came home with its tail severed. We never knew what happened. Hope your kitty is feeling better soon.

Cats are pretty tough.

They are tough indeed and I can confirm that she's lost none of her fighting spirit. I'm covered in scratches as she hates taking the pain meds.

It's a 2 person job and we still struggle.

If it's liquid you can drop it on some wet food or some treats. That's what I do

Check the leaflet, a lot of meds can be crushed. I never pilled the Bengal & he was often on painkillers.

A friend’s cat recently had to have this - had a “tail pull” injury and had it removed, leaving only a little stump. He recovered really well and it doesn’t seem to hold him back at all!

It’s surprisingly common and can be caused by lots of things, but most likely a car accident where the cat’s tail gets caught under a wheel as it escapes and it gets pulled and broken by the traction. Sometimes the pull/break is too high in the tail vertebrae/pelvis, leaving the cat incontinent and/or paralysed (and likely having to be put to sleep), so though it’s not ideal to lose most of a tail, it’s far, far better than it could have been, iyswim! Apparently cats generally do very well with tail amputations.

Sending healing vibes to your kitty for a swift recovery! 🐈❤️

Reporting in.

She had the op a week ago and came through well.

She's healing and very tired but up and about.

She's only got a little stump now. 🥲 but is alive and purry 😊