Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Big Patient




This time, it's Smudge. When I woke up this morning, I noticed blood on his tail, so I took him to the vet. It turned out that he had a cut almost completely around his tail, to the bone. Ugghhh.


The vet said it was likely caused by having a door shut on his tail. I know it's not something that happened at my house--He would have yowled loudly if I'd so much as touched his tail with a door! He does go outside and wanders among a small number of backyards in the neighborhood. It disturbs me to think one of my neighbors might have done this to him. I just hope it was an unfortunate accident and not deliberate meanness.


Poor boy, he's very unhappy with all this. The collar, the dressing, the medicine, the shaving of his tail. It's all a bit much for him, and he's majorly p.o.'d.





The prognosis is uncertain at this point. The vet wants to see how it looks tomorrow before he stitches the wound up. If there's no blood flow, Smudge will become a bob tailed kitty.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Smudge. Hope he's better soon... and keeps his long tail. I found a cat once (who went on to live with me for about 5 years) and his tail made a left-hand turn. ;^) It was broken and just dropped to one side at the break. The vet suspected being caught in the door, too.

Sherril said...

Oh, this just breaks my heart for Smudge. I hope it gets better so he doesn't get teased by the other kitties in the neighborhood.

Debbie Cook said...

Oh no! Poor Smudge!!

Anonymous said...

Oh the indignity of it all! Poor guy! Hope he heals properly and he gets to keep his tail! ~Bev

Anonymous said...

Maybe I'm too much of a hillbilly but I'm thinking snare rather than door since you said the cut is completely encircling his tailbone. I hope Doc finds a way to keep Smudge's beautiful tail. Please let us know the prognosis! Hugs to the Smudge.

Anonymous said...

Poor Smudge! The very same thing happened to my Siamese, Webster. I could 'entertain' you with many stories! In the end (so to speak), he became a bob-tailed Siamese and does very well.
VtMartha