Tail problem

First, please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

Bear has a problem with his tail.

He's already seen a vet, she said the tip of the tail is dead and that
it will fall off on it's own, but if it gets infected, or there is any
puss or ooze or anything, bring him in and they'll remove the dead part.

I took a couple pictures today, in my opinion it has gotten a little
worse. Please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

http://www.devilsplayground.net/bear/

Opinions: Take him back to the vet? If so, insist they do the surgery
now or accept "wait and see a bit longer"?

My primary goal is to reduce the amount of suffering Bear goes through,
although not spending $500 on surgery would be nice (but I'll happily do
it rather then making him suffer any longer -- I was planning on new
glasses anyway, I can wait a bit longer for glasses and put the money
towards my Bear)

Thoughts?

"Dave" wrote in message
reenews.net...
First, please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

Bear has a problem with his tail.

He's already seen a vet, she said the tip of the tail is dead and that
it will fall off on it's own, but if it gets infected, or there is any
puss or ooze or anything, bring him in and they'll remove the dead part.

I took a couple pictures today, in my opinion it has gotten a little
worse. Please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

http://www.devilsplayground.net/bear/

Opinions: Take him back to the vet? If so, insist they do the surgery
now or accept "wait and see a bit longer"?

My primary goal is to reduce the amount of suffering Bear goes through,
although not spending $500 on surgery would be nice (but I'll happily do
it rather then making him suffer any longer -- I was planning on new
glasses anyway, I can wait a bit longer for glasses and put the money
towards my Bear)

Thoughts?

Dave, I sure would take Bear in and have it taken care of. If
he were mine. That has got to hurt, though cats do not show it.
I'm so sorry this happened to him. Do you know how it happened?

Dave wrote:

Thoughts?

Several years ago, my husband ran over my cat's tail (Boo-Boo). He was
a beautiful long-haired white cat. We took him to the vet, he told us
the tail was broken and we should "wait and see".

The poor cat had a helluva time sitting down. He would try to sit down,
and his tail was hanging, his tail would bump the floor and he would
spring right back up. In a couple of days, he learned to just fall over
sideways, instead of sitting.

Boo-Boo was fine, we did not have to remove his tail, but your cat's
health situation may be different. Boo-Boo kept himself clean and
spotless, except for the last 4 inches of his tail, where it had broken.
He never groomed it. I had to wash that, myself. Boo-Boo died ten years
later of heart disease, when he was 15 years old.

Best of luck with Bear.

Becca

I would be more into reducing his pain and suffering. I mean, it doesn't
look like it tickles and waiting for it to fall off seems like asking for
trouble.

In the end, you are Bear's family. If it were a person, would you want them
to walk around like that and risk infection?

--
..oO rach Oo.


"Dave" wrote in message
reenews.net...
First, please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

Bear has a problem with his tail.

He's already seen a vet, she said the tip of the tail is dead and that
it will fall off on it's own, but if it gets infected, or there is any
puss or ooze or anything, bring him in and they'll remove the dead part.

I took a couple pictures today, in my opinion it has gotten a little
worse. Please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

http://www.devilsplayground.net/bear/

Opinions: Take him back to the vet? If so, insist they do the surgery
now or accept "wait and see a bit longer"?

My primary goal is to reduce the amount of suffering Bear goes through,
although not spending $500 on surgery would be nice (but I'll happily do
it rather then making him suffer any longer -- I was planning on new
glasses anyway, I can wait a bit longer for glasses and put the money
towards my Bear)

Thoughts?

I'm so sorry this happened to your Bear. It looks as though he may be in
considerable pain. If it were me, I would have it removed by the vet. Best
of luck to you both.

--
Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

In message ".oO rach
Oo." wrote:

I would be more into reducing his pain and suffering. I mean, it doesn't
look like it tickles and waiting for it to fall off seems like asking for
trouble.

In the end, you are Bear's family. If it were a person, would you want them
to walk around like that and risk infection?

If it were me, I'd suffer the pain to avoid surgery.

If it were a family member, I'd ask them. Unfortunately, despite my
best efforts to discuss the matter with him, and despite the fact that
Bear is a very communicative cat in general, I am ultimately unable to
get his input on the matter.

I appreciate everyone's responses though, he is booked for surgery
tomorrow.

in article , Dave at
wrote on 3/20/05 12:36AM:

In message ".oO rach
Oo." wrote:

I would be more into reducing his pain and suffering. I mean, it doesn't
look like it tickles and waiting for it to fall off seems like asking for
trouble.

In the end, you are Bear's family. If it were a person, would you want them
to walk around like that and risk infection?

If it were me, I'd suffer the pain to avoid surgery.

If it were a family member, I'd ask them. Unfortunately, despite my
best efforts to discuss the matter with him, and despite the fact that
Bear is a very communicative cat in general, I am ultimately unable to
get his input on the matter.

I appreciate everyone's responses though, he is booked for surgery
tomorrow.


Please keep us updated. Purrs for a successful surgery.

Dave wrote:
First, please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

Bear has a problem with his tail.

That tail needs to come off.

Let us know how he is doing.

-L.

In message .com "-L."
wrote:


Dave wrote:
First, please don't look at the pictures if you have a weak stomach.

Bear has a problem with his tail.

That tail needs to come off.

Let us know how he is doing.

Dropped him off at the vet's office about half an hour ago. The jerk of
a cab driver didn't stick around, so I walked back.

OT: It's a $3 cab ride, but it's blowing snow and down a windy hill, so
I wasn't planning on taking Bear outside for a walk -- I paid him the $3
and told him I'm giving him another $20 if he sticks around 10 minutes
and then drives me back. This would only have been about $10 total if I
had him wait on the meter, so a 100% tip, but he decided he had better
things to do then wait. Not that I'm bitter.

Anyway, spent last night with Bear -- I don't usually let the cats in my
bedroom at night (for a number of reasons, but mostly that I don't leave
my door open when my roommates are home, and Bear doesn't like being
locked up for 8-10 hours at a time unless I want to play)

I gave him his meds last night shortly after returning home from the
vet's office. I was a little worried, I've never given a cat a liquid
before, but it couldn't have gone smoother. He took one wiff of the
medication (in the dropper) and went flying across the bed. We played
keep away until I caught him and hugged him. As soon as I put the
dropper in his mouth he opened his mouth, drank nicely -- Lost one drop,
but it fell on his chest and he licked it up, so I win

He spent part of the night in the carrier (with the door open) and most
of the night on my bed cuddling with me or with Maxx (my 3 month old
kitten -- Bear is an awesome step-father --
http://www.devilsplayground.net/beasts/ for pictures of a couple of my
pets)

Dropped him off, no complications, just a lot of unnecessary paperwork
(I say unnecessary because my input was not required, nor was my
signature, so there was no reason they couldn't have done it before I
arrived or after I left rather then making me wait -- I'm never one to
skip a rant about bureaucracy though)

They're doing pre-anesthetic blood work right now, surgery is scheduled
for 2pm (It's about 9am as I write this), I should hear back within a
couple hours (but don't panic if you don't hear back until 6pm or so
says the technician, if things get busy Bear gets pushed to the bottom
of the list. Fair enough, they are an emergency hospital as well as
providing regular veterinary services)

It should be interesting to see his mood when I go pick him up. He is
normally the sweetest cat, but the one other time he was left at a vet,
he was a *little* grouchy. Normally that vet would load up the cat(s)
into your carrier when you arrive and bring the carrier to you, but they
were afraid to reach in and pick him up and they couldn't coax him into
the carrier. I went in, he hissed a little at me, but certainly nothing
like the terror they described (so I guess he likes me! yay!) -- While I
don't think I'd be all that happy if I woke up and found my balls were
missing, he's not normally too bad at the vet. When he was in last
night he didn't even bite/scratch/hiss/moan/anything when they took his
temperature.

So yeah, I'm just rambling (mostly because I'm CCing this post to a few
friends as well), thanks for reading this far. I'll follow up once I
hear from the vet whether or not an overnight stay is required, but they
don't expect it to be needed. Once he gets home I'll get some pictures.

In message . net "Diane
L. Schirf" wrote:

In article ews.net,
Dave wrote:

They're doing pre-anesthetic blood work right now, surgery is scheduled
for 2pm (It's about 9am as I write this), I should hear back within a
couple hours (but don't panic if you don't hear back until 6pm or so
says the technician, if things get busy Bear gets pushed to the bottom
of the list. Fair enough, they are an emergency hospital as well as
providing regular veterinary services)

I saw the photos but missed the story -- what happened to his tail?

We don't really know

One day his tail was sore and the tip was hanging down a bit instead of
sticking up like normal. It got a bit swollen, but seemed to get
better, then started getting hard.

The vet says that they see this all the time in households with small
kids and the kid puts an elastic band on the cat's tail or something,
but I'm the youngest of my roommates (23), and everybody here is a cat
lover, so I don't think it was anything malicious.

Second most common cause would be getting the tail stuck in a door or
something, but all our cats are 100% indoor cats and nobody knows what
could have happened.

He's great, you can open the door, Bear won't walk out. You can try to
carry him out, but he'll dig in his claws and insist you immediately
cease under penalty of getting squirted (I've let him explode the door a
couple times, but only when it was storming outside, or when I had
someone out of the cats' line of sight ready with a spray bottle).

He's afraid of storms to begin with, plus the concept of getting
drenched doesn't do anything for him -- So there is virtually zero
chance he snuck out somehow.