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Please opinions on injured cat.

1.2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  AnotherCatFriend  
#1 ·
Hi,

I have a sick or injured cat here and I do not know what is best to do. She's not my cat. She just comes to visit me at my back door most days. She has what looks to be a wound on one of her back legs. Actually, I noticed that she had this a few weeks ago, but she seemed fine otherwise. But, today she's limping and I don't thing she can climb over the wall to make her way home, so, I decided to take care of her for now.

I am attaching three pictures that I took of her leg. I think that the third one might actually be the inside of her leg. I don't know whether she was fighting or if it is some sort of infection or parasite. I would really appreciate all of your opinions. I would take her to a vet, but she's not mine, so I don't know if it is ok to do that or not. Also, I'd prefer not to get on the wrong side of whichever neighbour owns her. She has a collar and up until a few weeks ago she had a medal with a phone number on it, but now that medal is gone, so I'm kind of wondering if her owner doesn't really care any more or not. I fed her tonight and she didn't eat enough to suggest that she isn't being fed.

She's sleeping on a pillow at the moment and I would leave her inside the house after I go to bed, only I'm not sure if she would panic or not if I left her alone. Also, I don't know what when she needs to use the toilet. I have noticed that she often goes in a rectangular shaped elongated gardening pot with compost that I have outside. Maybe if I brought that inside she would use that? Sorry about the length of this and the erratic way in which I wrote it. I'm tired and not really my best. Thanks for reading. Please tell me what you would do in my position.

P.S. It says that the board attachment limit has been reached, so I am going to try uploading them to tinypic.com and give you the URLs for those.

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#2 ·
Hmm, that's a tough one. Tags fall off of collars all the time. My dogs are constantly losing their tags. So I wouldn't make any assumptions about the cat's owner based on the recent abscence of the tag.

I can't really make out the pics because they're too small to see the details, but it doesn't appear to be an open wound. Is there a noticeable swelling? If so, then my best guess is that it is an abscessing wound that hasn't yet broken open and drained. If that's the case, that may explain why she's not eating much. Abscesses can make an animal feel pretty sickly before they drain.

I think it's exceptionally kind of you to have taken this cat in, and I think you're right to have done so. If she's limping, she's probably not mobile enough right now to stay out of harm's way outside. If you don't have a litterbox, that elongated pot you mentioned will probably suffice until you can get one. It sounds like she's probably been using it to potty, anyway.

Before you take the cat to the vet, call or go around to all of your neighbors and see if you can locate her owner. If you can, great. If not, call your local animal control officer and explain the situation to him/her. If you're willing, let the officer know that you would like to take the cat to the vet since you've been unable to locate the owner, but that you would appreciate any assistance the officer could provide in locating the owner, reuniting the cat and owner, and being reimbursed for any vet expenses incurred. With any luck at all, this can be resolved to everyone's benefit once the owner is identified.

I wish you the best and thank you for your compassionate response to this unfortunate cat's situation.

Laurie
 
#5 ·
Thanks everyone for the replies. I was going to let her stay inside last night, but shortly before I went to bed she wanted to go outside and then she climbed over the wall. I guess she went home. She turned up again this morning and she's doing much better. She seems back to her normal self. The sore is still on her leg but she's not limping. Maybe the limping was caused by something else. There is no noticeable swelling, so hopefully it will heal up naturally.