Something keeps injuring our cats. · 1:54am Aug 2nd, 2016
One of our cats came home with a broken tail and a chunk of her chin ripped off. The wound on her chin is not pretty but she can eat and it doesn't seem to bleed that much, so we're hoping it's one of those things that looks worse than it is. Frankly I'm more worried about the tail - hopefully we're not looking at an injured spine and nerve damage. She's currently hiding under a sofa in the kitchen, which is pretty standard for cats - they tend to hole themselves up somewhere safe until they've healed.
What bothers me is that this has become kind of a trend lately. Over the last year or so, several of our cats have returned home with strange wounds - like, way more often than they should. They'll have small patches of fur missing, down to the skin being torn off. Cats often get hurt fighting other cats, but these injuries don't seem to be caused by claws or fangs. In fact, I've lived with cats my whole life but I've never seen anything quite like this. My best theory is that they're getting their fur ripped out by something with a beak, like a goose or some other fowl, but cats don't typically attack birds that large.
Anyway, it's not like these injuries are life-threatening or anything. The skin heals and the fur grows back, and that's about it. It's rather the frequency I find worrying, and that it just started happening to multiple cats all of a sudden. I have a mind to go talk to some other cat owners around here and see if this is something they've noticed as well.
For your animals safety you should probably transitions them to in door animals if possible. It is better for the environment anyway.
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Yeah, that's not going to work out, I think. They're all hardcore outdoor cats and several of them don't like to be around the others much. Keeping them all trapped in the same house forever isn't really feasible.
Also, they are technically mostly my parent's cats what with it being their house, and my folks sorta consider keeping cats indoors to be a kind of mild animal cruelty.
I hope you're at least taking them for proper veterinary care, especially if they're coming around with serious wounds like you're describing.
There's actually a lot of things that cats will get in fights with, they're not especially choosy with their battles when they feel territorial. Depending on your area, you could be seeing wounds from fights with other cats, or it could just as easily be fights with racoons, skunks, or badgers (all of which can carry the rabies virus so I hope all your kitties are properly kept upto date on their vaccinations). Cats can also fall prey to coyotes, cougars, hawks, and owls, all of which have no compunctions about snagging pets for an easy meal, and which will leave their marks even if the cat gets away. Regardless, your best resource is going to be a good veterinarian (not one of those hacks that work out of your local pet store, but one with some experience under their belt) most of them have seen pretty much every kind of wound that a pet can show up with, and these sound like issues that should see some medical attention anyway.
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Well, I can't take them anywhere. I don't even have a driver's license. I did mention that a vet might be a good idea in this case, but my parents are pretty old fashioned when it comes to pets. To them, veterinaries are for when the cat needs to be either neutered or put down. Otherwise they mostly just expect the cats to manage on their own, and so far I haven't managed to convince them otherwise.
To be fair, though, usually the cats do manage. They are surprisingly hardy animals.
Vaccinations for cats is also not really a thing around here. Fortunately rabies has been eradicated in Sweden since 1886, so that's not really something we have to worry about. We also don't have cougars, coyotes, raccoons or skunks.
Foxes and some large raptors could pose a danger, I suppose, but if they strike cats it's very uncommon. Cats are, after all, fairly large predators themselves and probably not worth the risk. Lynxes, maybe, but I've never even seen an actual wild lynx. They don't really show themselves in areas with people.
Anyway, that doesn't match the injuries we're seeing here. This has to be something else - something that's survivable and common, but also strangely new.
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Keeping the cats indoors is overall the best thing to do and the only 100% guarantee of this not happening again. However, if that's truly not an option, do you have a fence in your yard/garden? If so, I would suggest cat proofing it. That way, the cats can go outside safely and other critters can get it.
Barring those, I think your cats just have to luck it out in the wilds.
On another note, what you describe indeed doesn't sound like it's the result of claws or fangs. It does sound like it could be the result of birds though. If it had only happened once or twice I'd suspect a raptor--take my word for it, larger ones like hawks and eagles can and do snatch cats--but I don't think that'd happen multiple times. Either the cat gets eaten or the bird decides it's not worth the risk. Especially not if the cats are on the larger side.
I wonder if it might be the work of corvids, like a crow or raven. They've been known to attack cats nosing around their territory and they can remember the faces of people, so they'd definitely remember your cats.
Also, do have that talk with other cat owners. Even if they haven't seen anything weird, it's good to give folks a heads up.
My cat took down a field rat half it's size but lost half it's tail in the process... this was a heafty rat.
If your cats are avid hunters then there gonna keep coming back injured a lot. Something that might help is placing some food outside for them. Preferably covered to protect from weather. Of course this depends on neighborhood animals and such but i've found a full cat is a lazy one and don't hunt nearly as much. plus i end up with less 2 lb critters dead on my front porch.
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I'll admit the Sweden angle certainly reduces my knowledge of your local fauna, most of my wildlife knowledge revolves around my home state of Colorado where all of those things are quite common.
I'd still say that a good vet is certainly your best bet at finding out what is causing the wounds as most vets will have seen wounds caused by anything common in the area and be able to identify them.
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Aww, how sweet. Your cat thinks you're incapable of hunting/feeding yourself.
Owls.
We had a Great Snowy Owl take residence at our farm one year. It was like a threshing machine let loose in a cornfield.
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