Behaviour after tail amputation - please help!

[laurenburgoyne96]

Hello, about 9 days ago my outdoor/indoor cat (4 year old female) came inSide after being out, with a paralysed tail and pain. We took her to the vets where they decided to amputate HALF her tail 6 days ago. Since having the surgery, she has hidden under my bed and only comes out for food/the litter tray. She looks really distressed and is constantly looking at her tail wide-eyed/worryingly and occasionally tries to run away from it. Her tail/ bottom of her spine is also twitching a lot. She is on pain meds every 24hours (loxicom) and had her bandage changed yesterday by the vet who said the site looked ok/not infected.

What can I do to help ease her anxiety’s? It’s really distressing for her and also for me too seeing her like this.

Does anyone have a similar experience or had a cat with a tail amputation? How did they recover/how long did it take?

Thank you

[Mollycat]

My neighbour's cat had a back leg amputated this summer. It took quite a while for her to get used to it not being there. Every now and again she would try to walk backwards, go to step back and panic because her right leg wasn't touching the ground.

Is there a reason why the vet left half the tail if it was fully paralysed? Is your cat able to move it, and does she seem in pain if you touch further up the tail ie away from the would site? Also you have to think there has bene some trauma that caused the injury in the first place and that may be the cause of distress rather than the amputation.

[laurenburgoyne96]

Thank you for your reply!
He said that if he amputated any higher she’d risk losing control of her bowel/bladder and that the main priority was to stop her tail dragging on the floor/risk it getting stuck in something. It’s about 3 inches now. I’m too scared to feel her back as I don’t want to distress her any more but the vet said she didn’t react when he felt the base of her tail on Saturday, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. I’m starting to wonder if it’s the bandage that’s distressing her!
And yes, I definitely agree that she’s still getting over the trauma of the injury. The vet seems to think she was hit by a car as her paw pads were scratched from her trying to run away whilst being hit. I just hope she gets back to her normal self .

[susand]

I wonder if she is experiencing ‘phantom limb’?

[laurenburgoyne96]

Yes, this was my fear !

[Mollycat]

I wonder if she is experiencing ‘phantom limb’?

Sounds very likely and if so that should resolve, it's very early days.

[laurenburgoyne96]

Oh really? I hope so!! I read somewhere that it can only last a few weeks/months so I’m hoping it’ll go over time