We think Sylvester might have a broken tail. We noticed it about a week ago. In the past he often held his tail straight up, with maybe a little curl at the end, a typical cat tail posture. Lately, though, he can’t seem to “get it up.”
This is about as high as he can raise it.
He hardly looks sassy with that loopy tail.
It also tends to droop to his right side.
He followed us down Lavender Trail Thursday night to see how the painting and HVAC are going at the new house. This is typical Sylvester behavior; he hangs back crying like a little kitten, and then trots up to us
Normally his tail would be either up or almost straight out behind him. Here you can see it drooping to his right, dangling with no apparent control.
It seems to us that the first couple of inches of his tail are normal. He can move that around and raise it up normally, but from that point to the tip of his tail, it seems to just hang there. We haven’t been able to inspect his tail closely, but there doesn’t seem to be any visible injury. We have no idea what might have happened. If a car had run over his tail, I would expect there to be some serious abrasions. If he just managed to escape a coyote by the skin of his taily-tail-tail, there should be some sign of that. But nothing, as far as we can tell.
I suggested (hopefully) to Leah that maybe Dusty bit Sylvester’s tail, but that also seems unlikely. Does anyone have any ideas?
Poor Sylvester. He really is holding that tail in an odd way. I googled “cat tail hanging down” and found some informative websites. This one was interesting:
http://www.pets4homes.co.uk/pet-advice/tail-injuries-in-cats.html
I don’t know why it never occurred to me that tails were extensions of the spine. Knowing that makes a tail problem more important than I would have guessed. Hope Sylvester’s problem is minor, fixable, and painless.
Uh-oh. After reading Robin’s link I’d be inclined to take Sylvester to the vet sooner rather than later. Does it pain him when you examine his tail? Fingers crossed for simple solution and speedy recovery.
Robin and Minnie — I did an update on Sylvester in Sunday’s post.