I can home and found a mark on each side of his face, thought a dog had attacked him, or something. Today I cleaned it again and noticed a perfectly round hole on the right side, in the middle of all the stained fur, and what looked like an exit wound on the other side.
UPDATE: I took my cat to a 24/7 vet and they thought it might be a cat bite. They offered to sedate him, clean the wound, and then give antibiotics, but they quoted me a price that could be over $2,000 at most. I’m strapped for cash until pay day. The past two months have been a little tough with expenses. I opted for a $103 antibiotic and a $75 visit fee, which was their second proposed option.
UPDATE: I have made a PayPal Fundraiser. I went against my own concerns for privacy here, since PayPal won’t allow me to hide my name. I worry that the more cruel commenters will somehow attack me. I’m going to have to take that risk, in order to fundraiser for Blue’s medical treatment, though. It is what it is. I am so grateful for all the kind people who messaged me and offered to help financially. I feel so bad asking for help this way, but it will definitely help me to obtain treatment for him before payday. Here is the link, if anyone feels like helping. I don’t know the exact cost for it at the local vet, so I posted a goal that corresponds to the estimate given by the 24 hour vet, as a worst case scenario. Anything helps!
https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/93OoEyefdT
ANOTHER UPDATE: I applied some ointment to his face this morning on the RIGHT side, and applying pressure caused FLUID TO EXPEL IMMEDIATELY from the LEFT side. Call me crazy, but I have trouble believing this is a cat bite.
In response to people calling me a bad cat owner for letting my cat be outside, I need to clarify something for you. This wasn’t my cat until this injury occurred. I live with an elderly relative who just had a stroke. He began putting this cat outside, after he adopted him from a local shelter. I feed the cat everyday and have began calling it my cat, because I live here, too, and now handle many of his responsibilities. The cat will now be an indoor only cat, just like my own personal cats were, when I owned my own home and wasn’t caring for family.
I will post pictures from the veterinary clinic when I take him for the remainder of his treatment. If the fundraiser reaches its goal today, or tomorrow, I will take him to the 24 hour vet, again.
UPDATE: I was denied for Care Credit today.
VIDEO from the emergency vet’s office, taken on 04/19/2024. Blue kept purring through the whole ordeal, despite his injuries. https://youtube.com/shorts/my9pSGAzvMA?si=Re5U5qpBZ_8lqRxY
UPDATE: The Fundraiser has passed $1300 so far. Blue’s face is not oozing as much from the wounds, as it previously observed. My goal is to take him to a local vet tomorrow for treatment. I hope they can offer me a lower quote than the $2238.60 that was quoted by the 24 hour vet. Thank you to everyone who has helped so far! If you haven’t helped yet, but would like to do so, please visit the PayPal link to find the fundraiser. Thank you all!
UPDATE: 04/22/2024 I am currently at the local veterinary hospital with Blue. The vet just examined him and said that it could possibly be a BB. She wants to check with an X-ray of his skull. She also wants to rule out any tooth access, but noted that one side looked infected and the other did not, which could be a result of the infection above, working its way down to his jaws after being shot, or possibly attacked. I am taking photo and video. I will try to get a picture of his skull X-ray after she returns.
My vet tech wife thinks it abcesses from an older dog bite. She believes there would be more damage from a gunshot.
But an abcess would be a round, symmetrical wound and if it was from a bite it explains why there would be another on the other side. There should also be scabs next to the abcesses from the other two canine teeth.
This seems a lot more plausible to me. Exit wounds tend to be pretty gory.
Really? It just appeared yesterday. It wasn’t there on Wednesday. There is a small, round hole the goes deep into the wound. I agree that a bullet wouldn’t have caused this, but it is perfectly round when I looked closer at it. Does she think a BB gun could have caused it, though? The picture was taken yesterday when I first found him like this.
BB guns don’t go all the way through. She also knows that from personal experience.
But the abcesses bursting also means the infection has passed and the wounds should heal.
Ah, okay. Should I ask the vet for an x-ray?
Just see the vet, they’ll examine the wounds and tell you what’s going on.
My wife could be wrong, we have a couple of pics and nothing internal.
Not all BB guns are the same. There are definitely ones that could easily pierce skin that thin. There are plenty of people with BBs and pellets permanently lodged inside them somewhere.
But, seeing a vet is always a good idea with open wounds.
A 22 or a high powered pellet rifle will go right through like this with minimal visible damage. Give that cat some feline safe pain meds and get em check out
Like I said, see the vet.
I want that cat to be healthy and seen by a vet but also the owner to be informed and not worry about neighborhood assholes when it might be a bite.
UPDATE: I took him to a 24 hour vet on an about one quarter tank of gas and managed to make it back home without stopping for gas. I am out $178 ($103 plus a $75 visit fee that isn’t listed on the left most option of this picture). It is still better than the alternative, which would have been to also sedate him, before cleaning and drain the wound. I might make it though the month with gasoline and groceries…might. I don’t know how I am going to afford to have my local vet clean and drain his wounds next week. It won’t cost as much as the 24 hour vet suggested tonight, but I still can’t afford anything they will quote to me.
FYI, they think it might have been a cat bite.
Hey OP, thanks for taking him to see a doctor. Your local vet should charge A LOT less for treatment than an emergency clinic would. My advice as someone who works at a general practice is to be completely honest about what you can afford. There’s a wide spectrum of care from full anesthesia and wound cleaning to more conservative management with medications and the vet can discuss what the best options are. I really feel for you and the stress you must be feeling right now.
Thanks. I felt like crying when I saw the invoice on the right side of that pic.
Do you have paypal? I don’t think im the only one who’d like to help you and your cat out.
Gofundme?
I bet they’d take more commission than it’s worth.
If the cat got the care it needs I’m less concerned with gofundmes bullshit. That being said. No one should have to struggle with paying for groceries and care for their pet.
Zooming in on the first pic it looks like two wounds. Methinks this is a bite. And if I’m not mistaken, the placement is high enough that a projectile would have had to pass through bone. I think there would have been significantly more damage if that were the case. Probably would have messed up some teeth as well. Kitty probably got in a fight with some other animal.
Sure looks like it, what does the vet say? Any soft palate damage? Poor thing might have a hard time eating.
We haven’t taken him to the vet yet. We didn’t know the wound was so deep until this afternoon. I might take him tomorrow. I don’t know if the vet’s office will be open.
It’s worth finding a 24hr emergency vet. A sudden wound on both sides of the face? Going actually through both sides, not just a surface wound? It’s definitely recommended. It’ll be expensive, but he’s probably in quite a lot of pain. Cats tend not to show pain the way we imagine. They hide it.
I know. If this had happened after pay day, I’d already be at the 24 hour one. I have less than half a tank of gas, and less than $500 in my bank before pay day, though. The 24 hour vet near us would require me to fill my tank, and they always charge at least $500 each time I have taken my pets there in the past. I have two debt collectors chasing me at the moment, too, for a total of about $30,000, but I’m putting that on the back burner for the moment. I just wish this would have happened on the 1st of the month, or later, you know?
Jesus. I’m sorry. Check out the mutual aid community. You might find some help there
Pretty sure for those to be entry/exit wounds it’d need to have gone through bone. He wouldn’t be up and walking around if that were the case. The supposed “entry” wound is too ragged to be a bullet or pellet, gunshot entry wounds are the exact size/shape of the bullet.
Likely the canine teeth of some other animal that got a hold of his snout.
I feel like if that was from a bullet, even from a very small round, that it would have caused more significant damage, as there’s a lot of very sensitive areas in that part of the skull. To go straight through like that would also very likely have caused significant bleeding, as there’s a lot of blood vessels around the face, so I imagine he’d have been a lot messier when you found him. If he was shot, he seems very lucky so far!
I think it might be more plausible that those are puncture wounds from being bitten in the face by a larger animal, like a dog as you suggested. Definitely worth taking him to the vet, tho. Hope he’s feeling alright!
That’s what I first thought! Today when I was cleaning it, though, it looked like a small round bb had passed through. When I cleaned it, fluid came out of the hole, along with more blood. That’s when I started to wonder if someone near us had shot him with a bb. Do you think a bb could have caused this? I doubt an actual bullet did, but it’s a perfectly round hole when I look closer at it.
I feel like it would be hard for a BB gun to actually go through an entire cat. I’ve been shot with a BB gun many times because I have shitty cousins and at most it just left a giant welt. If it was a BB gun that was one hell of a BB gun
Ah, okay. Wow. I’m sorry your cousins were so awful to you! As a kid, my parents told me a distant cousin put a small camping blade through the back of my head when I was a baby. They cut him out of all family discussions after that, and I never met him. I think he showed up at one of my sport’s tournaments once, yelled something towards us, and kept on walking. Yeah, family can be weird. I’m glad you’re okay now, though! You seem to be a BB gun expert, at least, now…
Lol it’s all good, they were jerks but we were just kids. Thanks. I know nothing of modern day bb guns but the kind of gun I’m thinking of could not have gone through like that. I think the poor baby got bit by a dog. Have you taken it to the vet? If it did get bit it would be good to verify in case Kitty needs antibiotics or something. Does your cat go outside? If you can’t afford a vet visit I know someone in here would likely help out, cats are a big deal on the Internet lol.
It’s going to be tough this month. I have less than $500 until pay day, but I’m going to call them in the morning and ask how much they would charge me just to diagnose it.
He does go outside. We didn’t use to let our cats outside, but then we thought they might be depressed, so we let them spend a little time outside. We didn’t notice any dead birds. In fact, they let the birds come into the garage and they don’t even react to them, so we figured it wasn’t harmful to the environment to let our two be outside. The neighbors are not close to us. There is no way a stray BB from their house made it this far to hit our cat. Our cats stay near the house, and never leave the lawn. They’re pretty old, and they’re both fixed. They aren’t fighters. Someone, or something, had to walk onto our property to attack him at close range.
A air rifle could go through a cat, I have one and it shot through a coffee can at 50 feet, and they shoot bbs
That cat would missing teeth and other shit if that was the case. It got bit. Not disputing a bb through air rifle or whatnot but no way that happened.
I doubt it was a bb too, I think it would be dead if it got hit with a air rifle, I assume something grabbed it and punctured it.
Same. I feel like it got bit or perhaps a barbwire fence or something. Just hope it’s ok.
Yo that’s fucked
The post only allows one photo, so here is the other side:
Just FYI, you can always add more photos in the body of the post.
As a fellow cat owner, I hope he heals up soon!
Thanks for the tip! I will try to post more once he heals. I just hope it doesn’t get infected.
I hope he gets better soon. Heartbreaking. Gray and white cats are my favorites. 😢
Thanks. I hope so, too. He is such a calm cat. I don’t know what, or who, would want to attack him.
Probably another animal being territorial. Another cat or a raccoon.
Wild animals will fuck your cat up either because the wild animal is being territorial or your cat is defending their turf.
Keep your cat indoors, otherwise you’ll just be dealing with more of this with a chance your cat will get hit by a car or something.
It might seem like cats can take care of themselves outside. For the most part they can, but stuff like this will happen where they get into a fight with a wild animal.
If you can’t afford expensive medical bills for your cat then you really need to keep your cat in doors.
We don’t really have any wild life where we live, except doves and jack rabbits.
😢
Could be from a pellet rifle. Much higher velocity than BB guns, can shoot steel or lead bbs/.22 pellets
Letting your cat freely hang outside isn’t the right thing to do.
I understand your cat goes stir crazy inside but you need a better way of dealing with that.
This is on you my dude. Take better care of your cat.
Edit: downvote me all you want. It just shows that you support negligence. You probably treat your cat the same way. Smh.
Just because it’s outside is not a valid reason to shoot a cat, or any animal for that matter.
There is a discussion to be had about so many cats being outside but in many countries, all cats are free roaming. Saying “this is your fault” is you being a severe asshole.
Edit: Repsoneded before reading it wasn’t an actual projectile wound.
That cat should be inside.
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It’s pretty clear the cat got into a fight and wasn’t shot.
So yes I blame OP. If your cat is outside and getting into fights with wild animals that’s is 100% the owners fault.
Yeah, I agree. People are stupid. Let their pets roam around and then come to the internet with an inflammatory “someone shot my cat” post. Of course you’re not being neglectful, it was definetely the imaginary bad neighbour with a gun.
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What? My cats just go outside so they won’t go stir crazy in the house for too long. How is it cruel to let them go outside during parts of the day?
Cats can easily get hurt or die by being outside. They can get hit by cars, attacked by other animals, attacked by people. They could eat something poisonous, especially by people who put out poison for animals.
You could give them stuff to play with inside, and if you want, take them outside with your supervision.
Clearly your cat wouldn’t have been hurt if they were never outside.
Unfortunately, I have had cats be hurt inside, by each other, because they become so stressed being cooped up in a small dwelling together. That’s what I was also trying to avoid.
It sounds like you have cats that just don’t get along. If there’s a possibility of your cats maming each other, it sounds like they shouldn’t be together.
They tolerate each other, but they definitely don’t love each other. They haven’t attacked each other. They just act stressed when they’re made to stay inside all day together. They start pooping in places that the other one likes to go, even if the litter box is clean. One uses it, and then it’s like the other one goes and poops somewhere else out of spite. They hate sharing the litter box. The female hates sharing a food dish with him, it seems, too.
Very simple solutions to both of those. Get a second dish and a second litter box. Cats get territorial over those things and you might not have poop scattered anymore.
Sorry to join the pile-on but maybe this is helpful information. You need to catify your house! Cat superhighway! More litter boxes! Scratching posts!
Due to my financial situation, it is t my house. I basically lost my last house in foreclosure after 2017.
There’s lots of ways to do that safely.
Catios are a thing.
My partner has fostered multiple cats and now has two. The older one has seen some shit and appreciates being a housecat. She has zero interest in going outside, but she feels safe basking in the small catio while we have a hot drink on the patio.
Maybe in your very specific case it’s OK for the cats to be outside because you have some type of electric fence to keep the coyotes or foxes out. This is very similar to dogs on a leash. The general rule is keep them on a leash. But one in a thousand dog owners has trained their remarkable pup to not need the leash. I’ve seen it, but the rule is dog on a leash for the 999 of us.I live on a hobby farm, and my cats are indoor outdoor. Stuff like this happens. It’s life. After I read the Cat Who Cried for Help I made a choice not to deprive my cats of the enitre outside world. Also I need them to keep the rodents down. This isn’t your fault. Cats are gonna cat. If you believe keeping your cats inside is a good choice for you than by all means do so, but don’t hate on poeple who make diffrent choices.
For some reasons people think cats should stay inside no matter what, which I think its cruelty forcing an animal inside. It’s true that leaving them outside exposes hem to risks but they have lived alongside humans for a short period of time, they should still have most of their instincts.
Cats absolutely decimate populations of small fauna. They’re an ecological disaster. Either keep your cat indoors or don’t get one. You are not entitled to own a living creature; it’s a privilege that must be exercised with consideration.
I love cats. I wish I could have more of them, but I can’t for all these reasons.
I live on a large piece of land that has nothing around it. The cats never leave our front yard. Cats lived outside for centuries. In fact, one site reported that cats have lived outside for 10,000 years, before being domesticated. They are part of nature, too. They shouldn’t be on some kind of pet house arrest just because they are also part of the food chain.
Nobody is denying that cats are wild animals. The point is that they are uniquely capable hunters that can unilaterally exterminate the small fauna in a region.
I mean maybe your cat in particular is lazy and doesn’t hunt, but most cats do. For instance, house-cats kill 3.7 billion birds annually.
My cats haven’t killed anything. They’re older, and like to lay around all day. They walk in the front yard, poop somewhere, and then typically go back to bed. The vet asked me to estimate my male cat’s age, and I said, “probably 10.” We adopted him full grown, and he is probably older. These are not a couple of cats that hunt things around the area.
My cat is old, too, and he mostly doesn’t kill anything when I let him in the backyard. But that is not the norm for most cats, and people need to be aware.
Next thing this guy is going to advocate for is letting your dogs out the front door lol. If you want your cat to live longer and not get horribly injured then you shouldn’t let them outside. But I guess you think that okay.
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I feel the same way. Mine don’t hunt birds, and every so often they need some fresh air. I realize not everyone agrees.
You could bring them outside safely, you don’t have to let them loose.
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are u ok?
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People being arseholes on the internet and people downvoting the most mundane shit on these type of sites is not exactly rare unfortunately. That aside though, having briefly read through your post history I think considering seeing a mental health professional might be a good idea. If for no other reason than the stress of your concerns or the stress of a pet being injured.
You went through all of my past posts, which is basically stalking my account. No offense, but I think you need the mental help.
Lmao first you abuse animals and then you call for doxxing, but you really think you’re in the right?
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If you look at the other replies, you’ll see people politely explaining. You didnt have to make these rude replies.
