How to Treat a Cat's Broken Tail - Caring For the Cat

1. Allow your cat to rest in a quiet space. Keep the cat inside to let him rest and prevent further trauma to his injuries.[10] Try putting your cat in a small room (like a bedroom, bathroom, or laundry room). This way, you can easily find him, check on the injury, and administer medications.
- Cats that are sick or injured often prefer to be away from children, other pets and a lot of noise or activity.

2. Monitor your cat's habits. You'll need to pay attention to your cat’s appetite, water intake and litter box habits. Tail injuries can sometimes affect bladder or bowel functions. If your cat is leaking urine or feces or not urinating or defecating at all, he could have nerve damage affecting these functions.
- If you notice these problems continuing, talk to your vet.[11] The vet may need to test your cat's urine for infection and adjust any medications.[12]

3. Give your cat medication. It's easiest to remember if you give medications on a schedule. You'll probably need to give antibiotics to prevent infections for any open wounds. Only give pain medication if your vet instructs you and gives a prescription. Never give over-the-counter pain medications.
- Many of these, like aspirin, or tylenol, are very dangerous to give to cats. They can have severe, even fatal, side effects in cats.[13]

4. Keep any wounds or incisions clean. Check the wound at least once a day. Your cat may soil himself with urine or feces since it may be too painful to lift his tail or if there's nerve damage. Sometimes wounds will have crusted blood, discharge, hair, litter, or other debris stuck to or around them. You may need to clean the wounds gently with lukewarm water or very diluted betadine or chlorhexidine solutions, and some gauze or a washcloth. Tail wounds usually don't need to be bandaged.
- Don't use soap and peroxide since they're irritating and damaging to tissues. If you see dry scabs, remember that they're good and don't scrub or pull them off.

5. Watch for infection. Whether or not you take your cat to the vet you will want to monitor the injury (or surgery) site very carefully. Don't let your cat lick any wounds. While there are some compounds in saliva that can help heal wounds[14], excessive licking can irritate the skin and bacteria from the mouth can cause serious infections.[15] Signs of infected wounds are redness, warmth, swelling, and discharge that is white, green or yellow in color.
- You may want to keep an Elizabethan type collar on your cat to keep him from licking the injury. It could take up to 2-3 weeks for a tail fracture to heal, depending on the severity of the injury. Note that it may not heal perfectly, leaving a kink in the tail, but there should be no pain. All open wounds should also close up.