My cat fell from the window - What to do?

Author: Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation: 4 August 2021
Update Date: 13 November 2024
Anonim
My Cat Fell Out the Window
Video: My Cat Fell Out the Window

Content

Surely you've heard a thousand times that cats always land on their feet. Perhaps for this reason, some people do not care much for the cat to spend hours looking out of a fourth floor window watching the birds. After all these years of living with cats that live in buildings and too many fatal accidents, it is impossible to say that the fact that cats manage to land on the pillows is synonymous with survival.

We know that terrible accidents are very frequent and serious and for that reason, we want to give you some advice on what to do if this happens to your cat. In this article by PeritoAnimal we will explain to you what the first aid if your cat fell through the window.


cat fell from the building

If you immediately notice that the cat has fallen from the building, either through the balcony or through the window, it is essential to collect it as quickly as possible before it recovers and starts running away scared in an environment totally foreign to it. Injured cats usually hide in quiet places, even more so if the area where they are located is totally unknown. They have an instinct to be safe from any situation that makes them even more vulnerable.

Of course, before we manage to go down to the street, our little one has time to look for a refuge and it is very common to find posters in all the veterinary clinics of people looking for their feline, which fell out of the window a few days before. In theory it is always relatively easy but in practice, especially when we talk about cats, the story is different.


-Continues on the hunt, can't move or is scared

You will have to muster a lot of strength and be cold-blooded to be quick to act. run to get the shipping company to go down with her now. If you don't have a carrier, go down with a towel.

Upon arrival, you may find the cat in supine position (turned to one side) and in this case you will have to pass both hands with the back facing the pavement and the palm in contact with the animal's body. In this posture, you must introduce the cat into the carrier, without bending or turning any ends, not even his neck, just like when bakers put bread in the oven. Help is always essential, even more in this case, so the ideal is for someone to help you and dismantle the upper part of the carrier to be able to place the cat on top without moving it too much.


If you don't have a carrier, you can, with the help of another person, create a rigid surface with the towel, using force tension (like a litter) to take the cat to the nearest veterinary clinic.

If the cat moves but can't stand up, it can be very uncomfortable for him and very stressful. It's best to hold the fur on his neck, as mothers do with their kittens to carry them around, and put the cat in the carrier. Your first option should always be to grab him by the chest, but in this case it's not recommended.

missing cat

After falling out of the window, the cat may have only minor injuries and can quickly escape to find a hideout. Some cats get run over while on the run and others decide to hide under cars, or among bushes or any other place where they can hide.

If after searching all the closest possible hiding places, you can't find your cat, you should follow the tips for finding a lost cat: notify all the nearest veterinary clinics and animal refuges (a good help is to put up posters with the photograph cat colors near your house) and wait until it's night to go out looking and calling for him. It is easier for the cat to recognize your voice if there is not so much noise from people and cars. Furthermore, tranquility motivates the cat to come out of hiding.

Although the cat appears to be fine, you should gently place it in the carrier and go to a veterinarian clinic to rule out typical "parachute cat syndrome" pathologies.

Cat Falls - What To Do Before Taking You To The Vet

It is usual, when no apparent lesions are noticed, the guardian sees the cat so scared that he takes him home and contacts the veterinarian to ask for instructions, especially if it is outside the clinic's opening hours and the veterinarian will take a few minutes to arrive . Some of the advice the veterinarian can give are:

  • You should leave the cat in the carrier or some other safe place with low light and little stimulation.
  • Do not touch the cat, not even to put a pillow.
  • Place the cat in the carrier on a slightly inclined plane so that the cat has its head and chest over its abdomen.
  • Do not offer water or food to the animal. If it's been a few hours since he fell out of the window, it's normal for his first instinct to be to feed the kitten, but he may have mouth sores from the fall and may have something dislodged. When ingesting water or food, they can divert to the airways causing an aspiration pneumonia.

How do you know if the cat is getting worse?

If you picked up the cat after he fell from the building and he was relatively stable, if the situation starts to get complicated you can notice through:

  • Orthopneic position (stretch your neck and look up: trying to get more oxygen)
  • Loss of consciousness.
  • The carrier door opens and you see that his pupils are dilated and fixed.
  • If the color of his mucous membranes is white or bluish gray.
  • In case there are serious injuries, you will hear loud vocalizations and the typical screams (death signs in cats). In these cases, there is usually not enough time for the veterinarian to arrive and observe, nor for them to reach any place where he can be seen.

Already at the veterinarian

After falling through the window, your cat may present a series of injuries, of greater or lesser severity, which fall within the "parachute cat syndrome". If the cat has had time to react and turn to land on its feet, it will have made the fall with all four ends extended and its back arched to minimize the force of impact. But the effect of the impact, more or less intense depending on the distance at which it was, brings a series of consequences:

  • Jaw break: We often find a broken mandibular symphysis.
  • Cleft palate, hard or soft: It is necessary to repair these injuries and sometimes feed the cat by tube until the palate is fully closed.
  • Metacarpal, metatarsal and phalangeal fractures: Fingers on all limbs often have many lesions.
  • Femur, tibia and hip fractures: The more flexible hind limbs cushion the impact better. Therefore, it is common to find more fractures in this region than in the forelegs. Some lesions go unnoticed at first sight and are only detected on physical examination by the veterinarian.
  • Diaphragmatic hernias: The impact causes a rupture in the diaphragm that separates the thorax from the abdomen and the abdominal contents (intestine, liver, spleen....) pass to the thorax, preventing the lungs from expanding. Sometimes this situation is very obvious and the cat is breathing with difficulty and the abdomen becomes thinner. At other times, a small orifice appears through which part of the intestine comes out and only a bump is noticed on the animal's physical examination.
  • Hepatic and vesical rupture: If the bladder was filled with urine at the time of impact, there is a strong possibility that it ruptured due to tension. The liver can be bruised or ruptured. The same can happen with the abdominal aorta, which can trigger internal bleeding that is usually fatal.

What tests are you going to do to my cat if he fell out of the window?

Each veterinarian will do a series of different tests, depending on the case and what the physical examination reveals, but there are common things:

  • Stabilize before starting to explore: oxygenating and sedating is almost mandatory if the cat is having difficulty breathing. If the cat cannot tolerate a mask or is very nervous, which aggravates the dyspnea, a mild and relatively safe sedative such as midazolam may be necessary. The x-ray requires the cat to be immobilized and for this we need to be sure that it breathes properly. We usually use this moment to catheterize the central vein. Analgesia with some opioid can suppress breathing, so if the cat is breathing badly, there are many other drugs available to reduce pain.
  • physical exploration: The color of the mucous membranes, auscultation, temperature, abdominal palpation and pulse rate provide a lot of information to the veterinarian before he performs further tests.
  • Diagnostic imaging: It may be necessary to wait a few hours for the cat to stabilize. The x-ray allows you to see the diaphragmatic hernia and the ultrasound indicates whether there is fluid in the abdomen (urine, blood), the integrity of the liver, spleen and bladder. If the cat is sedated and there is no ultrasound, they may choose to probe the bladder and check for urine through the probe. If it comes out, it indicates that the urine is stored in an intact bladder and is assumed not to be broken. They may also take a contrast x-ray to confirm.

It must be borne in mind that a vesical or liver rupture and dyspnea (due to diaphragmatic hernia, pulmonary contusion, etc.) are critical and very unfavorable situations in which almost nothing can be done, neither on the part of the owner nor on the part of the vet. Many cats manage to overcome the stabilization phase and it is possible to intervene surgically. However, some die during surgery or from postoperative complications.

Back home with bruises

If the cat is lucky and discharged, he will go home to recover. The discharge usually happens after 24 to 36 hours of observation veterinarian, if the cat only has a bone fissure that does not require surgery or a pulmonary contusion. In this case, the veterinarian will ask the cat to rest completely (sometimes it has to be in a cage) and that you monitor his urine and feces (you may need a lubricant to defecate better, such as olive oil or paraffin liquid). You should also be aware of his breathing and the color of his mucous membranes.

In some cases, the cat needs to take painkillers daily and sometimes antibiotics. It may take some time for the cat to fully recover.

prevention before cure

When the cat first falls from the window or porch of your house, it is an accident. Either because he forgot the open window, the cat is not neutered yet, there are birds in the area, or simply something caught his attention and he jumped.

However, when the cat falls two, three or more times from the same window, it is already a case of carelessness or negligence. There are many solutions for the cat not to fall back: mosquito nets, aluminum, etc... There are countless methods of containment that allow light and air to pass through and are not that expensive when we are talking about saving a life.

One paste with a nameplate it doesn't usually please cats, but you can always opt for the microchip. Thanks to this mechanism, many tutors are able to find their parachute cats.

But after falling once, it doesn't fall again...

In this respect, cats are a bit like humans, stumble twice or whatever it takes, with the same window open. The saying "curiosity killed the cat" exists for a reason.

Sometimes we leave the window in a position convinced that there is no danger, but many cats die from hanging or suffocation when trying to get out through small openings. It's a typical situation that we don't believe until it happens to us. Believe me, unfortunately, it happens more often than you think! Remind yourself that if you believe there is something your cat cannot do, he will prove you to the contrary.

This article is for information purposes only, at PeritoAnimal.com.br we are not able to prescribe veterinary treatments or perform any type of diagnosis. We suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case it has any type of condition or discomfort.