# My cats tail has gone limp



## Serenasabuda (Feb 18, 2013)

He got into an accident outside today. I'm not sure what happened because I did not see it, but he came home today and his tail has been down and not moving ever since.
We are going to try to get him into a vet tomorrow to see what is next...but has anyone else experienced this or have any tips?
I have 2 cats. Beowulf (the injured one) and cloudy (not very friendly). And so tonight I'm keeping them separated with cloudy upstairs and Beowulf in the basement.
Cloudy is also acting like Beowulf is a new cat...hissing and crouching down around him.

Heres a picture of Beowulf's tail (cloudy in the background)








And another










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## grrawritsjordi (Dec 29, 2012)

Oh no! I haven't experienced this, or ever heard of it, but I am sure someone on the forum will be more than happy to help you out.

The only information I can give you is that a cat's tail is their main source of communication. When they twitch it, they are agitated, when it is up and curved they are happy with the world here is a link to a thread I started a while back about signals.

Cat Tail Signals

It may be that he is just not feeling well. Does it hurt to touch it? I would definitely take him to the vet asap.

Poor guy!


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## Blakeney Green (Jan 15, 2013)

It's possible that your cat's tail is broken. Like any bone, it can break, and that's not an uncommon injury for a cat that goes outside and may have been caught in a garage door, fought with a larger animal, or had a glancing strike from a car. 

Since the tail is part of the cat's spine, it can become paralyzed if it's broken in certain ways. _Or_, the cat may simply avoid moving it because doing so hurts.

Definitely have your vet check your cat ASAP. If it's indeed a broken tail, your vet will need to make sure it's healing correctly and there aren't any other internal injuries.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Holly sprained her tail when she was a kitten. She used to jump and flip all over the place and must have landed on it wrong. The vet had me give her a few doses of baby aspirin (don't do this without vet guidance...aspirin can be toxic in very small doses) and within a week she was showing signs of it being better, took over a month before it was back to normal.

You definitely need a vet visit as this could be a spine injury. As far as I know, broken tails do not heal and depending on where the break is, may need to be amputated.


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## 3furbabies (Dec 7, 2011)

My youngest cat had the tip of her tail broken when she was a baby(before she was picked up by AC). She was like that when we got her but her being our first cat I didn't notice it unit a tech pointed it out. Her tail is straight up until the end where it's hooked. We call her hook tail sometimes lol. Her tail has normal function except when she holds it straight up, it has a slight curve. If she lets you, I'd feel it gently, but still get her to a vet ASAP.


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## Serenasabuda (Feb 18, 2013)

Thank you all so much! We are leaving for the vet in twenty minutes. Something at the base of this tail hurts...even if I slightly touch the top of the fur he meows (which he never does). 
But! He's still jumping up onto his little cat condo and cuddling like normal 









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## Blakeney Green (Jan 15, 2013)

doodlebug said:


> As far as I know, broken tails do not heal and depending on where the break is, may need to be amputated.


One of the cats we had when I was a child broke her tail at about the halfway point. She was eventually able to regain some use of it, but no, as you say, it never fully healed.

That said, once the initial pain was over she never seemed to mind it, and she got by fine with just a partially mobile tail.


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## RockyandLily (Aug 2, 2012)

Rocky did months ago. still not sure what happened but it hurt, and it was limp for a few days. Months on he seems fine and he has full use of his tail and really enjoys having it straight up. We think he probably sprained something?.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

Shadow (now sadly dead) had this exactly when he was probably about 5 years old. We never found out what happened but his tail was immobile except the very top. We assumed it had broken - it was especially horrible because even when he slept his tail was never still (the others would even play with it). It took a few weeks for movement to come back but it did and he never had any problems afterwards.


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## spirite (Jul 31, 2012)

How is Beowulf doing?


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## mumof7kitties (Jan 27, 2013)

Is his tail broken?


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