Tail amputation

The vet says we’re looking at about 6 to 8 months for his fur to grow back. In the meantime, he’s wearing a cone made of plastic mesh so it’s not too heavy, and we’ve put some fabric over the mesh with a hole in the middle so he can still breathe and see. The whole thing is taped onto the cone. Without the fabric, he manages to spot his tail and can even poke it through the mesh to bite it. And as soon as we take the cone off, he’s straight back to trying to bite his tail. We’re definitely not out of the woods yet... Hi there, how is your cat doing? Has there been any improvement?

Hi, Thanks for your reply. I hope everything gets sorted out quickly for your little one... how is he doing? Is he coping alright with being kept indoors and having to wear the cone? Did the vet advise waiting until his fur has fully grown back? Sending you my very best and good luck.

Hi everyone, My cat recently had to have his tail amputated (a caudectomy) after getting it trapped in the cat flap... He ended up chewing it right down to the bone because it was bothering him. We took him to the vet, who removed the infected part of the tail. We’re facing quite a few issues now: - The vet shaved part of his tail for the surgery, and the fur is taking ages to grow back. After two and a half weeks, there’s hardly any growth. I think it’s going to take several months. - Every time the cat sees his shaved tail, he bolts or tries to attack it. We had the stitches out after 15 days, but yesterday he managed to reopen the wound by biting it. - It’s impossible to bandage the tail: it needs to be left open to the air to heal properly. Cohesive bandages won’t stay on, and using something like Elastoplast would just rip his fur out and be really painful for him. - How are you supposed to go to work when you have to watch your cat 24/7? The cones are just useless. We even tried a size up because the smaller one didn’t work—he could still reach his tail easily. Even with a 15cm cone, it’s not enough; he still manages to get at it. After he bit himself again, I went out and bought a Chihuahua muzzle, which we had to sew to make smaller as it was too big for a cat. I wouldn’t recommend it—after three hours he started going mental (we had the muzzle and the cone on at the same time) and I’m worried it’ll cause long-term trauma. Tomorrow I’m going to try my last resort: a mesh screen attached to the cone, so he can breathe but can’t bite himself. I’m planning to use some garden mesh and staple it onto the cone. I’ve been living through a total nightmare for three weeks now, feeling like a prisoner to my pet, but he’s the one who’s suffering the most! I reckon we’ve got several more months of recovery ahead of us. I hope this info might be useful to some of you. P.S. The company has agreed to refund the cat flap, but so far they won't cover the vet bills (which are around £260 so far).

Thank you all. I sincerely hope the necrosis stops with this second operation and that it doesn’t spread to the tissue further down…