A cat has a severe concussion: what to do? Severe concussion in a cat: symptoms Strong blow to the cat in the stomach, what to do

A cat's bruise is one of the types of mechanical damage. As a result of a violation of the integrity of the lymphatic and blood vessels, hemorrhage occurs.

Degrees of bruises

Cat bruises can be classified into four grades.

First degree

A first-degree bruise is characterized by trauma to the inner layers of the skin and subcutaneous tissue. A small wound in the form of an abrasion or scratch may form at the site of the injury. The injured area swells slightly, pain is either insignificant or completely absent. Broken blood vessels may appear on the surface of the skin. Such bruises heal quite quickly, without additional treatment.

Second degree

A second-degree bruise is characterized by the appearance of hematomas, delamination and rupture of muscle tissue, as well as inflammatory edema. Such bruises can cause fever and increased heart rate and breathing.

Third degree

A third-degree bruise is much more life-threatening for a cat. This damage is characterized by a change in the appearance of the animal's skin. Such bruises include injuries to muscles and tendons, fractures and cracks of bones. Injuries are often accompanied by joint dislocation. The first time after a third-degree bruise, the animal experiences shock, then tissue necrosis may develop. If the injury was caused to the head or spinal column, the animal may experience nervous disorders.

Fourth degree

A fourth degree bruise is the most life-threatening for a cat. Such injuries are characterized by complete tissue proliferation and bone fragmentation. As a rule, an infection gets into the injured area, therefore, purulent-putrefactive processes (abscesses, phlegmon, sepsis) can develop. It is almost impossible to restore the damaged part of the body, so they have to be amputated.

Treatment of bruises in cats

First and second degree bruises are quite easy to heal; injuries heal on their own. It is enough to apply cold to the injured area. With the third, it is necessary to behave quite carefully with the animal, carefully examine the injury to exclude all kinds of complications. If the animal goes into shock, it is imperative to use anti-shock measures, as well as novocaine blockades and various compresses. If a cat has a fourth-degree bruise, it is necessary to provide it with proper care and rest. Then examine the animal and try to eliminate bleeding, swelling and hematomas.

Regardless of the type of damage, attention should be paid to the prevention of septic complications. The injured area must be lubricated with a 5% alcohol solution of iodine.

In any case, the animal should be shown to a veterinarian, who can prescribe the most appropriate treatment.

Cats are very active and curious animals, which is why they often find themselves in various situations that can harm their health. How to help your beloved pet if he has suffered an injury that results in a concussion, and how dangerous can it be? To do this, it is worth knowing the possible causes and consequences of brain injuries, as well as methods of treating such forms of ailments.

Concussion in a cat: causes and dangers

Felines are at greater risk of injury than other pets. This is due to the fact that they are not afraid of heights, love to explore new objects and are quite peaceful towards strangers. If for some reason your pet ends up on the street, there is a high probability that he will get hit by a car, fall from a tree, or get kicked by an unfriendly person. Often, pets fall out of a window, slide off a balcony railing, or a heavy object (a wooden shelf, a large flower pot, or other objects) falls on them. It is almost impossible to protect your ward from injury, since it is impossible to monitor him 24 hours a day.

What is a concussion?

A concussion in cats is a form of traumatic brain injury accompanied by disruption of brain activity. Failure of intracranial blood flow and compression of certain parts of the brain can provoke hemorrhage in the brain. Also, the disorder may be asymptomatic until a certain point.

Even a mild form of traumatic brain injury is very dangerous, as it can lead to serious consequences: paralysis, disruption of the central nervous system, tumor formation and other ailments.

Note! Even a minor head injury should not be ignored. Be sure to take your pet to a veterinarian for a full examination, even if no symptoms of a concussion are initially observed. After some time, he may develop seizures, heart problems and other diseases.

A severe concussion in a cat does not go away without symptoms, so it is imperative to know the main signs.

Symptoms of a concussion in a cat

Based on severity, concussions are classified as mild, moderate, and severe. Depending on this, the symptoms also change. The main signs of a concussion include:

• The presence of hematomas, bruises or bruises on certain parts of the body (head and neck).
• Temporary loss of consciousness (usually a few minutes), but the animal may remain unconscious for a long time if it is severely bruised.
• Impaired motor functions (shaky gait).
• Lack of appetite.
• Behavioral disorders: aggression towards the owner, attempts to find a secluded place and hide, fear, disorientation in space.
• Severe headache (the animal rests its head on hard surfaces and remains in this position).
• Drowsiness.
• Vomit.
• Complete or partial loss of hearing or vision.
• Intermittent breathing.
• Cardiopalmus.
• Convulsions of the limbs.
• Noticeable displacement of the lens capsule, trembling of the iris and other deformations of the visual organ.

Some signs are similar to other diseases, so veterinarians insist on urgent hospitalization at the first manifestation of the above symptoms.

The sooner your pet is examined by a veterinarian, the higher his chances of recovery.

It is almost impossible to protect your ward from injury, since it is impossible to monitor him 24 hours a day. Source: Flickr (Sherry_White)

Diagnostics

You can assume that your client has a concussion if you have witnessed the sad events of the injury in person. How do experts diagnose a concussion in a cat? In most cases, the veterinarian makes a decision based on the animal's clinical condition, but sometimes x-rays or MRI are necessary. The specialist examines the extent of the injury and the extent of brain damage. Depending on this, complex treatment is prescribed.

First aid for a concussion in a cat

It is important to provide your pet with healthy sleep, peace and quiet. Temporarily take him into a room with minimal light and apply a cold compress to the bruise. If he faints, do not shake him, but lay him down on a flat surface and make sure that he does not swallow his tongue or choke on vomit. He needs to be taken to a veterinary hospital as soon as possible. If your pet is conscious, remember that in a state of shock he can behave aggressively. Treatment for a severe concussion in a cat can take from 2 weeks to several months.

Treatment

To relieve the animal from pain and possible risks associated with traumatic brain injury, the veterinarian prescribes complex therapy. A number of measures are taken to eliminate pain, prevent swelling and calm the nervous system: painkillers, sedatives and antipyretics are injected, and active cooling procedures are carried out. Sometimes surgical intervention is required when there is severe compression of skull fragments or the formation of hard hematomas. After surgery, prophylaxis with antibiotics is carried out. With a mild form of concussion, the animal is capable of self-healing. Key brain functions are restored through sleep and silence. For six months or more, the doctor must monitor the process of restoration of basic brain functions and, if necessary, adjust the treatment regimen.

A concussion in a cat is not an independent disease, but requires immediate treatment. Failure to promptly seek qualified medical help can lead to pathological changes in the body and even death of the patient. Do not be indifferent to your pets, provide them with timely assistance!

Video on the topic

An inattentive driver, a fall from a window, an unsuccessful jump from a tree - all this and much more can cause such a dangerous condition as a concussion in cats. A concussion itself is not a disease, but the result of an injury. But if the consequences are left without treatment, complications are possible in the form of a whole bunch of chronic diseases that undermine the health of your pet.

The main thing a responsible owner should remember is that any head injury, even a seemingly minor one, can lead to a concussion. The milder the injury, the more difficult it is to independently notice deterioration in brain function. The pet may look absolutely normal, eat well and react adequately to the situation. And a year later, for inexplicable reasons, convulsions, seizures, heart ailments and other health problems appear. It is important not to wait to see if symptoms of a concussion in cats appear after the injury, but to immediately show your pet to a doctor.

The first and most obvious symptom is a brief loss of consciousness after the blow. It may take a few seconds or minutes for the cat to regain consciousness; as a rule, the longer the fainting lasts, the more serious the injury. After regaining consciousness, the cat looks stunned, as if it does not understand what happened. Sometimes short-term memory loss is observed: the pet does not recognize the owner, hisses, backs away, trying to hide in a hard-to-reach place.

If the owner was not present at the time of injury, concussions in cats can be suspected based on the following signs:

Popular belief states that a cat has nine lives. True, this is just a belief. Specialists from the American Veterinary Insurance Society compiled a rating of the reasons for visiting clinics with cats. All kinds of wounds and injuries were on the seventh line of the gloomy “hot ten”. Not a single cat is immune from these diseases, and it is useful for the owner to know at least the basic rules and techniques for providing first aid to an injured pet.

Most often, domestic cats suffer from wounds received in fights with fellow cats or dogs, as well as from the consequences of falling from a height. A non-specialist, based only on external signs of damage, can very rarely correctly assess the true nature of the injury and its danger to the life and health of the animal. Therefore, a responsible owner should not ignore any injury that occurs, even if it seems to him that the cat escaped with a few scratches and feels quite normal.

Wounds

Most often, cats have bitten, lacerated “battle wounds” received in fights with other cats or dogs. The most obvious sign of such wounds is skin damage, which requires appropriate processing. First of all, the wound must be washed with a disinfectant. A regular solution of furatsilin is suitable for this. If you don’t have a ready-made solution, you can prepare it yourself by dissolving two tablets in a glass of warm boiled water. The surface of the wound is treated with this solution. If possible, remove fur from the area around the injury to prevent hair from sticking to the wound.
When the owner is unable to immediately deliver the injured cat to a veterinarian, she should be given an antibiotic. If the owner does not have a special veterinary antibiotic at hand, it can be replaced with a human drug, for example, Augmentin (amoxiclav). The antibiotic is given in a dosage of 12-15 mg per 1 kg of animal body weight twice a day. That is, an “average” cat that weighs 3 kg should receive about 50 mg of antibiotic at one time. And, of course, the animal needs to be shown to a veterinarian as soon as possible.
If the cat received cut wound, and she started bleeding, then you need to do the following; take a clean, or better yet, sterile napkin, apply it to the surface of the wound and bandage it with moderate force. The pressing effect will reduce bleeding. If a large artery is damaged, it will most likely have to be sutured. Bleeding from small vessels can stop on its own, but still, treatment of such a wound requires the supervision of a specialist.
It is not uncommon in cats and, unfortunately, in this case the owner can do practically nothing himself. If the eye is damaged, you should carefully rinse it with furatsilin solution and immediately consult a doctor.
Cats also have so-called abscesses. They usually develop as complications if the wound has not been washed with an antiseptic. Pathogenic microorganisms enter it and begin to develop, causing a cavity with pus to appear under the skin - an abscess itself. Externally, an abscess manifests itself as swelling, a “bump” on the skin and painful sensations when touched, since the cavity compresses the nerve endings. Sometimes the abscess opens spontaneously and pus is released from the wound. However, even in this case, it is better not to hope for the animal’s independent recovery. An abscess requires mandatory intervention by a veterinarian, because antibiotics alone cannot suppress a purulent focus. It is necessary to open and wash this cavity, install drainage in it and maintain it until the pathogenic process stops.

The animal should be shown to a veterinarian as soon as possible if:
the cat does not eat or drink;
limps heavily, does not support a limb;
The cat developed bloody saliva, bloody discharge from the nose, and blood in the urine.

If the animal feels well, eats and drinks normally, but has a slight limp, then the owner may not rush to visit the doctor. Perhaps the cat just has a sprain or bruise that goes away quickly without treatment. But if lameness does not go away within a few days, then it is better to contact a veterinary clinic.

Injuries

Cats often fall from heights and are injured. Many ordinary people tend to consider a broken limb to be the most “terrible” of such injuries, but in fact, fractures in cats are well treated, and the animal has every chance of making a full recovery. True, fractures are also different. For example, an animal may suffer an intra-articular fracture, in which a crack runs along the surface of the “hinge” of the joint. Such fractures are the most complex, they require long-term treatment and sometimes lead to the development of arthrosis.
Very often, after a fall, the animal begins to drag its hind legs. This may be a sign not so much of paw fractures as of some kind of neurological injury, for example, a fracture of the spinal column. It occurs quite often in cats, and most often occurs at the level of the last thoracic and first lumbar vertebrae. Such a fracture is fraught with serious injury to the spinal cord and... Unfortunately, the prognosis in this case is unfavorable.

A rupture of the spinal cord may be indicated by the absence of pain. This is easy to check even at home. You need a suitable tool, such as tweezers, to squeeze the skin between the toes of the hind paw quite firmly. In a normal situation, such manipulation will cause pain - the cat will scream, try to scratch or bite. In this case, the prognosis will be favorable. But if the animal does not react in any way to such pain, then, most likely, its spinal cord is seriously injured. Even if the cat jerks its paw when squeezed, this does not mean anything. This is how the flexion reflex manifests itself, which can persist even with a complete rupture of the spinal cord. In case of spinal injury, only the feeling of pain can be considered a favorable factor that gives the animal a chance to recover.
Often, injuries associated with a fall from a great height lead to rupture of the diaphragm (the so-called partition between the chest and abdominal cavities). When it ruptures, part of the internal organs of the abdominal cavity, in particular the intestines and liver, can move into the chest cavity, where the lungs are located. Externally, such damage is expressed in the fact that the animal develops rapid breathing and cyanosis of the mucous membranes, because the lungs can no longer fully expand. The cat loses its appetite, and due to the pain caused by the injury, stiffness appears in its movements. But an accurate diagnosis can only be made using radiographic examination. If the diaphragm ruptures, the animal requires surgery, which can only be performed in a veterinary clinic.

Anesthesia

Most injuries cause the cat to experience severe pain. The owner can independently reduce it by using pain relief therapy. Special veterinary drugs ketofen or nalbuphine are well suited for this purpose. But it is better not to give such popular painkillers as baralagin and analgin, especially in tablet form, to a cat, because they cause severe salivation in the animal. As a last resort, you can inject analgin by injecting 0.4 ml intramuscularly (dose for an average cat).
Also, with injury, traumatic shock is possible, one of the manifestations of which is vasospasm. This spasm has a very bad effect on the liver and kidneys. It can be removed with anti-shock therapy. The affected animal should be given corticosteroid drugs, for example, prednisolone (0.3-0.5 ml intramuscularly). But injections should only be considered as an emergency aid. At the veterinary clinic, anti-shock therapy will be continued using drip infusion.

Let's remember about rabies

Cats get rabies in the same way as dogs, so they also need to be vaccinated. It is very important that owners do not forget about this. Rabies can be transmitted to an unvaccinated cat even through a minor bite, and the owner or staff of the veterinary clinic can become infected from it. That is why, when going to the doctor, do not forget to take the animal’s veterinary passport with you. If a cat does not have a rabies vaccination, then the veterinary clinic may refuse to accept it, especially if the animal has a bitten laceration received from an unknown location. The safety of people comes before the desire to save the injured animal. Moreover, many cases of rabies are recorded everywhere.

Doctor of Veterinary Sciences, Professor Sergei Aleksandrovich Yagnikov