Gabby’s Got The Tail Droop Blues

Concho Pearl RV Estates – August 6-7, 2020

More tales of RV life. When you live in a 2 room apartment of less than 400 square feet you are definitely aware of your surroundings.In less than 10 steps you can be in the bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen or the living room. Throw in 2 cats and every step is a potential disaster for a cat. They definitely don’t like being stepped on.

As anyone who is a cat servant knows, you are always on the lookout for unusual behavior. Why? Because cats are sneaky little varmints. And to their own detriment, one of the things they do best is hide their ailments.

They won’t tell you they are sick or they hurt their foot. Instead they just disappear. Eventually you notice the cat has been missing for several hours which is unusual since they are always begging for attention, food, to go outside, to come inside or any number of other things that are impossible for humans to decipher.

We noticed that Gabby seemed to be a more subdued than usual. She normally is looking to get into some kind of mischief. But we noticed that she was acting timid about everything. She had the blues!.Very unlike Gabby! This is the cat that walks up to complete strangers to say ‘Hi” and sees possible prey around every corner (like my fingers).

At the same time, we noticed her tail was hanging straight down to the point of dragging the ground.

Normally when you scratch the “sweet spot" on her back her tail will spring straight up into the air. Now when we scratch it, nothing.

A little research on the web indicated possible nerve damage which can also cause bladder problems. A cat’s worst enemy is a bladder problem. Of course this is a Friday, the last day Veterinary Offices are open for the week. So do nothing and hope it gets better, or call the Vet and hope they can squeeze us in today.

So we call the San Angelo Vet we favor to see if they can take us as a walk in, which of course is more costly than making an appointment. They want us there in 30 minutes. We grab Gabby’s medical files, blankets, throw on some acceptable clothes and of course Gabby and rush out the door.

At the Vet, they check her temperature (it’s normal), give her a once over and an X-Ray. The Vet agrees that there is some trauma to the tail and the results of the X-Ray should tell us more.

The X-Ray pictures come back showing no bone damage. Since the base of her tail (where it attaches to the body) is swollen, the Vet surmises that Gabby has some soft tissue damage (read bruise). Then we remember that Gabby fell off the counter 2 days ago. We didn’t see it happen, we just heard the “splat” when she landed. The Vet said she probably landed on her butt and bruised the base of her tail. Because that area is swollen, it is pressing on nerves that control tail movement, hence the tail droop and the limp tail Thus the title of this post, Gabby’s Got The Tail Droop Blues.

So Gabby gets a shot to reduce inflammation, and we get to give her doses of pain meds over the next few days. Once again, Gabby survives another mishap.

Obligatory cat picture follows.