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It’s March and Spring should be about! But with bees looking for nectar in my blooming daffodils at the end of January, anything is possible. It’s an important month in the Newton Clarke household as its youngest member starts driving lessons. Oh, I remember taking my test in 1977! Since then the number of cars on the road has multiplied tenfold (along with the risks of being injured by one). In addition, road traffic accidents (RTAs) are a major cause of trauma to wild and domestic animals.
Cats roaming around at night are in the greatest danger. They are dazzled by car headlights and lose their normally excellent sense of spatial awareness. My advice: keep pussy cats indoors at night despite their protestations. Although cats are naturally nocturnal, their habits can be trained to mirror the human lifestyle. Although I wonder if teenagers aren’t naturally feline!?
So what sort of injuries occur and what first aid can an owner apply? Well, the ABC (airway, breathing, circulation) approach is useful in animals. Although, it does need a little modification for patients who weigh around 4 or 5 kg. One common scenario is puss returning home with a wobbly gait or on 3 legs, a bloody nose and scuffed claws. Although these injuries could be consistent with a catfight, road traffic accidents would be top of my list. You are more than justified in calling the emergency service (i.e. 816228) immediately for advice.
There are some things that can help the vet on call assess the severity of the situation. First off, observe your cat’s breathing; if laboured, clear a blocked nose with warm water and cotton wool and see if it improves. Cats hate mouth breathing and would rather struggle sucking air through blocked nostrils than open their mouths. After trauma, the most likely nasal obstruction is dried blood that should be gently removed, if the patient allows! If after doing this there is no improvement in the struggle to breathe, straight to the emergency service you go!
Now the above assumes your patient is conscious. Loss of consciousness (LOC) is a serious symptom and always means a degree of brain damage. Again, straight to the emergency vet. But let’s assume the patient is fully aware of what’s going on and is quite cross. Don’t get bitten! If restraint is needed (e.g. for examination or transport) then a towel wrapped around the casualty is effective at preventing injury to both parties. So let’s have a think about circulation. A simple way to judge this is to look at the colour of the gums or tongue. Pink is good! Very pale is common in shock (but also blood loss) and blue is bad. Be careful of the teeth and raising the top lip is the safest option.
Feeling pulses in small animals is not difficult (the femoral artery inside the thigh is most often used). It can be tricky though, so gently pinch the chest between fingers and thumb and the heart’s beat should be palpable. Maybe less doable if your cat is too fat though!
Next is external blood loss, sadly less common than internal haemorrhage which is much more difficult to spot. If something is bleeding, apply pressure firm enough to stop the flow. You might have to be very firm if an artery is damaged (cats have impressive blood pressure when they have enough blood). Significant bleeding (along with laboured breathing and blue-tinged gums) calls for immediate action for a life to be saved.
Emergency medicine is a speciality in its own right in veterinary medicine as in humans. With no dedicated animal A&E, vets in general practice have to be competent at just about everything, as we deal with all aspects of animal care. First aid applied as early as possible can certainly help us to help your injured pet. It would help if the law was changed to include cats in the category of animals that if injured by a car in a road traffic accident, the driver must stop and at least try to help or contact the nearest emergency on-call vet. The RSPCA will make a nominal payment for stray and wild animal casualties and they should be contacted straight away.
