Comments on: Why is my cat chewing her tail constantly? Is amputation her only hope?

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:57:23 +0000

All of this makes me very sad. Our cat Jasper is going through the same thing. We had to take him to the vet about 3 weeks ago to get about an inch of his tail amputated. It started all of a sudden. Like all of you, he would chase his tail and run from himself, and it did seem OK. It seemed OK because we have another male cat that does the same thing, except George has never bitten his tail. But he gets that twitchy back thing going, then runs.
Like you all say, Jasper’s eyes get dialated, he seems off in another world and cannot be distracted from it. We have another cat named JJ (girl) who has had stomach issues and we think we finally found the right highly nutritious food to take care of her problems….and that seems a common denominator here too. Wonder if it is something in that food (as Cindy suggests) that is causing our cats to get crazy. Jasper never acted this extreme before with the other food. Or, it appears we all have cats that are about 2 years old….maybe this hits them at that age.
All I know is I agree, amputation of the tail will not solve this. And God Bless Amanda with the three amputations. We are only going to amputate twice…the first time we did it and the rest of the tail if/when he does it again. I cannot afford the money or the agony of seeing him in that stupid collar all the time.
All of this just breaks my heart. And like most of you, my vet has never heard of this behavior. I am going to print out this and hand it to her and tell her to start looking it up herself and figure it out. Using drugs does not sound like an option – sounds worse than the collar.
All we all seem to have left is prayer.

By: jackie

jackie — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:39:17 +0000

Peace to all of the kitties who are going through this. It really is heartbreaking. My cat Poindexter has the same problem – viciously attacking and biting his tail.. it’s just horrible. I don’t know what to do and the vet didn’t have any good suggestions. Poindexter eats human grade quality cat food, has no fleas and has plenty of toys. We try to play with him a LOT to keep his mind off of his tail… but when we stop, he attacks it violently. It’s horribly sad. Thank you to everyone for sharing your stories and offering suggestions. I hope everyone’s kitties feel better soon. I wish I had some good advice to give =(

By: Therese Melin

Therese Melin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:04:54 +0000

Thank you for writing and for telling your story… My cat has had 2 bad days now and I’m starting to think phenobarbital is the sulotion.. I

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:49:24 +0000

Try phenobarbital. Our cat was biting his tail. We separated him from other cats that were bullying him. He stopped biting his tail, but still has “fits” of growling and chasing his tail for no apparent reason. A veterinary expert said he has “psychomotor epilepsy” in other words a type of seizure disorder. Sometimes the skin ripples on his back near the tail, or he jumps as if startled by a sensation there. Now that he’s getting phenobarbital daily, his fits are milder and less frequent, and if we stop giving the drug, he has more fits and they are more intense. The drug caused him to be drowsy at first, but not now. The vet tells us that the risks of phenobarbital are fairly low, for example it’s unlikely to cause liver damage.

I hope this helps.

By: Therese Melin

Therese Melin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:14:56 +0000

An update.. Billies blood test came back normal.. and the vet. told us to try phenobarbitol. He suspected some kind of Epilepsy. Before we tried phenobarbitol we found a cat expert and she thought Billie suffers from a nerve damage in combination with stress and pain from it.. So now she is on temgesic (buprenorfin) 0,3mg/ml and we started on 0.13 ml 2 times a day for one week and now 0.1 ml 2 times a day, it is for her pain, metacam (meloxikam) 0.5 mg/ml 1 time/day based on her wieght which is also for her pain and klomipramin mylan 10 mg (klomipraminhydroklorid) 1/4 of one pill 2 times a day for stress.. she sleeps alot and does not use her toilet as often.. but she is still very hungry! and so far it is hard to see if the medicin works.. i try to activate her when she is awake with play and “clicker” training and we are making progress! I try to use it when her bad behavior starts when she tries to hit her “tail” i say no and when she looks up and ignores the twitching I click and give her food. If she hadn’t hurt her tail from the begining, we probobly would have suspected epilepsy… so maybe this is something for other people who have a similar problem to look up.. also constipation..
When she gets of Temgesic I will try to let her outside but I know I will be nervous… still I think that could be an important part of her recovery. Good luck everyone! Again, excuse my english..

By: jessica

jessica — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:08:03 +0000

I have read all these and many accounts so heartbreakingly, frustratingly similar to what’s going on with my orange tabby. But we think his problem is constipation. The vet thinks he is associating the pain in his gut with his tail. I have been researching FHS and wonder if constipation could be a cause. At this point, I plan to administer the meds to soften stool and the amitryptiline as indicated and hope he calms down before he hurts himself again. This page was a good resource, and it’s comforting to know others are dealing with this thru therapies or surgeries. Thank you all for your contributions.

By: Therese Melin

Therese Melin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:31:23 +0000

Hi everyone,
I’m writing from Sweden, (pardon my english)
I am having the same problem as all of you are.. Me and my boyfriend lives in an apartment in the city but we take our cat with us when we leave for our house out in the country, to his parents and my brothers house so she is used to be outside as well and always comes back inside.
One day we left her outside at our house and we went to see some friends over the day. When we came back her tail was hangning down and she was in pain. We went to the vet. she didn’t have any bitemarks but they gave us cortisone and antibiotics and soon her tail was up again and working fine. Soon after she got well her back started rippling and her tail was going fast from one side to the other and she started to chase, bit, hiss and growl at it. We put an e-collar on so it would be harder for her to reach it. We had her outside at my brothers house mon-fri and home with us on the week-ends. We are not sure but when she was outside we think she had so much going on so she got distracted and didn’t chase her tail but as soon as she went inside to eat or sleep it started again. It was at its worst when she was laying down cause she would see her tail and the chase began. Things got worse and she started to chase her tail even when the e-collar was on and she scratched, bit a wound on her tail. It was hard to leave her alone and we could tell she was both in fysical and mental pain as she would lay on her chest and stare apathetic out in the air and her tail would swift frenetic! We decided to amputate her tail, a week ago, now she got 2″ left and she is on morphine. She got a patch on her arm, it lasts for 3 days but we have been forced to renew it 2 times cause as soon as it ends her pain is too much and the chase begins again…. The vet. gave her an x-ray of her spine and tail. But they couldn’t see anything.We have tried acupuncture 2 times and some kind of relaxing vitamins but it didnt work.. We are desperate! We’re going to take the stitches out friday and after that we can take her outside agian and hopefully there will be an improvement. On monday we’re going to the vet. again to start a complete fysical exam, bloodtest and so on. In Sweden this seems to be an unexplored subject! Nobody knows anything!!!! Yet I have read on english, american web pages about this problem. Next step is a magnetic x-ray to see if there is something wrong with her nerves. We have changed her food to allergy management and bought a felliway adapter. We knew it wouldn’t help to only amputate her tail or has that helped for any one of you? I belive there is some kind of nerve damage combind with some kind og Obsessive compulsive disorder….. I would really like to know how things are going for you now. I really feel for all of you! I want to find the sollution to this problem!

By: Cindy

Cindy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:40:03 +0000

I have just read all these posts. I have been going thru the same thing with one of my cats who has had her tail amputated twice. Had her on prozac which just made her so wierd she was like feral. Im flabergasted about all this going on this year. There has to be someting going on with the cat food. How can so many of our cats being going thru the same thing?
My cat is back at attacking her tail and its raw again, she is misrable, Im thinking its a nerve thing that just wont let her be, and may have to put her down. Although Its hard to make that decision. I love her so much.
My vet said she doesnt know of anything else to do for her.

By: Stacey G

Stacey G — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:00:18 +0000

My poor cat Muffin has been going through the worst that everyone here has decribed. It started about 6 months ago. He acts like he is possessed, chasing his tail like it is the devil. He bites it, hisses at it screams at the top of his lungs and his tail is a mess. I have tried Gabapentin and Phonabarbitol. He is worse than ever. Excessive Licking, biting hissing and chasing his tail for hours every night. I took him back to the Vet this morning and she told me the only solution was to amputate his tail. I scheduled the surgery for Monday but I feel just awful doing it but his tail is a mess.
Why does this happen? I have had cats all of my life and I have never heard of this.

I just don’t know what to do and if this doesn’t work, I don’t know what I will do. Muffin is so beautiful and sweet. Say a prayer for the little guy please.

By: amie bohren

amie bohren — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:42:59 +0000

My cat it doing the same thing. Totally psycotic behavior. My major issue with this is that she has 4week old kittens and I am concerned about them too. The mother cat has always been a little strange, but never selfmutilating. Does any one have a sugestion(besides seeing a vet, because it seems like there is no real effective treatment to this problem.) Thank you!