How to check a cat for injuries after a fall at night
When you cannot immediately get to a clinic or safely handle your cat due to a physical limitation, you need to monitor for critical warning signs from a distance. Watch closely for labored breathing, sudden lethargy, trouble standing, or signs of severe pain like hiding or crying out, which indicate an urgent need for professional care.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Giving the cat a liquid snack and brushing them to physically check for painful areas.
- 2waiting for a partner to come home to help
- 3feeding kitties soft food until the mouth can be checked
- 4soaking biscuits with warm water
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“(Partner isnt home right now and I have a broken arm so I cannot open their mouths and check)”source ↗
“My cat just fell down this ladder, it’s about a 2 meter drop.”source ↗
“Should i call the vet? it’s midnight where i am right now, and i don’t have a car, so i have no way of getting to the vet before tomorrow.”source ↗
“Also is there something i should keep an eye out for?”source ↗
“Waiting for my partner to come home after their night shift, my left arm is broken so unfortunately I cannot check”source ↗