Cat ate rat poison, now he’s sneezing blood! What the vet did.
Last November, I heard a meow at the door and jokingly said “Well come on in!” To my surprise, a young gray/brown tabby cat strolled in like he owned the place. He was hungry but otherwise appeared to be clean and well taken care of. He even knew how to handle himself around my dog. Surely he belonged to somebody.
He must have had a bad experience with one of the ladies who claimed him because upon hearing her voice he growled and ran away.
The Cat Came Back
A few weeks later my dog got very anxious at the sound of cats fighting in our front yard! When we went out, one of the cats ran away and the other mowed for me to help him out of a tree.
Our once vibrant and mischievous neighborhood cat had grown a little and calmed down a lot. He had a big appetite and he was still somewhat alert and playful, but something wasn’t right. I checked him for fleas and swung by the vet’s office for a de-wormer after finding something resembling sesame seeds under his tail.
Sneezing Blood, Time for a trip to the vet
After giving him the wormer, I realized that the red splatters I was finding around the house were not spaghetti sauce. The poor kitty was sneezing blood!
A trip to the vet’s office confirmed that his blood was not clotting as it should. But he was young and appeared to be otherwise healthy. Considering he was an outdoor cat and a stray, the vet decided he must have eaten a rodenticide (rodent poison – probably rat poison.)
The vet gave him a shot of vitamin K and a week worth of Vitamin K supplements. He asked me to keep the cat in the next several days while he healed, to make sure he didn’t sustain any injuries that could lead to internal bleeding. (Contact your vet ASAP if you suspect your pet has eaten rodent poison. Different poisons will require different treatment and the Vitamin K from the vet’s office is a different strength than what you get at the grocery store.)
I did let him out for a couple of hours on Day 3. The weather was beautiful and the cat was getting tired of being cooped indoors. Unfortunately, sneezy nose bleeds were worse after only a few hours outdoors.
Day 5 he was still bleeding, but it wasn’t as bad. Neighborhood Cat took his last dose of Vitamin K on Christmas Day. He wasn’t sneezing near as much and the weather was once again BEAUTIFUL! So we said our goodbyes and set him free!