Cat with a nose bleed?

December 22, 2007 12:48 PM

Yet another kitty question: When we got up this morning our 21 year old cat had left blood splatters all over the floor, around her food and in her water bowl (a little gross info. inside)

After the initial panic had subsided, we found that she seemd to have a nose bleed and every time she sneezed, blood globs flew everywhere. We were going to take her to the animal emergency room but she appears to act fine (no mewing or acting like she is in pain), has stop sneezing and the associated nose bleed appears to have stopped on its own. Our vet is open on Monday so we thought rather than have a $400 bill from the emergency room a few days before Christmas we'd wait and take her there first thing Monday morning.

So my question is can a cat have nose-bleeds? Could our air be too dry, and if we turn on the humidifier and put it in the room close to her little cat-house will that help?

Bearing in mind she is 21 years old, has lived in 3 countries, has always weighed about 5 lbs wringing wet and gets beat up on a regular basis by our other cat she's in pretty good health (other than a little arthritis) and this is an unusual occurrence for us. Thanks to all the cat Me-Fi'ers out there!

posted by 543DoublePlay to pets & animals (8 comments total)

Could she have gotten into something that she shouldn't have done, that triggered an allergic reaction? If she got into say a bottle of cleaner, whcih triggered a lot of sneezing, that could eventually cause a nosebleed.
posted by Solomon at 1:18 PM on December 22, 2007

Is there any way she could have gotten into rat poison and eaten some, or eaten a poisoned rat? Some rat poison is actually just a large amount of coumarin, a powerful blood thinner; the rats die by bleeding internally and externally. If this could have happened to your kitty it'd be wise to take her to the vet because steps can be taken to reverse the blood thinning.

Otherwise, if it's just a nosebleed - no trauma - humidification will certainly help prevent it from coming back. Try and peek inside her mouth to be sure she's not still bleeding and swallowing the blood; the nose and mouth are connected in mammals.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:22 PM on December 22, 2007

Not to be a bummer but this happened on and off to our cat for a few weeks before the vet finally figured out that she had sinus cancer. We used to smoke in the house back when she was a kitten so I assume that's what caused it. She had to be put down shortly after the diagnosis but until then large doses of vitamin K helped keep her from spewing bloody sneezes all over the house.
posted by yodelingisfun at 1:24 PM on December 22, 2007

This is also a symptom associated with contaminated pet food made from Chinese ingredients.
posted by yclipse at 2:27 PM on December 22, 2007

Humidification should help if it's just a nosebleed. If she loses her appetite or energy, find an emergency vet, but if she's fine except for this one incident I wouldn't worry too much.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:03 PM on December 22, 2007

Thanks cat people. We know she didn't get into any poison as she is an indoors kitty and can barely get up and down the stairs let alone get into anything! Hopefully it was just a nose bleed, but we will put the humidifier out tonight and take her to her own doctor on Monday.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 3:52 PM on December 22, 2007

If she goes outside at all, she might have inhaled a plant burr.

Aside to yodelingfun: Don't be too quick to blame yourself for your cat's cancer. One of my dogs developed sinus cancer as well; we had her since she was a tiny pup. No one smokes here, never has.
posted by jamaro at 3:53 PM on December 22, 2007

543DoublePlay, what was the diagnosis? My cat started sneezing blood tonight but appears to be feeling fine otherwise.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér at 9:35 PM on December 29, 2007