06/03/2026
**Update: Two strays showed up with the same tail injury(?)**
I took the tuxedo cat to the vet to have his tail checked. The vet couldnāt say for sure what caused it, but they said it did **not** look like abuse. I still have my reservations, but Iām really hoping thatās the case rather than the alternative.
They shaved the area, cleaned it, and gave him antibiotics. Now that the area is easier to see, I can tell there are three separate small wounds. He is not neutered, so we made an appointment with our regular clinic, and luckily they were able to get him in tomorrow.
Heās a little nervous, but heās doing well in the bathroom. Heās finally starting to feel comfortable enough to eat and is even coming up to me for pets. Heās a very sweet little boy.
Iāll add some photos in the thread. Thank you again to everyone who commented and helped.
āā
**Original post:**
Iām an adult in California, and a vet is accessible if needed. We have a lot of strays in the neighborhood, so we leave dry food out for them and give wet food to the regulars.
Recently, two new strays started showing up separately. The smaller tabby appears to have visible ni***es, so we thought she might be pregnant. She also has an indentation in the middle of her tail, almost as if something had been tied around it, like a rubber band. It could possibly be an old injury, but she is very skittish, so we havenāt been able to get close enough to check.
The second newcomer is a grey tuxedo cat. He has been coming around for a few weeks, and today we noticed he had the same kind of mark on his tail. He is very food-motivated, so I was able to briefly touch it. There is missing fur, it was not bleeding, and it felt a little sticky. He didnāt seem to react as if it hurt when I touched it.
Does anyone have any insight into what this could be? We are worried someone may be intentionally hurting these cats. Thank you.
**Edit:**
Adding a little more information. The tabby showed up about two weeks ago with her tail already looking like that. The tuxedo started showing up about a month ago here and there, and over the last few weeks he has been here daily for wet food. Tonight was the first time we noticed his tail looked the same, which felt too strange to be a coincidence.
We think the tuxedo may live somewhere up the block. We know the tabby stays across the street. Since we moved here, that neighbor has had a lot of strays living around their property, and many of them come into our backyard. I donāt know exactly what the situation is over there, but we have TNRād as many as we can and found homes for some of the cats who werenāt too feral.
Itās hard to believe that, even though they have been irresponsible by allowing the cats to keep reproducing, they would now start hurting them. But we are probably going to talk to them.
Our plan is to try to get the tuxedo into a carrier or trap and have a vet look at him this week, if we can catch him. The tabby seems much more feral. Hopefully we can get more information soon.
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