GiGi, our nearly-5 year old pastel calico shelter kitty sucks on her tail about twice a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, but usually, we catch her doing this about twice a day. We're told it's because she was taken away from her momma too soon - we did adopt her as a kitten. But, she was surrounded by 5 other brothers and sisters and I doubt all of them are tail-suckers. Plus, I haven't heard any reports of tail-sucking from the kittens we fostered and adopted out to friends - those appeared to have been even younger than GiGi and probably never knew their slutty-mommas. So, I'm not sure what is up. Don't get me wrong - it's adorable for GiGi to do it, until she quits sucking and whips around her wet tail that ends up slapping you across the face if you're not too careful.
I looked online to see what other cat-ladies are saying about the phenomenon. All I find is that there are some pretty crazy people out there. One even says that what GiGi does is "dangerous." Okay, I understand that when George, our 13 year old kitty, ate a 3 foot long piece of stringy material and had to get it surgically removed that this can be "dangerous" behavior - this is why our home is a "string-free zone" now. However, GiGi, as seen above, is hardly endangering herself or anyone else.
GiGi has other skills though. She will still play with her "neutron accelerator" toy - a big round plastic tube that has a yellow ball in it that she can swoosh around - best $15 ever spent on a toy for the animals. She is also skilled at knocking things off counters, bitch-slapping our dogs in the face without getting killed, and keeping the spider and moth population down in the house.
We see this commonly in patients. A few of them have come up with kidney problems, especially the ones who dip the tail in water and then suck.
ReplyDeleteIn a majority it seems harmless, as long as the kitty isn't damaging the skin or tearing out the hair.