Controlling Bleeding in a Cat Before You Reach the Vet

Quick answer

Everything you need for the first ten minutes is a clean cloth, a towel, and a carrier you can get the cat into without a fight.

Firm, continuous, direct pressure over the wound stops almost all bleeding you can reach. Hold it for at least five minutes without lifting to look, because lifting to check is what pulls the forming clot away and restarts the bleed.

The second job is the cat. A cat in pain will bite and scratch a person it loves, and a scratched, bleeding owner cannot drive. Wrap the cat in a towel, leave only the injured part exposed, and phone the practice while someone else keeps the pressure on.

• Press directly on the wound with a clean cloth or gauze. Five minutes minimum, timed, without peeking.
• If blood soaks through, add another layer on top. Never peel off the first one.
• Do not use a tourniquet, and do not tie anything tightly around a limb, tail or neck.
• Check the gums. Pale, white or grey gums mean the cat is losing more blood than you can see, and that is an emergency now.
• Every cat bite wound needs veterinary attention even when the bleeding has stopped, because the puncture seals over the infection.

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Never give a cat any human painkiller.

Paracetamol, also sold as acetaminophen, is lethal to cats in amounts a person would think trivial, because cats lack the liver enzyme pathway that processes it. Ibuprofen and aspirin are also toxic to cats. There is no safe human painkiller you can give while you get to the clinic, and giving one converts a treatable injury into two emergencies. If the cat is in pain, that is a reason to get to a vet faster, not a reason to open the medicine cupboard.
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Do not use hydrogen peroxide, surgical spirit, tea tree oil or phenolic disinfectants on a cat.

Hydrogen peroxide damages the tissue trying to heal and can restart bleeding. Tea tree oil and other essential oils are absorbed through skin and are toxic to cats. Household disinfectants containing phenols, the ones that turn cloudy in water, are dangerous to cats even in small amounts. Plain water or sterile saline is the only thing you should put on a wound at home.
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Decide in 60 seconds

Handle the cat before you handle the wound

An injured cat is frightened, in pain, and does not understand that you are helping. Even the gentlest cat will bite in this state, and cat bites in people become infected quickly because of the depth and the bacteria involved.

Work on the floor, in a small room, with the door shut.

Height and open space are how the cat escapes. Reduce both before you start.

Use a towel.

Lay a large towel down, place the cat on it, and bring the sides up around the body so the front legs are contained. Leave only the injured area out. This is the single most useful first-aid skill for a cat and it protects the cat from injuring itself as much as it protects you.

Two people if possible.

One holds the cat, one applies pressure and phones. Put the phone on speaker so nobody lets go.

Do not muzzle a cat that is having trouble breathing.

A cat with breathing difficulty must not have its mouth or nose obstructed.

Stop if the cat cannot breathe or is collapsing.

If a cat is struggling to breathe, restraint and wound care become secondary. Put it in the carrier with minimal handling and drive.

Applying pressure so that it works

Gauze, a clean towel and an open carrier, ready before you need them. Assembling this while a cat is bleeding wastes the minutes that matter.

Use something clean and absorbent.

Sterile gauze is ideal. A clean tea towel, a folded cotton cloth or a sanitary pad all work. Avoid cotton wool balls and anything that sheds fibres into the wound.

Press directly onto the bleeding point.

Not around it, not near it. Firm, even, constant pressure over the exact spot.

Time it.

Five minutes on a clock feels far longer than five minutes in your head. Set a timer. Do not lift the cloth to check, because that is what dislodges the clot you have just spent five minutes forming.

If it soaks through, layer on top.

Put a second pad over the first and press harder. Peeling off a soaked pad strips away the clot with it.

Elevate a bleeding limb slightly if the cat tolerates it.

Only if it does not cause a struggle. A fighting cat bleeds more than a still one.

If bleeding has not slowed after ten minutes of proper pressure, drive.

Keep the pressure applied in the car. Do not swap to a fresh dressing on the way.

Bleeding by site

Claws and paws.

A torn or over-cut claw bleeds surprisingly hard. Press the nail end into styptic powder, plain cornflour or plain flour, and hold with pressure. Paw pads bleed heavily and are slow to heal because the cat walks on them, so they usually need veterinary attention.

Ears.

Ear flaps bleed dramatically. Place a pad on both sides of the flap, fold the ear flat against the top of the head, and hold gently. A cat that keeps shaking its head restarts the bleed every time, which is why these often need a vet to bandage properly.

Tail.

Tail-tip injuries bleed and then get flicked around the room. Pad, wrap loosely, and get it seen. Never wrap a tail tightly, because the blood supply is easily cut off.

Mouth, tongue and gums.

These bleed heavily and are difficult to compress. Do not put your fingers into the mouth of a frightened cat. Keep the cat calm and go.

Nose.

A nosebleed with no trauma is not a minor problem in a cat. It can indicate high blood pressure, a clotting disorder, or disease inside the nose. Keep the cat quiet, apply a cool pack over the bridge of the nose if tolerated, and get it seen.

Bite wounds.

The visible injury is a couple of small holes. Under them, a bite has injected bacteria into the tissue and torn a pocket. The skin heals over in a day or two, the infection does not, and an abscess appears several days later. Bites also transmit serious viral infections between cats. Every bite gets a veterinary appointment.

Chest and abdominal wounds.

Treat any penetrating wound to the chest or belly as an emergency, no matter how small it looks. A puncture into the chest can let air into the space around the lungs. Cover with a clean damp cloth, do not press hard, and drive.

Impaled objects.

Leave them in place. The object may be the only thing keeping a vessel closed. Pad around it, stop it moving, and go.

Recognising blood loss you cannot see

Lift the lip and look at the gum above the canine tooth. Learn your cat's normal colour now, on a healthy day, so the comparison means something later.

The dangerous bleeding is often the bleeding you cannot see: into the abdomen after a fall or a car, into the chest, or under the skin.

Gum colour.

Healthy cat gums are pink. Pale pink, white, grey or blue-tinged gums are an emergency. If the cat has naturally pigmented gums, look at the inside of the lower eyelid or the tongue instead.

Capillary refill.

Press a fingertip on the gum until it blanches, then release. The colour should return promptly. A noticeably slow return suggests poor circulation.

Temperature of the extremities.

Cold ears and cold paws on a cat that is not in a cold room suggest the body is diverting blood to the core.

Breathing.

Fast, shallow breathing, or any open-mouth breathing, in a cat that has been injured.

Behaviour.

Weakness, an inability to stand, unresponsiveness, or a cat that hides somewhere it has never hidden before.

A tense or swollen belly after trauma.

That combination with pale gums points to bleeding inside the abdomen and needs an emergency clinic, not a wait-and-see.

Bruising without injury.

Flat purple patches on the belly or gums, blood in urine, black tarry stool, or bleeding from more than one place at once suggests the blood is not clotting. Anticoagulant rodenticide does this, and a cat can be poisoned by eating a poisoned rodent rather than the bait itself. Tell the vet if there is any chance of exposure, because there is a specific treatment.

Getting to the clinic

Phone first, always, even for a two-minute drive. The practice can prepare, and they will tell you whether to come to them or to an emergency centre.

Put the cat in a carrier that opens from the top if you have one, because lifting an injured cat out through a small front door hurts it. If the carrier only opens at the front, take the top off rather than dragging the cat out.

Line the carrier with a towel. Keep the cat warm but not hot: a shocked cat loses heat, but a hot water bottle against the skin burns, and warming the surface too aggressively pulls blood away from the organs that need it.

Drive calmly with the radio off. Keep the carrier flat, on the floor behind a seat, not on a lap.

Take the bottle, packet or plant with you if poisoning is possible, and take a photograph of the wound before you dress it if you can do it without delay.

What never to do

Never apply a tourniquet. A tourniquet applied by an untrained person kills the limb below it, and almost every bleed you will meet responds to direct pressure.

Never lift the pad to see whether the bleeding has stopped before five minutes are up.

Never probe, flush deeply, or pull anything out of a puncture wound. You cannot see how deep it goes and you risk pushing contamination further in.

Never bandage tightly, and never bandage a tail, neck or limb with anything that cannot stretch. A dressing that is too tight causes damage faster than the wound would have.

Never give human wound creams, antiseptic ointments or antibiotic creams. Cats groom the area, so anything applied is also swallowed.

Never leave a cat bite wound to heal on its own because the bleeding has stopped.

Never assume a cat that has fallen and got up and walked away is fine. Internal bleeding, a ruptured bladder and a diaphragmatic tear all present hours later in a cat that initially looked well.

When to get help

The aim of everything above is a calm, warm cat with the bleeding controlled, arriving at a clinic that is already expecting you.

Go immediately, out of hours if necessary, for blood that pulses or spurts, bleeding that has not slowed after ten minutes of proper pressure, pale or white gums, collapse, laboured breathing, a wound to the eye, chest or abdomen, an impaled object, or bleeding from several sites without an injury.

Go the same day for any bite or scratch from another animal, a torn claw, a paw pad injury, a wound that gapes open, a nosebleed with no trauma, or any wound in a cat that is not eating or is hiding.

Go within 24 hours, and sooner if anything changes, for a superficial graze in a bright cat, so that it can be checked for contamination before it seals over.

Tell the practice on the phone what caused the injury, roughly when, whether the cat goes outside, whether other animals are involved, and what the gums look like now. That last detail changes how urgently they will want to see you.