Answer: There is no doubt tat road accidents are the most common emergencies in which cat are involved, especially in urban areas. Many different types of injures can be caused and multiple injuries are common. At times, there are so severe as to cause to the death of the animal immediately, or within twenty-four hours. This is an inevitably consequence of allowing a cat the freedom to wonder at will, and other then keeping your cat confined at all times, or only allowing him to exercise when on a lead, there is very little that you can do the prevent such incident.
The animal may be truck a direct or glancing blow, not only from the front bumper or a wheel, but also from a low slung part of the chassis, transmission or exhaust system as the vehicle passes above the cat. It may suffer crush injures as a wheel passes over part of its body, and it may at times be dragged behind the vehicle for distance. In addition to shock, a road accident can produce a verity of external and internal wounds with varying degrees of haemorrhage, fractures, dislocations, concussion or paralysis. Head and pelvic injuries are very common, and sometime there is a diaphragmatic hernia which causes great difficulty in breathing. At times, the only external evidence of a cat’s involvement in a road accident may be frayed or splintered claws, possibly some loss of hair, and oil and dirt on the coat. Despite the minimal external signs there is often serious internal bleeding.
The animal might remain at the scene of the accident, often dazed or unconscious, or it may run away in a blind panic, only a return home, if at all, several hours or even days later.
First aid treatment for road accidents consists primarily of treatment for shock, plus attention for whatever other serious signs might be present (e.g. severe haemorrhage, difficult in breathing, fracture, paralysis, etc.) before obtaining, veterinary attention. It is of course imperative that if the animal is still in a dangerous position in the roadway it should first be removed to a safer, and preferably sheltered, position.
