My cat cut his tongue and won't eat dry food. Is a vet needed?

Thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach with your question about Thumbelina. She could hand injured her tongue. Since she can eat wet food, it’s not an emergency. Keep feeding her wet food over the weekend, and have her seen by a vet on Monday. If she stops eating or appears to be in significant pain, then take her into an emergency vet. Best of luck.

Oh no that is awful! The cat will have to be sedated to remove the tongue and the tongue may need stitches to close the hole. The tongue is an amazing organ and actually heals quite quickly, so I expect it would be a great prognosis. This will be extremely painful to the cat and it's serious he can't eat or drink. This is a medical emergency and he has to see a vet now. Please take him into an ER vet clinic; if there isn't one in your area, there will be a vet on call for emergencies. The information to reach that vet is found on a clinic's answering machine or website. Best of luck.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. It appears as though the skin has been detached from the lower jaw from an injury of some sort. I would recommend having a veterinarian look at this for the most appropriate treatment. She will likely need to be sedated and have stitches placed in this area to help reattach the skin to the jaw.

You won't be able to put anything on the tongue to treat topically. I would recommend having Melcho checked by a vet. The wound may need stitches to heal. The tongue is great at healing but the edges of the wound need to be close together to heal. Antibiotics would probably be a good idea.

Poor kitty. Do a really good check of kitties mouth and see if you can identify the source of the bleeding. If it is coming from the tongue and if it has stopped bleeding for the most part, but only starts again after kitten eats, then this may be manageable at home. Get kitty a pet friendly oral rinse from your local pet store and flush the mouth daily to keep things from getting infected. Then I would make sure that kitty eats soft canned food only to avoid friction on the tongue and hopefully keep the bleeding episodes to a minimal. The tongue heals relatively quickly in most cases (within a few days), so anything beyond that would concern me that there is potentially another source of the bleeding, at which point it may be best to have kitty seen by your vet for a thorough exam.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! These look like lacerations that are fairly large and deep. This is probably traumatic in nature. Even though a close examination is usually needed for confirmation, I would highly suspect that these will require sutures to be able to close them. I highly recommend that you have Clyde evaluated by a veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. They would also likely start on antibiotics to prevent the onset of an infection or treat one if already present. Good luck and have a great day!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! At this point this would warrant reevaluation. This could be something else such as a mass which is why it has not resolved or perhaps an abscess that is not sensitive to the antibiotics that were used. Your veterinarian can reevaluate this and treat according to that. Good luck and have a great day!