Did my bird kill my cat?

Question

Well we haven't had a good couple of months. In November last year our pet cat Harry caught, killed and completley ate our pet bird except for one wing. The bird was a wild bird that we rescued and raised from a baby. In the last couple of months Harry has had extremley bad diarrhoea and food has just gone straight through him causing him to lose weight. We thought it was just old age, he was 10, and the fact that he used to get into fights all the time when he was young so maybe he had some damage. Today we had to get Harry put too sleep as in the last three days he had lost alot of weight quickly and had become very lathargic. Now the bird he ate a few months back had a huge pointy beak . He later pooped out a foot but no beak. Could it have done something to his tummy? May it have become lodged or torn his tummy or bowel? The vet could find no reason for his worsening condition. Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

First, I apologize if this is graphic, I'm just trying to help based on the info you've given us. I suppose hypothetically it could have caused a bowel obstruction, but that would have easily been found on xray since a beak is bone and I would have expected to cause a problem sooner, vomiting and diarrhea, not eating or drinking. You said your vet was unable to determine a cause, was any x-rays or blood work done? Do you know the results? Was he an indoor/outdoor cat? You said he got into fights alot, so I am assuming he was outdoor, and if so could have very easily have caught FELV,FIV or FIP, all illnesses which can cause wasting and sudden death. If he wasn't vaccinated for those, that would be my first suspect, with cancer being the second. But even if it was the beak like you suspect, and it had torn some part of his GI system, it would have caused a severe peritonitis, increased white blood cell count, high fever and eventually he would have become septic (infection in his blood stream) and that would have caused organ failure. If those are consistent with symptoms and results you saw then it may have been the beak.

Answer 2

Bless your heart! This is one of the most horrifying things that I can think of. I had to have my 7 month old kitten euthanized back during the summer and it was almost like I had killed one of my children, I cannot imagine if he was 10 years old; you poor thing!
I don't know about whether or not the beak digested or not, but I wonder if the bird may have had some type of underlying virus and the cat got it too from um, what he did to the bird...??
But on the other hand, my kitty had the same condition that you described happened to your cat and my vet could not determine what it was either. He literally was skin and bones after about 13 weeks. I have two other cats, they were not affected. I know how you feel, if only you could "just know" maybe would lessen the pain. I wish I could help, but really have no clue- just wanted to express sympathy. Sorry.

Answer 3

lol. I have 2 siamese cats and three cockatiels who've continually had finished flight privelages in the course of the homestead. the cats have not afflicted them, before... now she bounce up larger than i idea she ought to at the same time as the fowl flies through. yet i inspect her massive blue eyes and that i nonetheless won't be able to yell at her. i imagine it takes so a lot more suitable aggression to kill a cat. Birds are person-friendly prey for cats, rather because a cat's saliva is poisonous to birds. once they chew the fowl, that is in all probability useless interior of 24 hrs.

Answer 4

I'm not a vet but the same thing happened to my cat. The vet said that it could of been a virus or parasite it caught from a wild bird outside. Wild birds are covered in mites and parasites. Don't worry though most of them will never affect humans.

Answer 5

its possible the bones of the bird caused internal hemorrhages . have him x-rayed.

now thats a bird that goes down fighting.

Answer 6

No, the cat committed suicide.