A bloody enigma.

Afty

Hello.

Yesterday afternoon i was merrily playing wow, when i decided i needed a drink. As i was walking through my kitchen i noticed some drops of blood on the floor near the kitchen/porch door.

There were about 13 large drops of blood all clustered together in a circle about a foot across, and 1 lone drop on the door mat.

I instantly thought it was my cat, in the 3 months or so that we have had her, she has gotten into a few scraps with local cats who's turf she's moved onto and i was worried she might have gotten cut in a scrap. So i start to call her and she wanders down the stairs sleepily. I grab her and check her over - ears - face - paws - mouth - and as much of her body as i could with her squirming around.

She doesn't have a scratch on her!

My girlfriend thought that maybe she's coming into season, but she has been spayed (she's a rescue cat and the RSPCA spay or neuter all their cats) so this shouldn't be the case, also this doesn't really explain the concentration of the blood by the door and not in her regular sleeping areas. We checked the stinky end too just incase there was something wrong there, but everything seemed ok (afaik).

I've searched for anything she might have killed and brought in but i can't find anything anywhere.

So my Question is

Should i take the cat to the vet? she is showing no irregular behaviour or discomfort. The blood might not even be from her, though if its not i have no idea where its from and my house may be haunted!

TLDR?

Found lots of blood on kitchen floor, assumed it was cat, cat behaving normally. UK's first house built on an indian burial ground?

Organichu

Afty wrote: »

Found lots of blood on kitchen floor, assumed it was cat

There's your problem right there. ;-)

Is it at all possible that there's another source? You cook meat that night? You have any scratches on you?

Afty

There is no other source that i could imagine, this was ALOT of blood drops and would take a sizeable scratch to create.

It wasn't there when i got back from driving my gf out for lunch with her friends, it was there before she got home, i was the only one in the house.

It was right infront of our front door, its not the sort of thing you could miss.

I even checked on the porch roof incase something died up there and it leaked through somewhere random.

Burnage

Do you have a cat flap? Something might have tried to come in and your cat scratched it, maybe.

Afty

That's a possibility, she usually makes a horrendous amount of noise if she sees another cat. I don't think i would have missed it, but it's a possibility.

Solandra

Does she have an inside litterbox at all? Blood or bloody urine can be a sign of a urinary tract infection.

Keep an eye out; if it happens again or if she's acting weird, off to the vet with both of you!

Afty

She does have a litterbox inside, i'll have a poke around it when i get home from work.

(he said with much gusto!)

CycloneRanger

There's a good chance that your cat found and killed something that bleeds—probably a mouse. Have you seen any mice or mouse droppings in your house? Mice tend to try to come inside during the winter, so even if you've never had mice before your cat could have found one.

It also might be from a person. I know sometimes I've been bleeding and not realized it until long after.

Riale

On the topic of your cat having killed an animal to create the blood - It's very possible your cat ate whatever it was. I remember going through this once or twice with my own cat. The mystery was finally solved when I caught him devouring a gopher where the blood had been.

Still, I'd keep an eye on your cat just to be on the safe side.

Deviant Hands

Do you still have some samples of the blood? You could run a DNA test on it.

Iconoclysm

I think the butler did it, with the candlestick..

OTOH, my cat used to bring home strays and other injured cats in the hopes that we'd patch them up or feed them or whatever.
You might have a grisly find in some quiet corner or bush near your property where some injured moggy has crawled away to die. Sorry but it does happen surprisingly often.

savedR

I'm a little worried the cat could have coughed the blood up. Anyone else think so?

I'd think that a symptom that severe would be accompanied by something like wheezing, though.

I'm really not trying to make you worry, but I bet this post does. I never consider blood something to mess around with, though. If it were me, I think I'd take it to the vet and have it checked out, maybe X-rayed or something.. if that's cheap and they can do it, you'd either see some sort of pulmonary problem, or maybe see the bones of the mouse/whatever inside the stomach.

Any other thoughts on this?

savedR

Also, what DeviantHands said. If you can do it cheaply, you could find out pretty quick whether it's cat blood, mouse blood, or something else, and at least have that part of the mystery solved.

DrFrylock

savedR wrote: »

Also, what DeviantHands said. If you can do it cheaply, you could find out pretty quick whether it's cat blood, mouse blood, or something else, and at least have that part of the mystery solved.

Yes, and it would only take 6-8 weeks and cost several hundred dollars.

Guys, CSI != Real Life