Electric Shock and Burns in Cats: Cord Chewing and Lung Risk

Cut the power before you touch the cat. A cat still clamped onto a live cord can pass current through you, and 220 to 240 volts is enough to stop a cat's heart or throw it into a seizure. Switch off the breaker, unplug the appliance, or push the cord away with a dry wooden broom handle. Then check breathing, cover any burn loosely, and get to a vet today: mouth burns from chewing a cord are almost always worse inside than outside.

Cut the power, then the cat

Do not grab a cat that is still in contact with a cord, even by the scruff. Switch off at the wall first, and if you cannot reach the socket, use something dry and non-conductive: a wooden broom handle, a plastic chair leg, a rolled newspaper. Stand on a dry floor, not on a wet tile, and keep other pets and children out of the room.

Once the power is off, check whether the cat is breathing and whether the heart is beating. A cat in cardiac arrest needs CPR on the spot (30 compressions to 2 breaths, 100 to 120 per minute) before the car ride. A cat that is breathing but twitching, drooling, or dazed goes into a carrier on its side with nothing in its mouth.

Where cord burns actually are

Cats bite down on a cord with the back teeth, so the current arcs across the tongue base, the hard palate, and the corners of the lips. From the outside you may see nothing at all, or only a singed whisker, a blackened lip commissure, or a little drool. Inside, the tissue between the teeth can be cooked white or grey, and it sloughs over the next 2 to 5 days.

Behavior is often the first clue: a cat that paws at its mouth, shakes its head, refuses dry food, drools, or hides after a bang and a yelp. Kittens between 2 and 8 months are the usual patients, because that is when everything gets chewed.

The lungs are the delayed problem

Electric current damages the capillary lining in the lungs the same way it damages the mouth. Fluid leaks into the air sacs, and pulmonary edema can develop 24 to 48 hours after a shock that looked minor. The cat is often sent home from the first visit and comes back the next day breathing hard.

Count the resting breathing rate twice a day: normal is 20 to 30 per minute. Above 40, coughing, foam at the nose, open-mouth breathing, or blue-grey gums means go back now. Many vets keep a shocked cat for 12 to 24 hours of observation and oxygen for this reason alone.

Thermal burns: 10 to 20 minutes of cool water

For a scald, a hot stove, a hair straightener, or a space heater, start cooling immediately. Hold the area under cool running water at roughly 15 to 25 degrees Celsius for 10 to 20 minutes; a shower head on low pressure or a jug poured slowly both work. Cooling within the first 20 minutes limits how deep the burn goes.

Do not use ice, iced water, or a frozen pack. Ice constricts the blood vessels that the damaged skin needs and deepens the injury. Do not use toothpaste, soy sauce, butter, oil, or alcohol; all of them trap heat, feed bacteria, and make the wound harder to assess. Do not burst blisters, and do not pull fabric out of a burn that has stuck to it.

Chemical burns: dry first, then flush

Powders come off before water goes on. Drain cleaner, pool chlorine, fertilizer, and lime react with water and can generate heat, so brush the dry powder off with a soft cloth or a card, protecting your own hands, then flush for 15 to 20 minutes. Liquid chemicals get flushed straight away, from the inner corner outward if an eye is involved.

Do not try to neutralize an acid with a base. The neutralization reaction releases heat inside the tissue and produces a second, deeper burn. Plain lukewarm water is the correct first aid in almost every case.

When a burn needs a vet

Depth	What it looks like	Typical healing
Superficial	Red, painful, no blisters	3 to 7 days
Partial thickness	Blistered, wet, very painful	10 to 21 days
Full thickness	White, leathery, charred, often painless	Surgery

Bring the cat in for any burn larger than 2 cm across, any full-thickness burn, any burn on the face, ears, paws, or genitals, and every electrical or chemical burn. A burn covering more than 10 percent of the body surface causes fluid loss and shock, and a kitten has far less surface area to lose.

What never goes on a burn

• Ice, frozen peas, or iced water.
• Toothpaste, soy sauce, butter, cooking oil, or alcohol.
• Cotton wool, which leaves fibers in the wound.
• Human antibiotic ointment with a painkiller added.
• A tight bandage over a swollen limb.

Cover the burn with a clean, non-stick pad or a plain cloth, keep the cat warm, and skip food in case sedation is needed.

The next 24 hours

1. Unplug or cover every cord within reach, and fit cable protectors on the ones you cannot move.
2. Check the mouth with a torch: lift the lips, look at the tongue base and palate.
3. Offer soft food and water; a cat that will not eat is in pain, not being fussy.
4. Count resting breaths twice daily for 48 hours.
5. Photograph any skin burn each morning so you can see whether it is spreading.

Deep or infected burns need the same wound care as other injuries; see bleeding and wounds. Heat sources and cords are the two most common causes, and both are covered room by room in cat-proofing your home.

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