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Found this lodged in my cat's tail. It was well healed over by the time we found it. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by Fracturedfox@sh.itjust.works to c/whatisthisthing@lemmy.world
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See pics, found this thing well healed in my cat's tail. Came out with no resistance and no bleeding. Looks like a tip to something, but not sure. Cat is less than 6 months old. Thoughts? The grooves you see are from my pliers. It's hollow and seems to be aluminum or some other soft metal.

Edit:

Looks like this is pretty unanimously solved. Bit of backstory (not that you asked)- neighbor got got 2 kittens in May/June for his daughter. They're freaking adorable so whenever they wandered over to our house, we gave them lots of attention. They had been spending more and more time camped out on our porch furniture in the past month and then I found this just today. I'm going to talk to the guy and see what's up.

I'm concerned they are only interested in animals while they're small and cute because last year they had a young dog that's no longer there, this is the second pair of kittens they've had this year (one of the first pair I still see sulking around at night, but I'm pretty sure it's feral now. No idea what happened to number 2), and now they have a new puppy again.

Thanks all!

Minor second edit: I made a mistake about their pets. The first dog mentioned above was actually the house next to the neighbors in question. Those neighbors had moved, which is why the dog is no longer here.

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[-] TomatoSlayer@lemmy.world 207 points 9 months ago

Looks like an air rifle pellet.

[-] I_Comment_On_EVERYTHING@lemmings.world 79 points 9 months ago

Definitely this. Not copper though looks like lead. Possibly steel. Humans really suck.

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 64 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Air gun pellets are almost always lead. While steel pellets absolutely do exist, they are much less common. Steel tipped lead pellets are a little more common.

The tarnish and the way the pellet is deformed very much points to lead in this case.

[-] FReddit@lemmy.world 167 points 9 months ago

It's a .177 pellet gun round

Whoever did this should have their ass kicked.

[-] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 12 points 9 months ago

That's putting it nicely.

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 112 points 9 months ago

Someone definitely shot the poor beastie with a pellet gun. It's good you got it out.
It would definitely be good to make sure they're an indoor cat, since someone is willing to hurt cats and you don't want them to get another chance.

[-] Polar@lemmy.ca 14 points 9 months ago

I have a pellet gun that shoots at like 1500fps.

Cats lucky. If the kid had a powerful one, and didn't hit just the tail, that cat would be dead.

[-] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 9 months ago

I killed a coyote with a pellet gun when I was a boy.

[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I have one that does that as well. Shoots 22mm pellets like that. It kills rats handily.

[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

I learned he hard way. :(

[-] candyman337@sh.itjust.works 74 points 9 months ago

As others have said that's an air gun pellet, maybe get an X-ray done and see if there are any others

[-] popcap200@lemmy.ml 18 points 9 months ago

This is good advice!

[-] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago

RMI on the other hand wouldn't be a good advice

[-] Grippler@feddit.dk 6 points 9 months ago

Lead isn't magnetic, not sure it would pose a problem for an MRI scan.

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Are pellets lead though? That seems like a health and environmental problem...

[-] Grippler@feddit.dk 2 points 4 months ago

Yes they are usually made of lead.

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Oh dear... I had thought we had moved on from using lead in most applications.

[-] muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Dont worry we still pump huge amounts into the atmosphere with some planes every day.

[-] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world 51 points 9 months ago

Somebody shot your cat, bud.

[-] FARTYSHARTBLAST@kbin.social 46 points 9 months ago

That's a lead pellet from an air gun.

[-] BenM2023@lemmy.world 44 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

That's a pellet from an air pistol/rifle. It's probably lead.

[-] candyman337@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

~~No they're usually steel for air pistol pellets~~ I was wrong

[-] sik0fewl@kbin.social 15 points 9 months ago

It's definitely lead. Had these growing up. You can see how it's deformed - that wouldn't happen if it was steel.

[-] candyman337@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

Good to know, thanks for the info.

[-] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 42 points 9 months ago

Keep your cats inside

[-] Fracturedfox@sh.itjust.works 39 points 9 months ago

Looks like this is pretty unanimously solved. Bit of backstory (not that you asked)- neighbor got got 2 kittens in May/June for his daughter. They're freaking adorable so whenever they wandered over to our house, we gave them lots of attention. They had been spending more and more time camped out on our porch furniture in the past month and then I found this just today. I'm going to talk to the guy and see what's up. I'm concerned they are only interested in animals while they're small and cute because last year they had a young dog that's no longer there, this is the second pair of kittens they've had this year (one of the first pair I still see sulking around at night, but I'm pretty sure it's feral now. No idea what happened to number 2), and now they have a new puppy again.

Thanks all!

[-] fishos@lemmy.world 60 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Please send an anonymous report to animal control. The circumstances sound suspicious with the neighbor. At the very least, adopting animals and then neglecting them(like the now feral cat), is animal adandonment/neglect. They should be prevented from adopting further animals even if that's all they are doing. The animals deserve a caring home. In addition, torturing small animals is a common and huge red flag. If they only like things when they're small and cute, what happens when their daughter grows up? I know this sounds extreme and I don't have all the facts, but how else would you view "they keep getting new animals, neglecting them, they "disappear", and more appear to continue the cycle. Oh and I found a pellet in one of them"??? File an anonymous report so that hopefully someone can look into this make sure everything is on the up and up.

[-] Fracturedfox@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I'll figure out if that's a county police thing or specifically animal control. We live out in the middle of almost-nowhere, so I'll start with county police.

[-] Pratai@lemmy.ca 17 points 9 months ago

Please look into having your neighbors investigated.

[-] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 16 points 9 months ago

Inb4 OP goes missing and is never seen again.

Animal abuse like this is a hallmark of antisocial personality disorder aka psychopathy.

[-] gl1tch001@lemmy.world 30 points 9 months ago

That's a pellet from a BB gun

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 11 points 9 months ago

More accurately it's a pellet from a pellet gun. Some BB guns can shoot pellets, but not all of them.

[-] gl1tch001@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

This is true. Totally forgot to mention that. Thanks

[-] Guntwin@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 9 months ago

https://images.app.goo.gl/uCAygHTf7sbYrAKcA

Airgun bullet

[-] Pat_Riot 8 points 9 months ago

That's an air rifle pellet. You have a bastard in your neighborhood.

[-] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

To be the Devil's advocate, pet cats allowed to roam are a pain in the ass to neighbors. One tried to kill my pet parrot on my property, and if I had an air rifle, he'd have taken an ass full or worse. Keep your pet on your property and off mine, it's pretty simple

[-] matthewc@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Is that a bullet from a BB gun?

[-] ma11en@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

BB stands for?

[-] sik0fewl@kbin.social 6 points 9 months ago

Ball bearing.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 points 9 months ago

Oh shit I can't believe I never knew that.

[-] batmaniam@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

It didn't. It's a size of shotgun pellet. There's BBB AA, you get the picture. BBs are well, close to "BB".

[-] uis@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Shooting BB? You know how to throw money.

[-] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago

It's a micro-scone

this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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