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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Fracturedfox@sh.itjust.works to c/whatisthisthing@lemmy.world

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 206 points 1 year ago

Looks like an air rifle pellet.

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

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 63 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 164 points 1 year ago

It's a .177 pellet gun round

Whoever did this should have their ass kicked.

[-] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

That's putting it nicely.

[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 111 points 1 year 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 15 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

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

[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I learned he hard way. :(

[-] candyman337@sh.itjust.works 69 points 1 year 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 20 points 1 year ago
[-] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

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

[-] Grippler@feddit.dk 6 points 1 year ago

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

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 months ago

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

[-] Grippler@feddit.dk 2 points 8 months ago

Yes they are usually made of lead.

[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 months ago

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

[-] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world 50 points 1 year ago

Somebody shot your cat, bud.

[-] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago

Keep your cats inside

[-] FARTYSHARTBLAST@kbin.social 44 points 1 year ago

That's a lead pellet from an air gun.

[-] BenM2023@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] candyman337@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] sik0fewl@kbin.social 15 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

Good to know, thanks for the info.

[-] Fracturedfox@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 year 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 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 1 year 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.

[-] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 17 points 1 year 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 29 points 1 year ago

That's a pellet from a BB gun

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

This is true. Totally forgot to mention that. Thanks

[-] Guntwin@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 year ago
[-] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 8 points 1 year ago

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

[-] matthewc@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Is that a bullet from a BB gun?

[-] ma11en@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago
[-] sik0fewl@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago
[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

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

[-] batmaniam@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year 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 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Shooting BB? You know how to throw money.

[-] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It's a micro-scone

this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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