Dave, I sure would take Bear in and have it taken care of. If
he were mine. That has got to hurt, though cats do not show it.
I'm so sorry this happened to him. Do you know how it happened?

Several years ago, my husband ran over my cat's tail (Boo-Boo).  He was
a beautiful long-haired white cat.  We took him to the vet, he told us
the tail was broken and we should "wait and see".

The poor cat had a helluva time sitting down.  He would try to sit down,
and his tail was hanging, his tail would bump the floor and he would
spring right back up.  In a couple of days, he learned to just fall over
sideways, instead of sitting.

Boo-Boo was fine, we did not have to remove his tail, but your cat's
health situation may be different.  Boo-Boo kept himself clean and
spotless, except for the last 4 inches of his tail, where it had broken.
He never groomed it. I had to wash that, myself.  Boo-Boo died ten years
later of heart disease, when he was 15 years old.

Best of luck with Bear.

Becca

I would be more into reducing his pain and suffering. I mean, it  doesn't
look like it tickles and waiting for it to fall off seems like asking for
trouble.

In the end, you are Bear's family. If it were a person, would you want them
to walk around like that and risk infection?

That tail needs to come off.

Let us know how he is doing.

-L.

Brief update... He's home and doing okay.

As I write this I'm sitting in bed with my laptop, he's stretched out
across my arms on his back, paws up in the air.

He'll only sit like this for 5-10 minutes at a time normally, then he
usually decides to go lay somewhere else (mostly because my arms move a
bit as I type), but tonight he's been here for about 15 minutes so far
and isn't showing any signs of running off just yet.

He's normally the most gentle friendly cat in the world, but I suspect
it's a side effect of the general anesthetic that makes him VERY angry,
moreso then either of his sisters or any other cat I've ever seen.  He's
normally good at the vet, it's not just the vet visit which upsets him,
he didn't even bite or scratch when the vet took his temperature on a
previous visit, nor did he complain when the vet touched his tail on any
of the consultations before the surgery.

He was so mad when we went to pick him up that it wasn't even funny.  

When he got neutered the vet's staff were afraid to reach in to the cage
to transfer him to the carrier, but once I got there I was able to pick
him up and transfer him without any difficulty.  He hissed a little, but
aside from that, no problem at all.

This time he was *mad*, I was afraid to reach in to touch him.  We held
the carrier into the cage and one of the vet's assistants put on gloves
and tried to tap his back to push him (hoping to annoy him into jumping
into the carrier), but he educated her in the error of her ways.  I'm
not sure if he was able to bite through the glove or not, but she wasn't
up for trying again.  I'm so proud of my big guy :)

They tossed a towel on him, once his head was covered they were able to
pick him up using the towel and get him into the carrier.  They decided
I can keep the towel after one of them tried to remove the towel and
Bear bit him through the towel (no blood, but not for lack of trying).
I'll try to remember to return the towel when I go back :)

As soon as he was in the carrier and the door was closed he calmed down
real quick.

Once we got home I brought him into my bedroom and set him on my bed.
Maxx (4 month old kitten) jumped up to see Bear, he heard Bear growling
and slowly backed away.  I've never seen Maxx react like that before (or
Bear, for that matter -- The two of them are normally best friends.
Bear is an awesome step dad)

I opened up the carrier and he came out, then immediately proceeded to
remove the cone.  We left it off (since we were hanging around to watch
him anyway no need for the cone), got some food and water.  He didn't
drink, but he ate a lot.  We opened up some tuna and gave him a bowl of
tuna juice with a little tuna, which he happily ate/drank.

We eventually put the cone back on him since my roommates were heading
off to bed and I wasn't sure if I could put it on myself whenever I
decide to go to bed.

He's doing okay, but the cone is making him a very miserable cat, the
poor guy just wants to scratch his ears, but his back paws only get as
far as the cone :|

I'm not sure if I have the heart to leave the cone on for 10 days, but
we'll see.  I'll take it off as much as I can when I'm around to
supervise, but I can't always watch him close enough to feel comfortable
leaving the cone off for too long at a time.