I have 2 cats, and we live in Arizona. I caught my cats playing with a scorpion last night, and squished it with a shoe when they finally gave me an opening. They both seem to be fine -- no stings as far as I can tell, even though they were batting it around for at least a few minutes before I intervened. I've heard that, while cats aren't immune to scorpion stings, their thick fur/skin helps prevent them from being stung in most cases. However, I've also heard that they can still get stung in some places (nose, lip, paw), and have heard conflicting information on how dangerous scorpion stings are.
Since we live in Arizona, we do have bark scorpions here, and I've heard they're pretty poisonous (not sure what kind the one last night was, since I was more concerned with killing it than identifying it). I've tried to look up what to do if one of my cats does get stung by one (since I have a hard time telling scorpion types apart, I figured it would be best to assume any scorpion sting is potentially from a bark scorpion, just in case) but seem to get conflicting information from different websites. Some say it's comparable to a bee sting, and the cat should be fine within a few hours to a day, while others say a bark scorpion sting can be fatal to animals. Some websites say to let cats go after scorpions, since they'll likely kill them on their own, while others say to keep them away to avoid them getting stung. My cats both have a tendency to play with bugs, but hardly ever kill or eat them.
So, I guess my question really is this: Should I let my cats play with and kill/chase away scorpions on their own, or should I try to keep them away and get rid of the scorpions myself?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/c5stqc/is_it_safe_for_my_cats_to_play_with_scorpions/
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