My house has a lofted area over the great room. It has rod iron banisters/fencing. My 5 mo old bengal thinks it's really fun to weave in and out of them. Sometimes he loses his balance and falls over the edge. Once he landed on the couch,once we caught him mid air, once he fell but bounced right up, and tonight he fell hard and was "stunned" for about 1 minute. he was squinting one eye almost shut, ran under the table and would not come out. After about 1 minute though, he seems fine. running playing, no yelping when pressed all over his body, ran downstairs ate a good amount of food, pupils appear normal.

Is this OK? Should I be concerned? Typical of a fall?
We have blocked the steps off before, but this makes him more intrigued to get up there. also thought about putting a solid material along the base so he can weave thru the banister, but he has jumped straight up to the hand rail before, which is REALLY scary. I'm afraid adding a solid blocker will encourage the walking on the handrail more, aka an even higher fall. I feel like there is no good answer. After he first fall, he seemed to be somewhat deterred, but obviously still happens.

thank you.

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The little monsters 3

can you show us in pictures what you are dealing with?

Maybe some DIY minded folks can help suggest ways to block this hazard.
IMO you must prevent any accidents that could be harmful.
Somehow you need to make your home safe ... if anything serious happens (assuming nothing is already wrong) you will hate yourself.

A fall can slip a disk or break a bone or dislocate a joint, or cause internal injury that you cant see and kitty hides (cats hide pain and illness if they can)

IMO, yes you should be concerned and have a vet check your baby over asap... personally Id have gone in immediately for an emergency appointment.

OMG!

My cat had an accident a few years back where he escaped from a window and slipped down onto the ground. He seemed fine too, however wasn't stunned or had one eye squinted shut but I still took him to the vets!

Get him to a vet asap and have a full check up done, he couldn't have done some serious damage to himself internally.

Is there anyway you can cover the banisters/fencing with a solid material so that he can't weave in and out of them?

I have same description of loft and same issue you are having. Think I even got some of the same responses you got ;)
My cat fell probably 5-7 times despite any safety remedy I imposed. Only thing that semi works is watching him and anytime he jumps on the handrail( our main problem vs weaving banisters) we throw a pillow up from the couch at him. He is so trained now that as soon as he hears you, he jumps down fast. I'm sure same would work if you throw pillow at banisters. He seems to only do this when we are home for attention. Our other Bengal (the chunky non athletic one) has never even attempted to we've or jump on railing. Just depends on the personality of cat you get I guess!

You could fix up a net curtain from the bottom of the banister to the ceiling, making it a safety screen, so if the cat does fall, he will be caught in the net. Use normal window net curtain material - not the fishing type, as that could seriously hurt him if he got caught - There are loads of designs which look nice.

I can't picture the set up, but can you have some shelves installed in the wall so your cat can safely walk to the area and back down?

How many cat trees do you have? Any climbing shelves on the wall? I would probably have put up lattice over the railing. It would give it a better look than anything wire. The other thing would be blocking off the access to the loft for the cats. Some cats just want to be acrobats and injuries can be serious if they fall. It's obvious your kitty wants to jump, so give him something else to jump from!

Gee, this is an old thread! Mackattack, this was your original thread!