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How to treat a cat wound?

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Lumine

Member
Google didn't seem to be much help, so to gaf I go.

I just came home and find that my cat has a small wound on his rear back near his tail. It's smaller than a thumb size and probably less deep than an inch. It's not bleeding either but it does seem to be wet and slightly white/yellowish. There's also a pretty big bump underneath the wound and a patch of hair lost. I guess he got in a catfight somewhere in the last 2 hours.

It doesn't seem too bad and he seems to behaving normally but I'm still kinda worried about all those stories of cat wounds like these getting infected and growing 3 times its size over night. Coincidentally I'm taking my cat to the vet this next tuesday(for a shot), but I kinda wanna know if I should be worried at all and just leave him be or try to treat it in the meanwhile? I've been looking for some jodium or other disinfectant but all I find is some aftershave and I doubt that's a good idea.

So anyone have any tips? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks. :)
 

Crag Dweller

aka kindbudmaster
Go to the vet. My cat got in a fight last year with what sounds like the same kind of injury. They gave me a powder to put on the wound and some antibiotics for infection.
 
I'd seek advice from somewhere other than a gaming forum. If you are worried, take him/her to the vets. That's what I'd do if one of my cats wasn't right.

Just saying.

Or, give him aftershave.
 

judhudson

Member
Lick it? That's what cats normally do.

No, I'd take it to the vet. It'll cost ya, but at least they'll know how to handle it properly.
 
Stick your finger in it, see if he likes it.

Seriously, goto the vet as it may/probably will get infected if not treated.
 

Kozak

Banned
I wouldn't take it to a vet just yet..

Cats injure themselves in so many ways. They can heal.

If you take him to a vet now you'll just end up paying for problems that may have no existed in the first place. Wait at least a day and see how he/she is doing.
 

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
Sugar is great to close wounds. But you should clean the wound first.
 

Lumine

Member
Haha you guys are making me even more worried. :(

Decided to make some pictures, this was the best I could get:

7Ye.jpg


7Yg.jpg


Does this seem severe enough to take him to vet right away or can it wait 'till tuesday as I've got an appointment then anyway?
It doesn't look that bad and he seems fine, eats fine and went outside again. I have however no experience whatsoever when it comes to cats and infections.

Can I use a drop of aftershave as a disinfectant or is that a bad idea?
 
Cut yourself and pour afterhshave over it. See how much that fucking hurts then wonder if you want to inflict that pain on your cat.

But, at least he'd smell nice.
 
I'd take him to the vet.

Think of it this way: would you rather it get worse and look back, knowing you could have made a difference or take him to the vet and have him nice and healthy and happy right away?

Then again, I'm paranoid about my cat cause I <3 him lots.
 

C.Dark.DN

Banned
call the vet and ask them.

best case scenario they bump your appointment up.

you're not trapped on a fucking island.

how about gunpowder and a lighter like i seen in the western movies dur dur.
 

Ollie Pooch

In a perfect world, we'd all be homersexual
careful, one of my cats came in with a few scratches like that on her, and some fur missing. i left it a little bit, used some disinfectant on her and cleaned it up. i thought it had healed but it had healed OVER the wound and the bacteria from the cuts had caused abscesses in her skin (sorry, gross i know).

ended up costing a lot more for them to drain them, prescribe antibiotics, go back for checkups etc . plus the vets all gave me death stares cos it looked like i'd ignored what turned out to be a serious infection.

not saying that's the case here, but i'd be on the safe side and get some antibiotics at the least.
 

Lumine

Member
Alright, I made an appointment at the vet for later today. You guys convinced me there was no point in risking it by waiting.

Thanks for the replies. :)
 

daw840

Member
Take it to the vet immediately. My buddy's cat had a small cut on his paw and they didn't really think much of it. Found the cat dead about 6 days later in the stairway. Didn't even show any signs of anything being wrong with him. Your cat will probably be OK, but I wouldn't take a chance.
 
I've cured some of my cat's wounds before, first you got to see how deep it is, if it's quite shallow and fresh the best thing to do is use salt water (half a tea spoon of salt to like a pint of warm water). you'll need to use this to clean the wound and do it like twice a day. I also use a bit of anti-septic cream, you should use just the tiniest amount and dilute it with water, use it after the salt water and then wash it off afterwards.

Don't let your cat go outside till it's started to heal.

Also if the wound is deep, just take em to the vets.
 

Cheshire

Member
That's not much of a wound. Just clean it with some warm salty water. Probably keep him inside and just clean it maybe 2 or 3 times a day for a couple of days. By the time you go to the vet on tuesday it would have mostly healed.

See the danger with cat wounds is the bacteria in the claws of the cats. Cleaning the wound out well should do it, but if it starts to smell or you see discharge, clean it again really well, take him to the vet and get some antibiotics.

Don't let those bastards tell you they need surgery. Antibiotics will heal it quicker than the animal would have recovered from surgery. My cat had a wound near it's mouth. Coming from a farm background I wasn't stressed, I just cleaned it out and went to get some antibiotics. Vet wanted to operate but I said no I just want some antibiotics. I got yelled at about how they had gone to vet school for 5 years blah blah. She ended up giving me the tablets, cat was fine in a couple of days. Not saying I know better, but vets are often out for money.
 

C.Dark.DN

Banned
Cheshire said:
That's not much of a wound. Just clean it with some warm salty water. Probably keep him inside and just clean it maybe 2 or 3 times a day for a couple of days. By the time you go to the vet on tuesday it would have mostly healed.

See the danger with cat wounds is the bacteria in the claws of the cats. Cleaning the wound out well should do it, but if it starts to smell or you see discharge, clean it again really well, take him to the vet and get some antibiotics.

Don't let those bastards tell you they need surgery. Antibiotics will heal it quicker than the animal would have recovered from surgery. My cat had a wound near it's mouth. Coming from a farm background I wasn't stressed, I just cleaned it out and went to get some antibiotics. Vet wanted to operate but I said no I just want some antibiotics. I got yelled at about how they had gone to vet school for 5 years blah blah. She ended up giving me the tablets, cat was fine in a couple of days. Not saying I know better, but vets are often out for money.
He's already going to the vet.

I've had the complete opposite experience with vets. They were telling me certain expensive tests weren't needed when I was finding different tests online when my cat got renal failure and was going through a rough patch.

You can't generalize and say all vets are greedy. They care about animals.

Calling them bastards is uncalled for too. WTF,
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
DeathNote said:
He's already going to the vet.

I've had the complete opposite experience with vets. They were telling me certain expensive tests weren't needed when I was finding different tests online when my cat got renal failure and was going through a rough patch.

You can't generalize and say all vets are greedy. They care about animals.

Calling them bastards is uncalled for too. WTF,
My cat wandered in once with a pretty deep gash, down to flesh where it looked like raw chicken.

I took her to the emergency vet to get that stitched up right away. It cost 400 dollars. I took the cat home and it removed it self from the bindings I put it in and ripped almost all the stitches off. I took it to the regular vet and they said they could restitch it for another 300 bucks, but instead I had them use a type of veterinary skin glue. I had literally had the cat tied up at this point to stop it from biting at the glue and remaining stitches, but she escaped and licked a lot of it off; but luckily, unlike human skin glue, veterinary quality skin adhesive can be bought online and I just reapplied. (Veterinary skin adhesive is no different than human-usage except human usage has to prepared in sterile rooms)
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
antibiotics are the most drastic thing you'd need to do. Cats heal very well, I had a cat that got a deep puncture wound on her stomach and the vet didn't do anything, just told me to keep an eye on it. Within a few weeks it had healed completely. Same thing when one of my cats got hit by a car and broke her hip. Vet told me to keep her off tall surfaces and she'd be fine. Sure enough she healed fine on her own.
 

Cheshire

Member
DeathNote said:
He's already going to the vet.

I've had the complete opposite experience with vets. They were telling me certain expensive tests weren't needed when I was finding different tests online when my cat got renal failure and was going through a rough patch.

You can't generalize and say all vets are greedy. They care about animals.

Calling them bastards is uncalled for too. WTF,

I study with them.

Not all of them are. But the ones that try and convince you to do unnecessary procedures are bastards. Just because they are a vet doesn't mean they aren't exempt from being bad people. They care about animals but they need an income. And vet school bills are huge. Lucky you've found a good vet. Stick with them.

The best treatment I've had towards my animals has been from a university vet. They have so much funding it's not even funny. Today I'm going to drop off a bottle of wine to my surgeon who spayed my cat. She had a fragile uterus and without extra care would have haemorrhaged. While she was recovering I noticed blood starting to pool around the inside of the wound. Went in to uni emergency and the vet who operated on her spotted us and came and had a look. She asked me to bring her in multiple times and she took 5mins each time (over 2 weeks) to look her over and once she was happy she was doing ok she sent me home. I was never charged for those quick follow ups. She did it for her own sake.

Anyone who tries to get convince me to do something unnecessary for their own gain is a bastard. I think that you are also generalising. You have had one good vet therefore vets are not bastards. I'm just warning the OP not to be overcharged for something unnecessary.

Edit: Also for all you know I could be a vet. :D
 
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