My cat has this injury. How to treat??

[Dragone]

My cat came home with a big lump on his head 2 days ago with blood coming out a tiny hole. Now it looks like this photo ove attached. How should I treat it? He's been licking his paw and frantically rubbing the area for about half and hour now.

Leave it overnight, ring vet in the morning. Looks nasty ! Keep him in overnight too. Let him lick/soothe himself

Take him to the vet FFS.

Looks nasty and is probably infected.

Take him to the vet as soon as humanly possible? Tonight?

He needs a vet. Bites can be nasty and he may need antibiotics

I too would say that needs the vet.
Would he let you bathe it with cool, boiled water?

Should really have seen the vet 2 days ago tbh

I think he needs to be seen by a vet. In the meantime I would wash it out with boiled cooled water .

Ohhh a lovely abscess. Wash it with warm water. Try to squeeze the pus out. Do you have a vets4pets or similar near you as he may need a course of antibiotics and maybe a flush.

All of the above, wash with sterilised water and go to the vets ASAP. If possible keep in overnight so you know their safe.

OK, I'm going to assume you've not gone to the vet for a good reason??

Is cat eating and drinking and urinating / pooing?

How is he in himself?

He needs a vet first thing tomorrow though. Please make sure you take him.

That is very close to his left eye and he really needs to see a vet.

VET

Can’t believe you’re even asking. Cats HIDE pain. Their instinct is not to show pain in any way, shape or form (to protect from predators).

Did I say VET?!

Plus him licking and 'cleaning' is likely to CAUSE a painful infection.

Don't squeeze it, if it was elsewhere and you were sure it was an a cess then I'd consider it but not when it's so close to the eye.

Why on earth havent you taken your cat to the vet???

I have been cleaning it with saline. He's in scraps ALL THE TIME. We would have to live in the vets if we were to take him every time something like this happened.

Since we moved here he's getting attacked all the time

This is one of the worst I've seen on him. We don't take him to the vets because as soon as he's in a car he soils himself badly every single time. We have been very lucky with him and just manage anything that happens at home. He gets so distressed going to the vets.

He's been eating as much as usual which is a lot!

we had one similar and it was a cat bite abscess. we went to the out of hours vets and had an antibiotic shot which would cover her for a week (I was not attempting to get tablets down her throat twice a day for a week when I could pay a little bit more and have one injection) and then we were just flushing it with saline solution to keep the fur out of it. I think she had an anti-inflammatory shot to help with pain relief when it was at its worst as well. apparently oozy and raw in a cat bite is good and scabbed is bad (sounded weird to me but the vet was insistent this raw gaping wound looked fine for a cat bite). she healed in around a week, fur is back to normal and no scarring. The biggest reason we took her was that she came back with the wound and although the vet confirmed a cat bite I wouldn't have took the chance it was actually something from being run over or knocked or other wild animals around here and the rest of her was looked at just incase.

So are you going to take him the vets or not?

That needs seeing to NOW. A vet will seriously not be happy if you leave that any longer.

VET NOW

as a side note out vet also said she had to be kept in at least a fortnight when the abscess was at its worst as her performance would be altered so she's more likely to fall off things, run into the road or misjudge her speed or not outrun predators and also more likely to be picked on again as she's in a weakened state

Antibiotics don’t usually improve outcomes for cat bite abscesses - the main thing is that it drains and is clean.
Saline is fine to clean it with
Try and stop him from scratching at it - a buster collar will help

Is he neutered? That usually reduces fighting

Definitely vets. That looks nasty and possibly infected.
Our cat had a huge fight and I didn't notice the wound on his ear straight away (black fur). Couple of days later I did notice a wound so cleaned it with salt water but next night the smell hit me and some gunk came out. Called vet first thing and they cleaned it up and gave antibiotic injection. We did continue cleaning at home but it soon healed once treated.
This is how it looked after vet got all the crap out.....

The infection will be under the skin where it got pierced. If it scabs over you will be unable to clean it.
I cannot say this enough please take the cat to the vet now

I can't take my cat to the vet right now. I have 2 young children in bed. I'll need to wait until the morning.