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.

Hope he makes a good recovery OP

This op does not deserve anyone's sympathy. The cat does.

And just to let the op know how disgusting her behaviour was I showed the pic to a vet friend today.
She did not speak for 1 min and just said appalling.

You op and your husband should have all pets removed in my opinion.

Glad he's ok, OP.

Get it rehomed or put down if you don't want to take responsibility for it.

The cat has been to the vet! Granted it should have gone sooner, before the injury was apparent ideally but then how would you know it was injured.

My advice would be, clean area and vets as soon as poss. Did not warrant an overnight emergency visit.

Probably cost more because it was left...

The cat should not be put down just given to decent owners

Ok from the level of responses here I really hope you are taking note of the majority view. You need to have compassion for your animals.
But you come across as hard nosed and cold so I just pity your animals really.

Get it rehomed or put down if you don't want to take responsibility for it.

Really?!!🤔😡

The hysteria on this thread is ludicrous.
Ruptured abscess are generally not painful - the painful part is before the rupture and most owners don’t actually notice them at that stage.
Yes they do need to be thoroughly drained and cleaned but no, antibiotics are not always needed - in fact there’s no evidence that antibiotics make any difference in draining abscesses
bestbetsforvets.org/bet/479

Yes an open draining abscess looks unsightly, and certainly having it thoroughly flushed will help, but for the posters suggesting the RSPCA, rehoming or euthanasia for a systemically well cat with what is essentially a relatively minor skin wound, Seriously, get a grip.

Veterinari - hear hear.

Veterinari
I think its the fact that the op didnt seek treatment when she knew there was something wrong.
They should be looked at by the vet though. Sometmes ab are not needed, and sometimes they are.
Ours has needed ab every single time along with me cleaning it.

As you say, the pain comes before the burst. She didn’t take home when it was most painful. She left it too late.

Any open wound can become infected, especially when a cat licks it.

She didn’t know what to do, therefore should have sought vet advice.

When it first happened (and in your own words, would have been most painful). She didn’t need an OOH appointment. Yet she waited until the weekend when only OOH appointments were available.

She neglected to seek appropriate first aid/ vet care for 4days. The most painful 4days...

Take him, not take home.

And this owner did notice. And did nothing at a point when something could have been done.

This should go into classics.

Wow - what a bunch of nasty people on here

I’m glad the cat is ok op!

Veterinari well said...

There is no way an ooh vet would have told her to bring the cat in then and there. They would have said ring in the morning and make and appointment. Which she did.

Nasty for being concerned for the welfare of an animal and wanting it to receive appropriate vet care? I’ve heard everything now.

The point is that the cat could have been faked straight away and received medical care BEFORE ooh vet care need even have been mentioned. She should have gone on day 1, not day 4.

Taken

I disagree that the cat needed to be taken straight away, its fine to try and treat common injuries like that at home. However, it obviously got infected and then should have been taken to the vets as soon as practical.

Can bites generally lead to infection due to the nature of the bite and the bacteria on the teeth being driven deep into the skin. We were talking about a known bite - not a general wound or scratch.

On a Monday or Tuesday, etc, i could understand waiting for 24 hours - although I would phone the vet straight away. On a Friday (knowing that the weekend means OOH), I would expect a caring owner to at least take vet advice over the phone. My vet would say to bring in for a known cat bite.

Waiting 4 days and still not taking vet advice is not acceptable. Even the vet (if they are one) here says that the build up of the abcess (the first days) is the most painful part. The time the owner did nothing.

just one of many websites saying the same thing

@Catandmice you are deliberately misrepresenting what I said to fit your own narrative - it’s deceitful and inaccurate. Please stop.

To answer your points:

As you say, the pain comes before the burst. She didn’t take home when it was most painful. She left it too late.
As do the vast majority of cat owners because cats are excellent at masking discomfort. By this level of hudhement pretty much anyone that has an indoor-outdoor cat is an unsuitable owner.

Any open wound can become infected, especially when a cat licks it.
Ummm... it’s a cat nite abscess. It’s already infected. With anaerobic bacteria. Once the wound is open and oxygenated the bacteria cannot survive. Usually a good clean is all that’s required unless the cat is systemically unwell

She didn’t know what to do, therefore should have sought vet advice.
She did. Hence this thread

When it first happened (and in your own words, would have been most painful). She didn’t need an OOH appointment. Yet she waited until the weekend when only OOH appointments were available.

Nope actually my own words were that abscesses are most painful PRIOR to rupture. And as said before, most difficult to detect at this stage. It’s difficukt to seek help for a problem you aren’t aware of

She neglected to seek appropriate first aid/ vet care for 4days. The most painful 4days.
*Actually the OP states that the cat cane hone 2 days prior to the OP posting and at that stage already had bleeding from the lump I.e. a rupture. So no the OP only noticed it once ruptured.

There are a lot of ‘experts’ on this thread. It’s easy to slag someone off when you have no idea about their life or actual expertise. The number of I assume, non-vets in this thread dictating that antibiotics are necessary when we have a global disaster in AMR unfolding is ridiculous.

And yes some vets will give antibiotics every time. That’s very different from the antibiotics being ‘needed’.

As do the vast majority of cat owners because cats are excellent at masking discomfort. By this level of hudhement pretty much anyone that has an indoor-outdoor cat is an unsuitable owner

That may be so, but in THIS case, she DID know and could have acted upon her knowledge.

Any open wound can become infected, especially when a cat licks it.
Ummm... it’s a cat nite abscess. It’s already infected. With anaerobic bacteria. Once the wound is open and oxygenated the bacteria cannot survive. Usually a good clean is all that’s required unless the cat is systemically unwell

Here, you are misrepresenting what I said. Please stop. These are two scenarios. 1. The open wound that a cat can introduce more bacteria to and therefore prevent healing. 2. The open (burst) abcess, which has been left and need not have reached this point, because the anaerobic bacteria have been allowed to multiply as opposed to having been dealt with by antibiotics (had her OWN vet decided they were needed, had she actually bothered to take him). The owner could have taken advice had she acted straight away.

She didn’t know what to do, therefore should have sought vet advice.
She did. Hence this thread

This is not vet advice. You may or may not be a vet. Vet advice means picking up the phone to her own vet (or making an appointment).

Nope actually my own words were that abscesses are most painful PRIOR to rupture. And as said before, most difficult to detect at this stage. It’s difficukt to seek help for a problem you aren’t aware of

Yes. What I said. And she did know. So should have sought vet advice (own vet, not online forum) straight away so the matter could have been dealt with before allowing the problem to develop over several days.

There are a lot of ‘experts’ on this thread. It’s easy to slag someone off when you have no idea about their life or actual expertise. The number of I assume, non-vets in this thread dictating that antibiotics are necessary when we have a global disaster in AMR unfolding is ridiculous.

Easy to be the armchair expert and slag off others isn’t it? You're making a good job of it. I think you’ll see that the advice was to seek a vet's opinion (obviously this doesn’t go for every single voice on the thread) so that HER vet could make the call whether to treat or to leave. EVEN IF no antibiotics were given, a dose of metacam COULD have been given (if her vet chose to do so).

By waiting, she denied all medical care. The advice at the beginning was to go to the vet. Then that expert could then advise.

No one should rely on internet an diagnosis, especially when people may or may not be who they say they are (this is a general statement and not aimed directly at @Veterinari) There’s nothing wrong with advising someone to seek vet advice.

OP should have taken the cat to the vet. It's pretty bloody obvious. She took him eventually, which proves the point. He needed to go, she took him. End of.

Between the op's first and second post, the replies said 'take him to the vet'. No 'armchair' advice given. One mention of 'may' need antibiotics not definitely will.

I really think the posts speak for themselves.