How long does it take for a cat to go septic from fight wounds?

[Fluffycloudland77]

It's only a small cut on his nose on his scar from previous fights and a red sore bit in his ear, I'm just waiting for the salt water to cool so I can bathe them.

It won't necessarily go septic, particularly if it's not a deep wound. I think abcesses start to form quite quickly when they do form. A deep cat scratch on my hand when septic and gave me a very high fever within 8 hours, so I imagine it's not too different for cats. I would bathe it and keep an eye on it for now.

In my experience, usually within 48 hours of the injury. Our old cat, now sadly departed from this world, was forever coming off worse in scraps with other neighbourhood cats and we had at least 2 wounds go septic. Usual pattern was for him to go very sleepy and off his food, and then within a couple of hours of that, that very distinctive pong would appear........

You should be fine with surface wounds though. I'm talking about puncture wounds to the abdomen - had to have a piece of claw removed and the abcess drained under GA once. Thank God for insurance!

Well the salt water went well, I am getting filthy looks.

It's a good job I bulk buy collars, always manages to lose the collar.