My cat is fighting and getting hurt.

[lollilou]

Hi my black neutered tom is fighting when he goes out. He is coming back with large bites and missing fur patches. The latest is v. nasty. We are worried that these bites could get infected but if we put any antiseptic on them he will just lick it off won't he? Should we take him to the vet? The problem is this stresses him out and we don't want to do it every time. We moved here 2 months ago so I'm guessing it's territory related. Can anyone give us some advice?

Has he been fighting ever since he first went out at the new home? It's just that that would seem a very long time - with another tom, they would normally have one or two scraps, sort out standing and then ignore each other. (Or one would slink away on sighting the other.)

What sort of environment is the new place ? Lots of cats round about?

is this every time he goes out? or just at night?
there is a big cat round here who comes over to our house at night deliberately to pick a fight with my cat! we keep him in at night now

and yes, if he has a nasty bite wound you need to get it seen to

Have you got special cat antiseptic? Human meds can harm cats eg paracetamol is fatal for them.