Cat Wound

[Hound dog]

I have no idea what Bruce has done to his paw, or rather to the pad of his paw. A few days ago it started to swell and I thought it was because he'd been chewing at it / licking it alot. It never looked infected and he'd walk on it. So I put this sauve on it for animals cracked dry skin.

Obviously it got worse. Then I noticed little spots of blood all over the house. And sure enough it was the paw. Then my brilliant cat decided to jump down off a high place and busted the swelled up pad right open. It was a mess.

So Nichole wrapped him in a towel, we cleaned the pad, put antibacterial ointment onto a gauze pad and taped up his paw. Strong tape, the type they use with IVs. First day he kept chewing the darn thing off........and kept getting bloody drips all over the house. Yesterday everytime I saw he had a tear in it I added a new piece of tape. lol Needless to say it stayed on for once.

There was some drainage on the bandage when we removed it a bit ago. But it didn't look like there was pus in the wound. But since he'd busted his pad wide open right before the last bandaging........the gauze was full of dried blood.

So we cleaned it and then dipped it in peroxide. (no he was NOT happy with us) Put antibiotic ointment onto a clean guaze pad and reapplied it to his paw.

I'm afraid to leave it open for 2 reasons.......it keep oozing blood cuz he won't leave it alone......and 2. infection. I mean if nothing else there is the litter box.

I'm worried about him because his eyes have been hugely dilated since yesterday afternoon. Nichole called every vet in the area, including the new animal hospital, and guess what? NONE of them will let you do payments. WTH? I can't afford to take Bruce to the vet. Ours is cheap and I still can't afford it right now.

So I guess if you're poor you animals just get to suffer.

Don't know what else to do for the poor guy except what I'm doing. Have to give him credit, I know it's terribly painful but he lets us take care of it with minimal protest.

 

[DammitJanet]

There is some blue stuff that they use when taking care of cuts on dogs and horses. Or....now I will tell you this is something I have heard of...flour. I know they dip puppies tails in flour when they use a sharp knife to dock them when they are babies. (dont kill the messenger)

Or...even older wives tale. spider webs. get a bunch of spider webs and mat it up big enough to put in the wound and then tape it up. Dont know why it works but thats what the old indian folklore is.

 

[DaisyFace]

Lisa--

Not to scare you, but there was a similar case on a television show called "Emergency Vets". Infection was not the primary worry. They were most worried about the animal putting his weight on his foot. By continuing to walk on it - the wound did not get a chance to heal.

Is there any way you could get your kitty's paw up into a sling?

 

[flutterby]

I'd wrap it thick, all the way up his leg. Put a lot of gauze on the foot to protect it when he walks on it, and wrap the leg from paw to shoulder. And keep doing the antibiotic ointment.

 

[Hound dog]

Daisy thankfully he is not doing much walking the past 2 days and finally seems to be voiding putting weight on the foot. So I'm guessing it's pretty darn painful.

Janet I've heard of the spiderweb one and I've seen it work........not sure where I'm gonna find a spiderweb though. lol Never tried flour. Hmm. But so far.....he's not chewing at this new bandage. Maybe he's beginning to figure out it's to help him. And the antibacterial ointment has a mild pain reliever included.....so maybe it's making it feel better.

Did tell husband that if Bruce doesn't leave it alone he's going to be sent to the pet store to pick up a cone neck collar for him. I can't imagine they're too expensive for a cat. Couldn't afford the one for Molly though, omg was over 50 bucks! lol

 

[DammitJanet]

Here you would just have to check the corners of my unused rooms...lol.

 

[Marguerite]

When it broke open, it was probably a good thing. It sounds like he had a hematoma in there (cats get this, especially from fighting) and it really would have needed to be drained. I remember once at work, one of the professors brought in he pet cat to operate on it himself to open up and drain a huge abscess on the cat's neck which started as a battle-related hematoma.

Peroxide is good. Bandaging it up is good (be careful to not tie it too tight). Whatever you put on it has to be non-toxic. If he were a human patient I would recommend (to avoid infection) soaking the foot in hot salty water every three hours, over three days (you can take a rest overnight). But I don't know how a cat would take this.

I was talking to someone today about Aussie bush remedies. I've also heard tat spiderweb is good for staunching a wound, but I think it would be fairly limited success, plus how do you sterilise it?
An Aussie remedy that you could try, is packing the wound with paperbark. If you have a paperbark tree in your area, it will be obvious. The tree appears to be wrapped in brown tissue paper and when you peel it, the bark can be peeled off in tissue-thin patches. One thin piece of tissue makes a fabulous band-aid.
But for practical purposes, if you have some more conventional dressing gels (especially if you can find one with ti-tree in it, aka melaleuca) it would help.

Possibly the easiest and most accessible (and natural) wound dressing you could get, is honey. Don't use honey from the supermarket (unless you have no choice) but get it from a beekeeper. Smear the boney onto the gauze pad that goes directly over the wound, and then bandage it as usual. If the cat licks the honey, the worst that happens is the honey gets licked off and you have to re-dress the wound. But honey is a good antiseptic/antibiotic as well as helping keep the wound clean (because it is also a barrier).

When I had radiation burns form my cancer treatment, smearing honey onto the dressings was one option. I also was using aloe vera gel (cut from inside the leaf) and a spray of ti-tree oil and cold chamomile tea. But they were specific for burns, and healing skin damage. The thing is, honey is a good healing aid for so many reasons.

Marg

 

[SRL]

If you live in a city you might want to check around. Vet costs in neighboring small towns are much less than they are here, and we don't even live in a big city.

 

[tiredmommy]

How is Bruce today?

 

[Hound dog]

Well he was doing better until he got his bandage off again and started licking it. which started it bleeding again. That was late this evening. And since I'm medicated over my teeth.........I'm not capable of re-bandaging him. Still no sign of infection and he does seem to be trying to stay off of it. I'll have to call Nichole in the morning and ask her to come and put a new bandage in place..

 

[KTMom91]

Hope both you and Bruce are doing better today!

 

[Hound dog]

I'm not as bad as I expected to be. Although I'm trying to figure out why I feel drugged when I'm basically not taking the pain medications at all.

Bruce seems to be doing better. The pad appears to be trying to heal. He did break it open again this morning and fortunately Nichole was here to clean it and bandage it again. Still no signs of infection which I consider a very good thing. He's learning to jump and walk without the use of his foot....which is helping to keep him from constantly break it open.