What to do for a cat's severe skin infection before the vet?

You need to take him to a bet asap!! His skin is terrible! It looks like it is infected with yeast, bacteria or mange mites, but i suspect it is a combo. It neefs treated with an antiparasite, antibiotics, medicated shampoo and antinflammatories. Do not attempt to treat at home, it is way beyond that.

This lesion is very severe and requires antibiotics and proper wound care. The area surrounding the area affected must be clipped and disinfected appropriately and antibiotics (topical or systemic) are required.

Oh my. Poor girl. I am so sorry but this appears to be a severe infection and you are correct in that this needs more than topicals. In fact this may be a resistant bacteria in need of culturing through your vet. It looks like the skin could be badly infected due to several possibilities here: resistant skin infection, mites, skin cancer. I highly recommend taking Smoky in to your vet right away to start with some skin testing to help determine the underlying cause, so that we know how best to move forward with her. Until you can get her in it is best to just clean the areas with Betadine diluted 50:50 with warm water, then rinse with sterile saline from your local pharmacy. Ensure that none of the Betadine gets in her eyes however, so use a cloth and use extreme care. I do hope that you are able to get Smoky's skin back to normal and get her some relief soon. Best of luck and take care.

Hi there and thank you for using Pet Coach! What you have taken a picture of on Ms. Kitty appears to be an area that is infected. What it is infected with I am unable to determine based on the pictures. However, that being said, I would recommend treating this by first shaving the hair away from the area and cleansing it with a mixture of betadine and water mixed to give a 50:50 dilution or until you get a light brown solution. You can use this to keep the area clean. I would recommend starting a spray such as Malacetic conditioning spray and spray to the affected area 2-3 times per day until resolved. If there is no improvement or it worsens, I would recommend having this examined by a veterinarian as Ms. Kitty may need a course of an antibiotic and additional topical medications. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

This presentation could be due to a trauma or localized spot of skin infection (likely to be caused by bacteria). A check up, appropriate disinfection and possibly antibiotics (oral, topical or in a shampoo formulation) are needed to solve the problem. An abscess may be present and this may need to be lanced and flushed. Disinfection may be started at home with very diluted hibiscrub or betadine or salted water baths. Buster collar may be useful as well to avoid any scratching (if any). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

These areas on the skin look very suspicious of a ringworm infection or bacterial infection. Ms Pussington needs to be seen by a vet to get this looked at and treated. This won't respond to any at home treatment unfortunately. I would recommend scheduling an appt soon for her. In the meantime you can try cleaning the area with Betadine diluted 50:50 with warm water to provide a topical antiseptic clean. Nothing else should be placed on these wounds. She will likely need a skin scrape/cytology to identify the underlying pathogen and then treatment based on what the cause is. I hope she feels better soon.

You can try disinfection with different solution like hibiscrub or betadine ones. Unfortunately antibiotics seems to be needed, so I would recommend an immediate check up if disinfection is not working as infection could be a major risk. A picture of the lesion could help to determine underlying cause more specifically.