My cat has a skin abscess after surgery. Can I wait for the vet?

Unfortunately, an abscess cannot be treated at home, Shivers has to see a vet for it. If it's ruptured, it needs to be flushed sterilely to prevent further infection from entering the area, and she needs antibiotics to treat the infection which are available by prescription only from the vet. She does have to see a vet as soon as possible for this, and it truly cannot wait until next week. I would see if a family member can take her to the vet this week since you are only home this week from school.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. What you are doing is fine and she should be ok to wait to see the veterinarian, especially if they are becoming smaller. One other thing you can do is purchase betadine and dilute this with water until you have a light brown solution. I would use this solution to clean the abscesses twice daily until you get to your vet. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

It's hard to say if it can wait. Once an abscess is opened and draining, much of the risk of lots of pain and deeper infection is reduced. If you decide to wait, Mr. Fox needs to wear an e-collar to prevent further licking of the wound, since that will delay healing and spread infection. You can apply Neosporin or clean with warm water rinses, but don't use alcohol or peroxide.

Hi, the medications should help fighting the infection and therefore there should not be any need to clean or drain the abscess as it burst on his own. For the time being, you just need to wash the area with salty water if you notice any discharge. If not, just monitor and make sure that swelling does not reoccurr. If you notice that the area is swollen or the discharge is not any better in the next couple of days then I would recommend to take him back to your vet to be reassessed. You should also have him rechecked if he is not eating or appears to be lethargic as this could mean he is running a temperature. Hope this helps and best wishes for a speedy recovery !

It sounds like he had an abscess from an injury, probably an altercation with another cat. A veterinarian would likely not suture it anyway to avoid trapping any contaminants and causing another abscess. It looks pretty clean with healthy granulation tissue forming. The antibiotics, even intermittent have probably helped keep further infection at bay. Keep an eye on it, if he will let you, clean it gently with a damp clean washcloth and keep any debris or infected material cleaned out. It should heal from the outside of the wound to the inside, gradually shrinking and closing over the open area. As long as he continues to eat and drink and behave normally, and and the wound continues to look clean with pink and healthy tissue, he should do fine. He needs to eat, going without eating for more than a few days will cause liver problems in cats which would require a vet visit to be treated.

This looks like a small wound, or maybe an insect bite that is irritated. The skin around it looks clean and healthy. As long as he seems his normal self right now, he should be fine until he's seen on Wednesday. If he does feel sick or if the area gets worse try to get him seen sooner.

Hello. It is not unusual for a secondary abscess to show up days later. It may have resulted from a draining tract from the first, or another incident similar to what caused the first abscess. Since the new abscess seems to be drying up & Yum Yum is ( hopefully ) on antibiotics, waiting until Friday to see the vet should be OK. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.