My cat fought: How to clean wound and prevent abscess at home?

The best things that you can do include cleaning the wound with an antiseptic soap (such as chlorhexidine or betadine) and keeping an e-collar (cone) on your cat to prevent any skin damage from scratching. If you do not have an e-collar at home, this link provides some tips to make one at home: http://dogsaholic.com/care/homemade-dog-cone.html. Your vet will be able to evaluate the extent of the wound and start antibiotics. I hope that all goes well!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Cats are miraculous healers. The leg could just be sore. I would worry about an abscess forming from the bite. Abscesses required opening them up and antibiotics. The only thing you can do is clean the wounds twice daily with warm water and a mild soap and warm compress the wounds after each cleaning for the next 3-5 days. I wish you the best!

Hello. If you have or can purchase a skin antiseptic, one with either 2% chlorhexidine or 1% povidine iodine, then you can gently clean this 2 times daily. Antibiotics would hasten healing, & if the wound is not looking better by early next week, I would consider a veterinary visit. But by keeping this clean, it will heal, & yes, this has the look of a typical cat bite abscess, so he did get into an argument with another cat. Thanks for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It is very hard to tell by the picture, but at this time it appears to be a superficial wound and not very deep. I do not appreciate any swelling around the lesion. At this time if Patxi is eating, drinking, non painful and does not have a fever I would continue to treat it topically. At anytime Patxi develops a fever ,swelling under the lesion or change in behavior I would think antibiotics are warranted.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. That does appear to be a burst abscess. Without examining her it's impossible to know for sure, however it resembles and has acted like an abscess. Ideally she would be seen by a vet, they would flush it out with warm (not hot) salt water (1 teaspoon in 1 cup of water- your vet would use sterile saline) and then likely get antibiotics and pain meds. An E-collar also prevents Littlecloud from licking and introducing more bacteria into the wound. If you cannot go to a vet, I recommend flushing it/cleaning it with salt water. Do not use any topical creams, just leave it open to drain. Clean it twice a day with the salt water, and try to prevent Littlecloud from licking at it or chewing at it. The main pain has now gone since the abscess has burst (the pressure is relieved) . Do not give any human pain medications as these are often very toxic to cats. Best of luck with Littlecloud!

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 !

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach! I typically recommend mixing Betadine and water until you get a light brown mixture and use that to clean wounds. If it is a superficial scrape then it will likely heal but if there is a flap of skin or the wound looks to be deep, it will need veterinary care most likely. For superficial cuts and scrapes I recommend zymox topical ointment or vetericyn spray gel. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you ha e any other questions or concerns.