My sister has been watching my indoor/outdoor cat for me in another city while I get things in order from a recent move. She called me Friday to let me know that the cat had gotten a little cut on the side of his paw and was going to keep him inside over the weekend. Okay, cool.
So, I get a call this morning that his foot has gotten swollen and he won’t walk on it at all and that it’s oozing. :smack: She had an e-collar on him and had been putting some wound spray on it the night before.
All I have to go on are pictures sent through text (the paw does look swollen and pink and oozy) and what she tells me. The pictures look like a puffy pink cut/lump but she makes it sound like his leg is falling off.
Now, I know that the vet is just going to look at it, tell me that it’s either an infected cut or abscess and give him antibiotic so if kitty can wait until tomorrow to be rushed to the vet, that would save me $300 from taking him to the local emergency clinic - which is a lowball estimate. It’s $150 just for them to look at him in the pet ER.
Any advice? Anything I can do for pain or swelling until he can see his regular vet? Or am I being cruel and unusual for trying to wait?
Not a vet, just worked for them. Don’t give the cat any pain relievers. Aspirin and especially Tylenol are deadly to cats IIRC. If your cat is docile enough, you can attempt to hot pack the abscessed area but other than that, I don’t think you can do much.
Personally, I wouldn’t go to the ER with it as described but I would be at my regular vet first thing Monday AM. I edited this to add that…I would take my cat to the vet sooner if they were acting abnormally otherwise. It’s one thing to be a little tender and three legged but another if they are not eating, acting weird or lethargic, hiding, etc.
I am not a vet. My advice is worth what you have paid for it.
From the sounds of it, the infection set in very quickly. I would be seriously worried about a wound that went that hot that quickly.
Cats are small, if the infection starts to travel things will go from bad to critical very quickly.
If it was my cat and there was no way to get it to the vet until tomorrow, I’d start soaking the paw in peroxide or in warm water mixed with iodine. You might also consider asking your sister to go to a pet store and get some tetracycline so you can start kittey on antibiotics now. I don’t know about dosages, you will need to look it up.
The above is really bad advice and you probably shouldn’t take it. My vote is to take kitty to the vet now.
Cats tend to abscess very easily, and they can be really sensitive to certain medications. I’d stop the wound spray, do warm water cleaning, and take off the E collar which may be rubbing the wound as he tries to clean it. Cats are really good at cleaning their own injuries.
If everything else is absolutely normal (attitude, eating, drinking, energy level) At this point I’d probably be on my vet’s doorstep when they open Mon. But when in doubt, going to the ER vet is money well spent because cats usually hide that they are sick until they are REALLY sick, sometimes past the point of no return.
yeah… this. it’s not wise to self-medicate a cat since their systems are so delicate.
**sage **is quite right. the little so-and-sos ARE masters of hiding illness and pain. i speak with first-hand knowledge on this. take kitty to the vet asap.