So, our cat has managed to get a cut in the main pad on his right front paw.
Can we put Neosporin on it?
If it doesn’t get better (ie: he stops being super tender with it) in a few days, he’s going to the vet, but if we can give him some Neosporin to help that out, we will do so.
But I haven’t had much luck googling if that’s ok.
disclaimer: I know you may not be a vet, let alone OUR vet, but she’s closed today and tomorrow, and we want to get the poor guy some relief, if at all possible.
The vet I worked for told people to use neosporin for cuts on animals. Try to get him to leave it on there for a few minutes, and I wouldn’t let him lick too much of it. Good luck!
A tiny amount, then wipe it off. There are herbal salves, based on edible oils, which are safer, but not as effective.
Excellent. Thank you!
We’re keeping an eye on him, as he got a puncture in his other front forepaw at the beginning of summer that got infected. Hopefully he won’t get lethargic with no appetite again. Poor guy.
If a vet said neosporin was OK, great. General word of warning, though - cats are very sensitive to poisons, including things that aren’t poisonous to us. Apparently they evolved only eating things that were already inside other living animals, which is by iself a pretty good way to avoid poisons, so they didn’t evolve much of their own ability to handle them. Anyway, it’s pretty easy to kill cats giving them cat-sized doses of meds that other animals including us handle fine.
We use it on all of our cats when they have an injury. One of them has bitten the middle of her tail so much there’s no fur on it anymore, and we put some on it every night. (Apparently, one of the other cats scratched her, or something like that, and we didn’t notice until she started biting it).
You may want to put some on and then come up with some type of bootie to place on the paw for an hour so it has time to work. I would think they would lick it off pretty fast with out one. Or maybe put it on when he is in a deep sleep so it can set on there awhile.
As benign as neosporin usually is, I would not advise its use. There are reports of toxicity to the active ingredients (Bacitracin, Neomycin, Polymyxin) and there are far better alternatives. Rinsing the wound with hydrogen peroxide is what I would do. If the wound requires more, then (especially in cats) an oral antibiotic may be warranted.