Expert: Kate Tilmouth - 5/6/2009

Question
Hello! My name is Eric and I am a cat lover. My cat, Wanton (not to be mistaken for the chinese food "Wonton"), recently had what looked to be like a wounded shoulder, as in no external injuries. However, his foot swelled and then out of nowhere a wound, exposing muscle came. I put peroxide and neosporin on it and wrapped in in ace bandage. However, upon removing it, his wound spread and looks to be like the flesh is rotting away. Could it be a Recluse bite? (might have spelled that wrong) Or What are your thoughts and what should I do! My parent's were going to take him to the vet but forgot and now we don't have the money. But What would you recommend until we could get him to the vet?


Thanks for your time. . .
Eric (age 16)

Answer
Hi
sorry i have taken a while to respond but I wanted to get some advice from a vet nurse for you.

i will paste there response here and I hope it helps.


(1)
Have him to gently clean the wound with a warm wet cloth to make sure theye is no debris or dirt or pus collected inside the wound.
Make sure you wipe gently as to not tear away anymore deterioated flesh.

(2)
Once the wound is cleaned, have him to drip some HYDROGEN PERIOXIDE onto the wound.
(it will bubble up into white bubbly bubbles)
Wipe away any perioxide that is dripping off the wound. The bubbling process is only a minute or less.
After a inute of the bubbling process, take another CLEAN WARM WET CLOTH and gently dab away the bubbles and it should expose a clean wound.
NOTE: the perioxide does NOT sting or burn the cat but make sure it is room temperature as if it is too cold it will startle the cat.
It is best if he has a parent to hold and gently restrain the cat while cleaning this wound.

(3)
Once the wound is clean, apply a nice dab of NEOSPORIN ointment to the entire open wound area with a Q-tip
Neosporin is NOT dangerous to a cat if they lick or ingest it. If they can apply a clean gauze bandage on the wound and wrap it NOT TIGHT around the wound and keep it covered and clean a day or so (if possible) if the cat wont keep it bandaged then let it stay unbandaged but try to not allow the cat to lick at it too much for a couple days so the meds can take effect.


This should help alot until they can get the cat into a vet. But advise them that if this wound is truely a BITE from another animal then they will definatly want to have the cat tested for FIV as it is transmitted from animal to animal through bite wounds.

best wishes Kate
http://www.our-happy-cat.ocm