I got an e-mail earlier today from a fellow trapper whose neighbor has an injured housecat but cannot afford to take it to a vet. I'm not a vet, I'm more of self-trained medic with some clinical hands-on experience, but I went over and had a look at the cat. I was not very happy with what I saw.
The cat had a fairly deep puncture/gouge wound on its side. My friend had initially cleaned the wound with peroxide and applied a topical antibiotic--best that could be done at the time. There was some festering tissue inside the wound that had turned greenish and smelled bad, but no suppuration of pus.
The story was that the cat had been shot by either a BB or pellet gun, and the wound looked consistent with that. At Sunday's clinic a cat who had been similarly shot was brought in to PACCA; it had a flesh wound to the tail but the projectile may have broken some pelvic bone--I don't know anything more about that cat.
The cat I examined looked like he had been shot, but an examination of the wound showed that the projectile was neither lodged nor that it had fractured any rib bones--this was a good thing.
I used a pair of tweezers to remove the infected tissue and recleaned the wound and reapplied the topical antibiotic. The cat was less than happy with the procedure but seemed to have recovered quickly. I'll go back in a day or so to check on him; I have some Clavamox on order and have instructed his owner on the treatment regimen with that antibiotic.
My concerns here are twofold: I want the wound to heal from the inside out without prematurely closing and possibly creating an abcess. I also want to find out who the sick SOB in our neighborhood is doing this.
We are in the process of trying to determine the geographical boundaries of what appears to be at least three overlapping stray/feral colonies within a 5-6 city block area; once this is done we will be better able to manage that population with TNR and feeding stations. We were trying to do this quietly and unobtrusively, but I don't think that's an option any longer.
We will need to make our presence known and notify the neighborhood that the cats there are now under our supervision, care and protection. Some of them will not be happy to learn this, but the reality they need to get used to is that in Philadelphia stray and feral cats have advocates all the way up to the mayor's office. And in the neighborhoods they have ground-level advocates. We've been invisible until now, but if some decide on shooting or poisoning cats (as has been reported) we can no longer afford that luxury. Stay tuned....
The cat had a fairly deep puncture/gouge wound on its side. My friend had initially cleaned the wound with peroxide and applied a topical antibiotic--best that could be done at the time. There was some festering tissue inside the wound that had turned greenish and smelled bad, but no suppuration of pus.
The story was that the cat had been shot by either a BB or pellet gun, and the wound looked consistent with that. At Sunday's clinic a cat who had been similarly shot was brought in to PACCA; it had a flesh wound to the tail but the projectile may have broken some pelvic bone--I don't know anything more about that cat.
The cat I examined looked like he had been shot, but an examination of the wound showed that the projectile was neither lodged nor that it had fractured any rib bones--this was a good thing.
I used a pair of tweezers to remove the infected tissue and recleaned the wound and reapplied the topical antibiotic. The cat was less than happy with the procedure but seemed to have recovered quickly. I'll go back in a day or so to check on him; I have some Clavamox on order and have instructed his owner on the treatment regimen with that antibiotic.
My concerns here are twofold: I want the wound to heal from the inside out without prematurely closing and possibly creating an abcess. I also want to find out who the sick SOB in our neighborhood is doing this.
We are in the process of trying to determine the geographical boundaries of what appears to be at least three overlapping stray/feral colonies within a 5-6 city block area; once this is done we will be better able to manage that population with TNR and feeding stations. We were trying to do this quietly and unobtrusively, but I don't think that's an option any longer.
We will need to make our presence known and notify the neighborhood that the cats there are now under our supervision, care and protection. Some of them will not be happy to learn this, but the reality they need to get used to is that in Philadelphia stray and feral cats have advocates all the way up to the mayor's office. And in the neighborhoods they have ground-level advocates. We've been invisible until now, but if some decide on shooting or poisoning cats (as has been reported) we can no longer afford that luxury. Stay tuned....
