My cat is injured could use help!

Hi everyone,

We have a 14 year old cat that is strictly an indoor cat. This past Monday, she was attacked by a stray tom that got into our house. (my husband accidently left the garage door open). I didn't see the attack but heard my cat hissing and fussing so I went to see what was going on. The stray was in our house! It was apparent immediately that "something" had happened to her. I called our vet. and spoke with them and made an appointment for the next day. By the time we got her to the vet. she was lethargic due to a high fever. My vet. did a quick exam and found 2 bite marks that were infected. He drained the sites, gave her a shot of antibiotics and a prescribtion for home. As of today she had improved but not much, (not eating, not drinking, laying in 1 position most the day) so I kept a close eye on her. Then tonight as I was petting her I found a large knot on her back bone. I can't tell if it's another bite or not and am unsure of what to do... So for my questions... Is it common for a cat to get 2 major bite mark areas from another cat during such a short fight? If she does have multiple bite sites will the current antibiotic take care of everything or should I take her back to the vet again? Finally, if this is a second set of bite marks is there a way to find them without waiting for the site to swell?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated since Sasha is our first baby.

Hi let me put this in health for you- When you say a knot- is it at the site of the injection perhaps? Is the knot hot? A bite if it was infected, would be a swelling not a knot. Sorry about the rhyming, it isn't intentional. But it could just be a reaction to the shot depending on where it is located?

Hello and thank you for your reply! I'm sorry I didn't give more info. in my original post but maybe this will help. The vet. gave Sasha the injection in her hip area and the area I'm worried about is closer to the neck area. After reading your reply I went back and checked Sasha again. The swelling really is more of an "area" and not a knot, (sorry about that one!) and her she's warm again. This morning her nose was cool and wet now she's warm on her nose and her chest area and she's not curling up she's more laying on the side that didn't receive the first bite marks. Also, is there anything I can do to get her fever down?

Thank you again!

First of all you have to determine if she has a fever. Do you have a rectal thermometer? If you do, and you can take her temp that will help. She is probably on Clavamox or Amoxy drops right? So that will help her internally fight off infection.

If she is tolerant of you, you can take a washcloth that you are not very attached to, and run it under really hot water. Wring it out, place it on your wrist, and when it is warm , take it and lay it across this *area* on Sasha, hold it over the swelling, and squeeze gently- you want to break open the area and let it drain. She is not going to like it, and please don't get bit, but if you work gently, and can get it opened, then that is the best thing to do. If it is the beginning of an abscess, it needs the bacteria out of it. But if it is a knot on the bone it won't open, so don't force it. The neck, under the legs and the tail are typical places for cat bites. If you have neosporin or anti bacterial creme put that on the bite as well.

Thank you and I'll try your suggestions and see what happens!

I took Sasha to the vet. again today and she did have 2 more bite marks that had abscessed. He took care of her and also gave her more antibiotics and aspirin, (for her fever).

Hopefully this will be the end of the problem and she'll get better soon!

Are you sure it was Aspirin?

Hopefully it was baby aspirin and not regular strength. The adult aspirin is quite toxic to cats, being a vet he should be aware of this and not be asking you to dose her full strength. Taken off Dr. Mike's site:

"DO NOT give any cat a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication without consulting with your vet first. Acetaminophen is toxic to cats, aspirin is extraordinarily easy to overdose in cats because the half-life of aspirin in a cat is 72 hours (3 days!) and other non-steroidal medications do not appear to have been studied much in cats, probably due to the problems with these two common ones. For arthritis, we do sometimes use aspirin but it must be used cautiously and it is important to know the patient's medical condition well prior to its use."


I am amazed the vet gave your cat aspirin. If the cat's face begins to swell take her to another vet IMMEDIATELY! If it was me, I would throw the aspirin away.

OH GREAT!!! I hope not more problems!

Today, when I was at the vets. I asked him what he was giving Sasha by mouth and his reply was "it's aspirin. But the great thing about aspirin is you only have to give it to her every 5 days. Growing up on a farm with animals all my life (cats included) I'd never heard of this treatment but I assumed he knew what he was doing. Now I'm not so sure!!!!!

She ate once today (about 1/2 a can of moist "ad canine/feline special diet" because she's not been eating... She's still lethargic but I just checked on her and her fever does seem to be going down.

One more interesting thing about Sasha's visit today.... when I asked
what I could do (short of shaving her paw to paw), to see if there are any other bites the vet. explained that abscesses could show up for another 3 weeks. Does this sound right?

They do take time to develop, but I never timed them myself.

This is how I find bites because they are so difficult to locate. I let the cat lay down and relax, and I sit near her on the floor. Taking my hand, I very slowly pass my hand over her fur- not touching her, several inches above her fur, she should feel no contact at all. What you are looking for are hot spots- the heat will radiate up and you will feel it on your hand, when you do, stop, keep your hand off the body but begin to lower your hand down until you find the center of the heat. Take a pair of bandage scissors, lay the flat blade near her skin, and cut the hair away from the wound, being very careful not to touch the wound or cut her either. Once the hair is clipped, you will be able to see the bite, if it is closed, open it, put some antibiotic ointment on it, and then keep on with the procedure looking for more hot spots.

I have stopped a lot of massive infections this way with my cats, being I work with ferals I see a lot more cat bites than most.

P.S. I would also seriously consider looking for a new vet if I were you.