Licked spay wound open!

Our 3 kittens went in on Thursday December 19th to be spayed and neutered. The two boys are doing fine, however the female has licked her wound open. The surgical opening was maybe 1" long, and the whole thing is open. She had her cone off for just a few minutes so she could eat. Right now it looks okay, but there was a small amount of blood on her belly. There wasn't very much blood because I have her in a cat carrier right now that has a white bed. There was not a trace of blood on the bed. What do I do? Does she need to go back to the vet to have it closed? They used glue or internal sutures. 

We can't get her to a vet until tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. There are no e-vets nearby and I have no way to get to an e-vet farther away as my boyfriend has the car at work (night shift). 

How open? Like how much can you see in the hole? Some vets use 2 layers of sutures/glue and if the first layer opens it's OK as long as the second layer holds. But if you can see muscle and subcutaneous fat you'd better get it taken care of right away. I would even go to the E-vet if I could see more than skin . Put a clean tube sock or baby onesie on her so she can't mess with the wound any more.

I don't really know what I see. I don't know anything about it. I'd upload pictures if I could but can't. The hole is less than an inch now that I look at it. The surgical wound is more like a fingernail length, maybe half inch. But the whole thing is open. When she sits still it looks closed. When it opens I can see the thick layer of skin and what's underneath that. But I don't know what that is. 

I can't get her to a vet until morning. Will she be okay until then? It's impossible for me to get her there until 9AM. 

Edit: This is what one of her papers say" All sutures on the insides are absorbable and the very outer layer of skin is held together with water soluble surgical glue". Does that sound like the two layer thing you were talking about?

It sounds like the glue on the outside came open.  I think as long as you keep the Ecollar on her and keep her somewhere clean she should be okay until morning.

Right now she has her ecollar on and is in a dog crate. The crate is large enough for her bowls, bed, toys and litter pan. Is that okay? There is no where else she could be that would keep her from jumping around. I switched her litter to just puppy pads so she doesn't get anything in the wound. She never digs or burries in the litter box so she doesn't care.

That sounds like a good set up for her.  Just give your vet a call in the morning.

Hi Kirk!

Just a quick note for you.........I hope she has been given pain meds - this is essential for spays/neuters - necessary for several days post-spay.......I'm also hoping the pain med is NOT Metacam (which is now given out like candy in Canada, unfortunately)

If you have no pain meds, please request some - best and easiest is buprenorphine...it is supplied in tiny syringes, and tiny drops are administered into the side pocket of her mouth (not swallowed) where the med is absorbed through the mucous membranes.

Sometimes this licking of the wound is a symptom of pain.

(The boys should have been given pain meds as well, although only for a couple/three days)

Metacam is NOT a drug anyone should be giving to cats - unless it's a palliative care situation.

The vet gave a 24 hour pain shot. We were given metacam. We were told to give one dose every twelve hours for two days.

Why is metacam bad?

There was a bad snow storm here last night and everywhere is snowed in. All the vets are closed. We have a friend who is a mobile vet, she is going to try and come when the roads are cleared. The opening is closed again, lightly.

Metacam can cause kidney failure and should only be giving ONCE in a cat's lifetime.

Whoa!  Metacam is a ONCE a day dosing when it is used, it should NOT EVER be given twice a day.  Cats metabolize medicine a lot different than human drugs and have problems metabolizing NSAIDS (which is what the Metacam is).  As mentioned above it is a very dangerous drug and can cause Kidney Failure after just one dose.  The FDA even made them change the label on the box because of it. 

Kirk said:

The vet gave a 24 hour pain shot. We were given metacam. We were told to give one dose every twelve hours for two days.

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Sorry that I missed your reply till now.

It's no surprise to me that Metacam was prescribed.......and almost no surprise that it was prescribed incorrectly!

stephanietx - the OP lives in Canada...........and oral Metacam is approved for cats here.

Kirk, here is the Health Canada approved information regarding the use of Metacam oral suspension in cats: http://www.drugs.com/vet/metacam-oral-suspension-for-cats-can.html   You'll see that it's to be given only ONCE daily.

Why is metacam bad? 

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Cats, unlike most other animals - and humans - cannot metabolize non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.......cats did not evolve with the necessary liver enzymes.

The drug therefore "goes" into the bloodstream and is eventually filtered through the kidneys......the problem is, meloxicam (Metcam) is nephrotoxic - it kills kidney cells - and, kidney cells do not regenerate.

Now, for some perspective........healthy, normal cats - and normal, healthy humans - "come" with lots of "extra" nephrons..........as life goes on and kidney cells die, there are lots of others "on standby", waiting in the wings, to step forward and replace the dead ones. So, the chances are that, because she a young cat, you're not going to see any negative result now. But, remember, we and our cats were "given" those extra cells for a reason: so that our kidneys can maintain their function over the course of a lifetime.

More and more younger cats are being diagnosed with chronic kidney failure these days.....and NOT because of incidents like poisoning from lilies or antifreeze, but from the effects of drugs like Metacam (and, there are other NSAIDs now approved for cats!) and from the effects of chronic long term dehydration thanks to dry cat foods.

Anyways, hopefully your Vet friend can stop by - perhaps by helicopter! - and hopefully you can get some buprenorphine for this kitten.

Another drug that's used with cats is Tramadol....it's tablet only and can be difficult to give and to dose appropriately.

For future reference, a pain patch would have been ideal for the spay (of course, that "Vet" wouldn't have made as much money from it as from the Metacam).

If you are in a position to find a cat-only Vet, I'd urge you to do so........most general practice Vets are best left for the dogs!

If you want references for anything above, post back.

Sorry I wrote that wrong. The dose was every 24 hours for two days after surgery. Not sure why I said 12.

Our regular vet is a cat only clinic. They weren't open for Christmas or during the storm. They were spayed and neutered by the SPCA because they charge $60 each, the vet was going to charge $400 each + pain meds ($40 each) + follow up visit ($120 each) + microchip ($40 each) + tattoo ($20 each) + vaccines ($90 each). Over $2100 is ridiculous for spay and neuter surgeries.

The vet is really good, but for surgeries they are extremely expensive. Their vaccines are expensive but they use non-adjuvanted vaccinations, but that's fine.

Our girl turned out to be fine. A family friend who is a vet came to see her and the incision was already closing. We are supposed to watch it and take her in if we see infection. It's completely closed now and still looks good.

Will they be fine with having had two (maybe three) doses of Metacam? They had a tattoo that the vet called a "scoring process". It's a few inches above the incision and a hard, blue mark. Is this fine?

White Shadow said:

 
Now, for some perspective........healthy, normal cats - and normal, healthy humans - "come" with lots of "extra" nephrons..........as life goes on and kidney cells die, there are lots of others "on standby", waiting in the wings, to step forward and replace the dead ones. So, the chances are that, because she a young cat, you're not going to see any negative result now. But, remember, we and our cats were "given" those extra cells for a reason: so that our kidneys can maintain their function over the course of a lifetime....

Click to expand...

 They had a tattoo that the vet called a "scoring process". It's a few inches above the incision and a hard, blue mark. Is this fine?

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I'm not familiar with that tattooing process - I have a suspicion about its purpose, but it's only a guess. Now, you're saying a "hard blue mark"...I'm unsure what you mean by "hard"....if your Vet friend examined the area and pronounced it OK, I would think that it made no negative impression on him/her.....

Good on you to have the cat-only Vet. Yes, surgeries are not inexpensive, and many people opt for the low-cost spay/neuter programs.

On vaccines, non-adjuvanted is the only way to go...another extra safety regimen now becoming mainstream is injecting them in the tail - here you are:
And, finally, there is a growing recognition and acceptance that once a cat has had the full kitten series of vaccines, the duration of immunity is many years, perhaps for a lifetime. So, keep up to speed with the topic - chances are that they will not require any kind of "boosters": http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dv...Article/detail/827393?contextCategoryId=40534