Wound that won't heal?

random gemini

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I'm getting frustrated. Porter has been home for a month and has spent most of this time, wearing the cone of shame due to an injury he received prior to my adopting him. My vet believes he was in a fight with another male cat and received a deep tissue puncture from the other cat's teeth. The shelter stitched it up. It opened back up after we adopted him. He had a drain installed. That came out over a week ago. His stitches came out on Wednesday and the first thing he did, was lick the incision area raw. I put the cone back on and applied some neosporin in the mornings to the tender skin. Today, he's scratched a hole in his shoulder with his back claw.

We're going back to the vet in the morning as soon as I can get him in.

Any recommendations for what I can do about this in the mean time, or supplements that I could add to his diet to help this thing heal? I would love for Porter to be able to socialize with my dogs a bit, but I won't put a cat wearing an e-collar through that. Is there some kind of clothing I could put on him that will keep him from getting to that wound site with his back foot?

Thank you!
 

mrsgreenjeens

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So the wound is located on his shoulder?  Between his shoulder blades, or just where?  Closer to his head or his back?  I think anywhere around the scruff area is going to be really hard to cover with anything (like a baby onesy.) .  I've seen the use of  coban around kitties necks to hold feeding tubes in place (I THINK it's coban), which might work, depending on where the wound is, but it probably  needs air to heal


Have you tried Colloidal silver on the wound? 
 

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Possibly can get the soft fabric collar and put it on the opposite way? Like wearing a cape?
 
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random gemini

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It's almost exactly on his shoulder joint, maybe an inch or so above his leg on the left side, maybe an inch or so diagonally above the leg. 

The soft fabric collar idea might work, if I can find one, it would certainly cover the area. I would like it to get some air to help it heal, but every time it starts to get better, he scratches it back open again. 

Can you use colloidal silver on open wounds? The vet gave him an antibiotic shot at their office when they put the drain in about three weeks ago now. I'm sure that's worn off by now, I'm really concerned about it getting infected again. I dab it with a tiny bit of neosporin in the mornings and let it air out the rest of the day, but I'm not sure that it's helping. It doesn't smell funky and I'm not seeing signs of infection, yet. Just want to keep it from getting that way. 

Maybe if I have soft paws put on his back feet, that would prevent him from reinjuring the site? Could that work?
 
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mosimom

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Like the collar below. I think you can find the thinner ones too.

http://www.keepdoggiesafe.com/soft-ecollar-for-cats.html?gclid=CKDZ4NqX9bwCFS1p7AodagsA_Q

If you do a search here for colloidal silver you will come across a long thread on a deep wound heal. I don't see why it would not work on your kitty. Also you want to be cautious about antibiotic shots. Some cats are fine, but it can cause problems. Convenia is controversial and you may want to do research to form your own opinion.
 
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random gemini

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Thanks ! i think they carry those at my petco. I will try to get up there. It's snowing here, they just declared a stage 1 snow emergency, so we may not be able to get out tonight. I'm thinking of attempting to vet wrap it, just to get us through until the morning when the roads will be cleared. At this point, I'm willing to consider anything that will keep it from getting worse until we can get to the vet. 

I'll look into that antibiotic shot, thanks for the heads up on it. I figured, for a one time use it wouldn't be a problem but now that Porter's been home for a month and this still isn't better, we're going to have to consider something else if it's re-infected already. I just feel so bad for him. He's so bored and he wants to come out and explore. My son's staying with him for tonight to try to keep him busy and keep him from bothering his shoulder too much. 
 
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random gemini

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It didn't... and vet wrapping it... uh... yeah. I managed to get a sock on his back foot and vet wrap that though! 
 
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random gemini

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I have a vet appt for Porter at 2:20 pm today. It looks like we're plowed out now, so I'm gonna try to get up to Petco as soon as they open to get him a soft cone and a pair of small dog booties for his back feet to keep him from scratching at that shoulder. He's probably going to hate me for a little while but he just needs to get better. Fingers crossed for my little guy, please!
 

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Colloidal Silver is fine on open wounds, and so is Vetericyn, which comes in either spray form, or gel. 

If Porter doesn't keep the soft dog booties on, and if the backwards cone doesn't work, then maybe the soft paws would.  That is such a tough area to try to cover up.  I can't think of any clothing (like a baby T (well MAYBE a newborn T-shirt would work if you could get it on him
.  Perhaps you could cut the sleeves off so it fit a little better
 
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random gemini

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I tried a baby tshirt. It didn't cover the wound site. It really is a difficult spot to cover over. Even with a newborn size, the wound was still exposed. Hopefully the cone works. I'll vet wrap it to his feet if I have to. It does look a lot better today than yesterday. The sock came off this morning, but at least it stayed on overnight. We have been verbally correcting him when he scratches and that seems to be working, for now. 
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Yes, I can see that's a very tough area to try to cover up
 

Good luck finding something that works between the soft backwards cone, the soft shoes with Vet wrap, etc.
 
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random gemini

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He ripped the drain hole open, stinker. He has three staples now, the vet trimmed his nails for me and I'm off to petsmart. Apparently they sell a traction bootie for senior dogs to walk on tile, that should stay on his foot, in theory. No infection, they said that if we can keep him from scratching for ten days, it should heal fine!
 
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random gemini

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Just to update, Porter's wound healed just fine. It did take putting these ridiculous looking duck slippers on his feet, which he was angry at me about, but approved of better than the cone of shame. He's been doing just great since! 
 

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Excellent news, Random Gemeni !

Medical honey might have been another consideration back then by way of an antiseptic....it's been used successfully against MRSIs.
 
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random gemini

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I think that Porter's age had something to do with it being so tough to heal that wound. All my vet will tell me is that he's "geriatric" and she thinks 10 is as close as we will get to a number for his age. So I'm sure his immune system is not as strong as it could be. Thankfully, Porter will never have to deal with this again. 

 
 
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