huge abscess on the Rogue - need vibes

this morning, I woke up to a bloodstain on white sheets which wasn't my nosebleed but turned out to be from a huge abscess in the Rogue's neck.

I drained it, lots of pus came out, then cleaned with peroxide... am still shaken... we'll see the vet about it this afternoon to drown him in antibiotics.

How the heck didn't I see this before?

The Rogue is a big guy, nearly 20 pounds now, semi-long haired (see here).

He recently gobbled up lots of Rascal's food into which I've mixed immune boosters to fight off Rascal's eye infection (nearly gone). Not sure how this would have affected his abscess.

 
He's about a year old now and still needs to wrestle every 5 minutes. For this I had a wrestling mate brought in, Oberon, so my Grisou (who prefers to be chased) can have some rest. I'm pretty certain the abscess is a result of Oberon's teeth. Any thoughts on how I can prevent future abscesses?

And please, all your vibes and success stories... I've dealt with abscesses before on Rascal, but none were that huge.

 For you and Rogue

thank you! please, keep it coming.

(need I mention those were freshly changed sheets, the previously ones badly bloodied from one of my roadrashes - the Rogue certainly has good timing   - ah - rambling here... )

More vibes heading your way.

If the original wound was from Oberon's teeth, I am surprised there was no blood.

there was no original wound visible, just the abscess all of a sudden. Oberon is one of the suspects because he plays with the Rogue all the time.

anyway... thanks for the vibes, I sure need them!

I'm sort of assuming that your cats are not neutered?

I say this because an abcess is caused by a deep cat bite, not the kind obtained normally during playful biting.

They ALL get abcessed, this is the infection part.

The most important key to it healing is to keep the drainage spot soft and no scab is able to form at all, the infectious drainage will continuouls drain until there is not more, as it heals from the inside out.

Scabbing causes it to block the drainage and it gets backed up into their system and can cause bigger problems.

They are all neutered ... but I had Rascal locked inside because he was recovering from an eye infection (and then it was insanely hot outside and I didn't want him baked). Rascal can bite quite deep when he gets mad (usually me, but I don't abscess easily), and not being able to go outside, he was (so Oberon is probably innocent even if playbiting - this is a cat I'm able to bathe without even getting splashed). So I let Rascal back outside last night, wearing his calming collar .

The Rogue is still at the vet who did surgery to put in a drainage tube. I'll get him back at noon today, with an e-collar, the poor thing.

please - any vibes/ advice   

thankfully, I got my Rogue back from the vet. He has a drainage tube under the cone, which I try to flush three times a day with Chlorhexidine. They gave me a neat little syringe to do it with, but the Rogue hates it. Then I'm supposed to put warm compresses on the abscess site to help drainage. I'll try tissue soaked in camomile tea.

He takes the cone pretty much in stride, but eating is difficult. I have to hand-feed him (he eats whole prey which isn't easy when one is disguised as a triceratops, who were herbivores after all!).


does anyone out there have experience with flushing drainage tubes hidden under ridiculous cones?