Abscess on tail!

Good evening, my beautiful bi colour Persian has what i can only assume to be a burst abscess on his tail, he keeps getting in fights with a local tom who comes into our garden and i think he got bitten a few days ago. First it was a lump and now an open sore on his tail, he let me rinse it with some warm water and we are taking him to the vets first thing tomorrow morning. He seems quite happy in himself just lethargic and obviously in pain as he will not let me anywhere near his tail. Has anyone dealt with this before? Do you think I should take him to the emergency vets tonight? Any advice welcome.

l've only had experience with one cat with an abscess. lt was a stray that l used to feed and let into the house on occasion. He came in one day and hid under the table. When l went close to him he hissed and growled which was NOT normal for this guy. So l took him to the vet.

The vet said he could have had sepsis if l didn't take him in, though in likelihood he had probably been like that for days. 

Maybe you could talk to your vet and see what s/he recommends.

What a shame he is getting in to fights and has now been hurt.  If he is showing pain it must be very severe as cats do not usually show pain, and if he is also lethargic he may already be feeling unwell.  If it is now an open sore and he has let you touch it to gently clean with water that is good, and if you are able to repeat this try to do it with boiled and cooled to blood temperature water and add some salt as this will also help with avoiding adding any more risk of infection.

I would try to talk to a vet as soon as possible because of his being lethargic as infections can spread quickly once in the blood stream and he could become very sick in a short space of time.  If you can even phone the emergency vets to describe the situation it might be helpful for you in deciding.

You do not say where the wound is on your cat's tail but from my experience with a previous cat of mine, it can be more limiting in terms of possible treatment if a wound is close to the root of the tail.  If this is the case with your cat I would urge you to get it attended to quickly as if the wound / ulcer gets large there can be difficulties in skin repair.  

My girl Pal had a sebaceous cyst for many years, positioned right at the base of her tail on the upper side.  The cyst would grow and eventually rupture so the waxy contents drained.  Sometimes it would become infected.  She was an amazing little cat and would tolerate either me or the vet clearing out the cyst even when it was very painful and infected, but the known risk was that if the skin failed to heal there was not enough skin to repair or to remove her tail and repair. I have photographs of the open cyst and location: if this would be helpful for you to see I could send as a PM (they are not the nicest of pictures to look at). 

Is your cat neutered?  If so, is there some way you can protect him from this local tom who he is getting in to fights with?   If not neutered I would suggest you give serious thought to neutering as this would reduce the risk of these fights.

Good luck with this, I hope the wound heals quickly and he feels better soon.  

My boyfriend's cat had an abscess at the base of his tail as a result, presumably, of an outdoor fight as well. He quickly ran a fever and was on death's door. If tomorrow morning is the earliest you can get him in, keep him inside and keep it as clean as humanly possible and watch his food intake and litter box to make sure he's not too ill to eat or drink in the interim. At that time, the vet my boyfriend went to offered a surgery to remove the dead tissue, but he opted to leave with some medicated soap and monitor his recovery. Fortunately he pulled through.

Thanks all of you for your comments and advice, he went to the vets and got a shot of antibiotics to last 2 weeks, she said that he had cleaned out most of it himself and he seems a lot happier now back to his usual self. Unfortunately the fighting is an ongoing issue he is neutered but a local cat keeps coming into out garden and scuffling with him!

Very relieved for you his tail is healing up and vet has given him something to help him keep the infection at bay until it heals.  He must feel a lot better for that poor guy.

I hope you find some way of keeping this other cat out of your garden, or fitting some kind of enclosure so your boy can still go outside and feel safe.  Do you think the people who keep this tomcat know what damage he is doing?