My Cat's Incision

I want to make sure my cat's incision is healing properly. She had abdominal surgery last Tuesday to remove a string she ate and has been wearing an e-collar except when eating and I take it off of her daily for her to clean herself but she is supervised.

Several years ago she had surgery to remove a bladder stone and I was very careless with the e-collar and she essentially had to be restitched up (with staples!) as she had tissue coming out of her incision. Looked like her insides were coming out. She and I were very lucky and I learned a valuable lesson about keeping the e-collar on.

This is a different vet I go to now and I tried to explain to him what happened last time. I asked how long I should keep the e-collar on and he said  "a week". To me that meant that I could have taken it off this Wednesday but it now Friday and I have not. The picture below is what the incision looked like on Wednesday and I just  didn't feel comfortable removing the e-collar yet. It was crusty and I know that it a sign of healing but I wanted to be on the safe side.

This morning I removed it for about an hour, foolishly unsupervised while I took a shower and when I went to check her incision before I left for work, I noticed some dried blood on her stomach around the incision and maybe some of  the scabbing licked off so now it looks sorta red. I'm so mad at myself. I don't have a picture of that but I'm hoping she did not do too much damage in about the hour I had the e-collar off her. Stupid!

The vet used absorbable stitches. Sometimes I like it when they use regular stitches so that you have to bring the cat in for a check up to have the stitches removed. Does she have less of a chance to do damage since absorbable stitches were used?

I did call the vet on Tuesday or Wednesday night and voiced my concerns and the vet tech said I could bring her in but gave me hours that were just not possible with my work schedule this week. Especially because I don't feel it's an "emergency". She also said that as long as it is not pussing or bleeding she is fine. She finishes her last dose of antibiotics today.

To my untrained eye I think it's okay but I am not a vet or a vet tech so kind of take it for what it is worth.  An infected incision is usually very obvious with drainage and/or an 'angry'  very red appearance.  

my 15 year old cat had his spleen taken out 2 weeks ago tomorrow.  the whole process is freaking me out, i assumed he would have stitches on the outside and they gave him no cone.  maybe we are lucky, i have seen him groom himself but avoid the scab line, looks like your cat just agitated an area?  my cat is an inside cat and not that active, not sure if that has anything to do with it.

but like you i was told to look for discharge, smell, redness, etc.  my cat hasn't had any of those signs yet and yours looks pretty good as well.  my guy still has a scab, we got in for a checkup tomorrow.

Thanks for your replies everyone. I took her to the vet this morning. He said it looked fine and he cleaned it. He also gave me some ointment and more antibiotics and told me to leave the e-collar on for now. Its such a large incision so he said it is taking longer to heal. Best part is he didn't charge me a dime! Love my vet!

Good visit and great vet!    Glad kitty is doing well!