My cat's wound will not heal - warning - graphic photos

Hello
I have a 1 and 1/2 year old unspayed runt tabby.  She is beautiful and I care so much about her.  Its tearing me apart to see here wound getting like this.  It started with a tiny scab on her neck, you could barely feel it.  I assumed it happened when she and my other girl cat were playing (they love each other but sometimes get rough!).  Well its been a couple months now and the wounds been getting larger and larger, and she keeps ripping open the scab  when it heals making the process longer and longer.  I have taken her to the vet and they gave me antibitoics and gave her a steroid shot but it did not do anything..I have been trying so hard to find a root to this problem. I am now using food grade Diatemaceous Earth, Apple Cyder Vinegar, and better quality food along with feeding her cooked chicken once or twice a week..  I thought mange or an allergy could be a suspect because she just keeps scratching at the wound.. I just have no idea and it keeps getting worse.  I hardly trust vets at this point, none of them have given me much help and have been emptying my pockets. Any help, suggestions, or experience would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I feed her only cage free organic chicken with no hormones/antibiotics in them.  The apple cyder vinegar is unpasteruized and also organic, along with her cat food I get.  I have been using Primal Cat food, Blue Wildnerness, and Dr. Pollux.  I also give her RO water to drink.  COuld this be from a lack of minerals??  Would adding some himilayan pink salt to her water now and than to any damage??  

Most cats probably won't drink salty water. There should be enough minerals in her food to compensate for any lack of trace minerals in the water. If you really think that's the problem I suppose you could get some mineral/spring water at the store, or just give her tap water if it's safe in your area.

Some cats will get in a cycle where they scratch at a spot until it bleeds (it may be started off for a good reason like fleas or an irritation), then when it starts to heal it itches so they scratch until it bleeds, etc. If you can just get the area healed enough not to itch it may stop the cycle. Try putting Soft Claws on her back paws, or using a surgical cone collar, whatever can prevent her from scratching the area.

can you take a picture and post it?

Yes I can but how do I post pictures?  Also, she is an indoor cat.  I dont think a cone will work, the wound is on her neck.  I will definitely try to protect her back paws so she cant itch it anymore.

Very good advice from @Willowy  and true, when a wound is healing it gets itchy, which will cause a cat to rip the scab off again and again, and the only way to fix this and stop this repeated cycle is to figure out how to keep it out of her reach, like a collar or even a homemade fabric collar, just so she is unable to scrape it again with her back toenails.

To post a picture, the box that I am typing in right now has long boxes with symbols, the second to the last box where the smiley face is, click on the icon on the opposite end of the smiley face and you will see how then.

Thank you for all your advice.  I will be posting later tonight

 

I have been reading about colloidal silver helping to fight off pathogens with open wounds.  Blue Ridge Silver, 4 oz Glass Bottle Colloidal Silver on Amazon is 40% off, making 4 fl. oz. around 11$.  Im probably gonna get this one seeing it is the most affordable for me, and I am extremely low on funds.

Well I rigged up this neck protector with a clean sock.. God I hope this starts working, I have to get some sleep.. She is actually not trying to get out of it or anything.  I am more worried the wound wont be getting enough air, but when I am around her I do not let her scratch.  Only when I am away or sleeping does she get a chance to dig at it.. Its kind of funny, she knows when I am around not to scratch.  When she cant help it and starts scratching and I yell at her to stop, she whines back at me, kinda like saying "screw you, its itchy and I cant help it!!".  Normally when that happens I will wet a paper towel with RO water and some apple cyder vinegar and slight press it on the area.  Than ill separately wipe off her feet also. It seems to sooth her as long as I do not put to much ACV in the mix.. I use the food grade diatimaceous earth because at first I thought it could have been mange or a flea bite.. The vet told me she has no fleas though, even before I got the D.E..  

Perfect!

Witch Hazel helps the itch too.

When the sock is on you can even put a dab of hydrocortisone cream on it to help.

Thank you! She really doesnt like it, and is still trying to get around it, but she hasnt opened the wound up since I put it on.  I am going to use the colloidal silver when I get it.  I have read a lot of good news on here about it stopping infetctions. For now I tried mixxing some ACV and DE to make a sort of paste.  I read that the powdered form of food grade DE can cause irritation to inhale, so I think its working pretty well.  I just dabbed it around the wound, but I am wondering if I should actually cover the wound in this paste?  I have read that is an effective way to use the DE for human wounds.  Some allergy has to be causing all this itching though, and I am trying very hard to pint point what that could be and there are many possibilities.  I will definitely look into witch hazel!  Thank you for the info and staying with the thread =) It is much appreciated.  I am hoping and praying I can beat this problem !

If no granulation bed of fresh healthy tissue present, debriding the wound, applying a wet to dry until fresh granulation is established, then upgrading to a dry bandage with just SSD (silver sulfadiazene) on a non-adhesive layer as the base, cotton padding and vetrap outer layer, changing every 3 days if she keeps it dry and in tact between bandage changes would be treatment for that wound if she was my patient. Antibiotics, no steroid, and if accessible in your area, low light laser therapy, twice a week for 2 to 3 weeks, while the bandage is off, before re-application.

If compulsively scratching after well debrided and using a wet to dry bandage, gabapentin is started to help with neuropathy associated with chronic itchiness and chronic wounds.

I keep the nails cut short, and wrap the feet, for incisions or wounds that shouldn't be covered to heal, and a cat may scratch at while recovering. I make socks out of a layer of cast padding and vetrap over the hind feet, ensure not too tight, but snug enough to stay on.

A bite-not collar over the bandage may be best for her to limit hind feet access to her neck.  http://www.bitenot.com/ForCats.htm

Thank you, that is very helpful.  What do you mean by granulation bed? Does that mean slight scabbing/healing??  If it does, than yes I believe that is happening and it is slightly healing.  The pictures look really bad because while I was sleeping she tore apart at it and it woke me up and I freaked... Now that its cleaned up and wrapped with the sock it looks a lot better and I dont think heavy debriding is necessary other than the dab of some RO water and maybe some ACV mixed with the RO on the wound ..  Will colloidal silver work instead of silver sulfadiazene to help fight infection? I have heard so many good reviews about it. And honestly, from what I learned about gabapentin, it does not seem necessary for this situation at all.. I like the sock I rigged up around her neck because it gives the wound breathing room and she still has not managed to get at it the wound.  I was wondering how I could make her cat paws on my own. Your idea is great.

It's really just the one back paw that she uses to scratch, on whatever side the wound is on.

So you can clip her toenails, and even put the softpaws on her foot, although I think if she really got to scratching like mad, she would still eventually be able to scrape the scab off again.

So far so good.

I've heard fab things about colloidal silver and it's many uses too.

"Colloidalsilver  compounds, which release silver  ions slowly, are bacteriostatic and have a more sustained effect. They do not irritate the tissues and have little astringent or caustic effect. They are generally used as mild antiseptics and in ophthalmic preparations."

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/pha...disinfectants.html?qt=colloidal silver&alt=sh

Spongy soft tissue growth formed cell layer by cell layer, forming new skin, is a granulation bed. Any time a wound bed is scratched at or chewed, the granulation tissue is compromised, shredded, and the skin starts again, to replace the traumatized or missing cell layers. Silver sulfadiazene has the balance of gentleness/non-caustic bacteriostatic effect on burns/wounds as well as the correct medium, in a thin cream based ointment, to lightly layer on a non-adhesive pad, placed directly over the wound, first layer of a dry bandage.

I've no experience or familiarity with colloidal silver. I use silver sulfadiazene rather than many other professionals' preference still for triple antibiotic ointment. I also like povidone iodine lanolin based ointments in a thin layer on the non-adhesive initial layer of the bandage. Debriding would be removing any little edges that are not good live healthy tissue...old wounds have some such tissue. Heavy hand is only used in infected necrotic wounds or severely mascerated tissue, like I had from a beaver attack on the underside of a dog last week. His wound beds were large and deep, had to heal by second intention, with no skin over them at all, sugar soak under wet bandages, that are then allowed to dry, then removed the next day, repeated until a granulation bed is present. Thus called a "wet to dry" bandage.

Gabapentin is underused in regular veterinary medicine in the case of chronic wounds and granulomas, as well as orthopedic trauma/fracture pre and postop. We want to effectively treat the pain that can feel like pins and needles crawling under the skin one moment, and piercing from the source, up the spine, or down a limb, such weird feelings of discomfort or acute deep pain is how neuropathic pain can work, hidden, and not affected by steroids, NSAIDS, or opioid analgesics like buprenorphine.

The combo of gabapentin and low light/cold laser therapy that has worked clinically will have study based research from two if not more vet colleges soon, but currently only the clinical evidence of "seeing it work" in practice and the proven data on laser therapy alone or gabapentin alone is available. The combo is terrific though, and well worth investigating with a vet that has a laser in their arsenal of tools. I and many cohorts in specialty medicine and critical care/surgical service have seen it work wonders on previously thought "hopeless cases" that transferred from their regular vet clinic. Some mobile vets have these lasers too, as they're so compact now, and they can come to the home, minimizing the stress of car transport and "white coat" syndrome. The Companion and K-Laser have been very effective for wound management and pain management associated with said wounds.

Thank you for continuing to reply and give your advice, the help is much appreciated.  2 days with the sock, and a new layer of skin, or granulation bed, is now forming.  I am out of money with all the vet bills, treatments, food and ointments I have been getting so I have to be careful with what I get next.  The colloidal silver is cheap, so I think thats next on my list. I have a feeling laser therapy is going to be extremely expensive. I also got some ace bandages and other wrapping to get her back paws covered just in case.  I want to figure out the root of her discomfort.  I dont want to give her something that is just a quick fix. If the wound was getting worse and worse, I would consider the laser light therapy and medicine, but I think I am finally getting a hold on the healing. I would say its not really pain, more discomfort from the itching. It has to be allergies or hot spots, or both though..  I have been treating with DE for a while now, and ACV, and she still wants to itch a lot of the time.  What would be the best way to determine a food allergy, and how should i feed her?? All brands of cat food I am finding have a bunch of ingredients in it. 

I sometimes used just a small dab of Polysporin on Bertha if she had an abrasion somewhere that she couldn't reach with her tongue (under her chin, for example). Here's what a vet had to say about it on another website:

Dr. Marie replied:

Oh I am sorry to hear about Blizzard's problem. I wouldn't say that this is a common problem. I wonder what the underlying cause is?

Polysporin is usually safe to use on a cat. However, if a cat grooms herself and ingests the polysporin it can cause stomach upset causing vomiting and diarrhea. Also, if you use a type of polysporin that contains pramoxine (a local anesthetic) it can be toxic.

With that being said, however, I do not find that polysporin works well on animals.

One thing that may help, when these sores break out is to make a solution of warm water and epsom salts and then use a cloth to dab the solution on her head. You can do this a few times a day. But, if you're seeing any pus (like thick yellow fluid) then she will need oral antibiotics from your vet.

Sometimes when a cat has sores like this there is an underlying reason. Ideally it would be best to have some blood tests done. Do you know if she has had her thyroid checked lately? I have seen cats with thyroid problems that get sores on their head. Once the thyroid problems are fixed then the sores go away.

I hope that helps, but let me know if you have more questions!

Is the sock working? It seems to me that it wouldn't be sturdy enough to prevent her claws getting to the wound. Putting softpaws on the claws of her "scratching" foot might help, too, but I would think that a cone collar would be your best bet to keep her claws away from the sore.