Scrotal hematoma

Hi everyone-looking for some advice/insight. I have an 9 week old kitten that developed a scrotal hematoma after his neutering surgery. It has now been a week and a half since the surgery and he still has significant sized hematoma- if it had gone down it was only minimally. He is still very personable-eating, drinking, using litter box, purring, snuggling. We have him on cage-rest (which he is hating). I read some information that at times they need to be drained by the vet, but ours had not mentioned this-only that we need to wait for it to be reabsorbed.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this situation with their kitty. The vet we took him to was very kind and had boarded him there for several nights for observation (the hematoma had bled twice while in our care). We are bringing him to a second vet on Monday for a second opinion. Just thought I'd throw it out to the Internet world and see if anyone else had experienced this and what happened with their kitty. We were also told it may be a complication due to a blood clotting disease.

Thanks-feeling very nervous for my poor kitty!

I'm sorry you're still going through this with your baby.  I've no personal experience with this, but I'm glad you're taking him for a second opinion next week.

I too am sorry your kitty is still having issues.  I too went foraging on the internet when you first posted because I had not heard of this.  From what I found it is a fairly common complication of neutering, at least as far as complications go there usually are none.  From what I read draining it is something that is put off until it becomes apparent that it isn't going to resolve on it''s own.  The reason for putting it off is if there is still active bleeding going on adding a drainage hole could make things worse.

The most common reason I found for it is some type of activity, even moving the wrong way, right after the procedure.  

Hello Aejohnso,

I am a human doctor, not a vet, but haematomata after castration is not uncommon and do not necessarily mean that there is a blood clotting problem.  If there were to be problems with the clotting mechanism, then there would usually be evidence of bleeding elsewhere. Blood tests would confirm this.

I agree entirely with Denice about avoidance of drainage, this is usually only considered if the haematoma fails to absorb or, particularly, if the scrotum becomes larger - and if this happens you should contact your vet as soon as possible.

With best wishes,

Geoffrey

Thank you everyone for your input! We are at the vet yet again as it began bleeding again today. They are doing a blood count to determine if it is new blood or just coming from the hematoma spot. I will keep updated.

sending that your vet's get things figured out, and that your boy begins healing smoothly.