Rascal with bite wound in his back

roguethecat

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Rascal, fearless warrior, has been fighting again. (He has been neutered for 10 years but I never told him). Last Friday he came home with a bite wound in his back. The vet shaved him, flushed the wound, gave the convenia shot and now he's to have daily antibiotics. Rascal was quite upset. He faked being meek and slow so after I took these pictures on Saturday morning and turned my back, he rushed out and escaped.


Unfortunately the remaining mild anesthesia had him without appetite so he spent the night outside in the rain and only returned when he got hungry Sunday afternoon.

Now he is safely locked in my bedroom, has a healthy appetite again and is getting grumpy from being locked inside.

The vet told me to flush the area three times a day and prevent a scab from forming. A friend who has been rescuing cats for 40 years told me to not do the flushing as there is no pus and it will irritate the wound. Flushing and pressing the wound like the vet showed me does hurt him a lot, so I'm inclined to go with her advice.

Does anyone have any input on cat bite wounds? I'm fairly convinced it was another cat that bit him because while he has been seen to chase away deer, his attention is mostly on strange cats or those that aren't subservient enough.

How long does it take to heal? Is there anything I can do besides the daily antibiotic and keeping him locked inside?
 

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All due respect to your friend, but follow your vets advice. My vet puts in tubing or cloth strips for a week with bite wounds to allow draining and prevent the wound from closing so I am surprised that wasn't done. My best guess is there is no draining because the vet cleaned it out but if you allow it to close the pus could rebuild and the infection come back. Recently someone else on here had a wound that looked like it had healed that ended up coming back even worse. My rainbow cat seemed to have an abscess every other month and the times we didn't follow directions it would take twice as long and follow up appointments to clear up fully.  

However, I've found that instead of aggressively pressing the area or flushing that cats tolerate a warm moist/wet (not dripping but damp) washcloth much better. Just remove any scab that has formed and lay the washcloth on top of it as long as you can. Re-wet/warm the washcloth as needed but the goal is about 5 minutes each time. Flush it if your cat will tolerate but I know mine freak out if I get more aggressive than cleaning and warm compress to keep it open and draining. I usually put some Betadine over the wound after cleaning because it is a topical antiseptic and leaves a thin coat when dried (probably because I do it for myself too with minor cuts to prevent infection, joys of sensitive skin). 
 
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roguethecat

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However, I've found that instead of aggressively pressing the area or flushing that cats tolerate a warm moist/wet (not dripping but damp) washcloth much better. Just remove any scab that has formed and lay the washcloth on top of it as long as you can. Re-wet/warm the washcloth as needed but the goal is about 5 minutes each time. Flush it if your cat will tolerate but I know mine freak out if I get more aggressive than cleaning and warm compress to keep it open and draining.
great tip - I'll do the moist cloth thing. I just don't want to hurt him anymore than he already is!
 

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Poor little Rascal. I would consider keeping him indoors if he keeps getting into cat fights. Maybe you can build a nice enclosure for him where he can enjoy the outdoors without the risk? Also, maybe look into neutering aggressive cats that live around you (assuming they're ferals). Usually, if both males are neutered, there shouldn't be any fighting going on.
 
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roguethecat

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Poor little Rascal. I would consider keeping him indoors if he keeps getting into cat fights. Maybe you can build a nice enclosure for him where he can enjoy the outdoors without the risk? Also, maybe look into neutering aggressive cats that live around you (assuming they're ferals). Usually, if both males are neutered, there shouldn't be any fighting going on.
Unfortunately he gets depressed if kept from roaming his territory for long. All neighborly cats know him and bow to his superiority
. It's a residential area where everyone is neutered/spayed, but apparently new ones creep in once in a while.
 
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roguethecat

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Rascal is still recovering. At Christmas, two more abscesses that the vet had missed popped open. There was lots of necrotic tissue on his flank that had to be removed, plus high fever. The vet apologized, put three tubes into him and gave him a different antibiotic. Meanwhile I was a continent away celebrating Christmas (as the vet had told me Rascal was doing fine before I left).
His second day at home, he spent more time sitting and dozing and now on his third day home he doesn't have much of an appetite and doesn't want to walk around anymore. I bought smelly cat food, meaty baby food and a high calorie nutritional kitten gel, and started assisted feeding again. At least he stopped hiding - locked in my bedroom, he spends his time either on the bed or on the cat tree looking out the window as opposed to hiding in a wardrobe. I put a hummingbird feeder outside the window so he has something to watch. Am of course out of my mind with worry again. We are at the vet the coming Friday to remove the stitches. I've ordered a thermometer in case he gets fever again, but am not looking forward to using it
 
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roguethecat

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The vet recommended putting the hated cone on him. As he can neither eat nor move with the cone on, it stays off. I tried putting him into a baby shirt instead which looked adorable (pink with kittens on it), but he wrestled out in under a minute 
 

Now it has been a week since the surgery that removed the necrotic tissue. He is better today, wanted to get up and tried to jump on the counter leading to the cat door. Out of fear of him escaping he is locked in my bedroom
 since I also am afraid of his stitches tearing with the jumping around. 

Neighbors and family speculate now that his injuries are from a raccoon attack, since he never lost to another cat 
 and it obviously happened while he had his back turned. This is a residential area without coyotes/bobcats and the like, only the occasional raccoon, opossum or deer. I haven't seen any new stray or feral cats, the last one being Geronimo who is fixed and submits to everyone.

Does anyone have experience with a cat attacked by a raccoon? 
 

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Link had a bit on his tummy that our vet thinks was a raccoon. It became an abcess but we did surgery and drain at the first sign because my vet was worried with infection spreading to his digestive system with its location if it wasn't treated aggressively.

The cone of shame sucks. I usually avoid it as long as they behave with their wounds. For Links we asked for cloth drains so he could clean it and mess with it without pulling them out.

You might want to consider a curfew after this. Between Links bite and broken leg we are putting him on a curfew so he avoids the raccoons and whatever happened to break his leg.

Glad to hear Rascal is doing better and you were able to take care of his additional infections. Right there with you on the confinement, Link is on week 13 if you add everything together. He also keeps trying to escape but as long as we make eye contact as we open the doors he doesn't bolt.
 
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roguethecat

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Thank you @Kieka, that is encouraging that  it happens to others, too, who bravely overcome the wounds! Is Link healed now at week 13?

Rascal is eating fine now and wants definitely out. He even got mad and attacked my slippers, which is a very good sign!


Only I noticed that when he is awake and sitting, he likes to cramp and uncramp the muscles of his right side (the one with the stitches in), sometimes alternating with his left (with drainage holes in). No one else does that so it has to do with his injuries. It is something barely visible but I can feel it if I put my hands on him. Has anyone ever have experienced something similar?
 

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I wish Link was almost done with housebound. It was:

August - 2 weeks for abscess and drain
September to November - 8 weeks for broken leg
December to now - 3.5 weeks for pin fail in broken leg basically starting broken leg heal over again. And he was crate bound for 2.5 weeks of that.

We have 5 more weeks. Yay.

But to the muscle thing. Links is slightly different a a broken leg but he does hold that leg differently when sitting and will flex/stretch it more than his other leg. See below as an example of my odd little man.


And his standard belly up nap pose.

Rascal is probably just stretching out the healing wounds and the drain has to feel weird.
 
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roguethecat

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thank you @Kieka  for the muscle thing reassurance! Those are beautiful pictures. He is so cute with that spot on his nose! And he must be a troublemaker with all those injuries. 
 
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