Infection at neutering area

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germancat

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Hello everyone,:wavey:

As this is my first post, I would like to congratulate to such a nice forum and am sorry to bother with a health problem right away.

On Dec29th my wife and I finally got a cat, we had been thinking about this for a long time as we are young professionals and want to make sure we did a good job when accepting such a commitment.

So we got the most adorable, playful, cuddly lattle orange-white tabby named Clover. He is two years old and has brought us nothing but joy by being who he is.

However he has a health condition that causes us troubles and I would appreciate any input.
As he had been a stray he was not neutered when he arrived at the shelter which they then did a week before we met him and brought him home with us.

Despite the records saying he was in good health and having received all the important shots etc, we scheduled an examination with a vet in our neighbourhood that has a very good reputation. He confirmed that Clover is in overall good health with the exception of an infection he got at his neutering location.
He had appeared fine and happy with us the whole time but we had noticed him licking this area.

Long story short, the vet gave him a shot of Convenience, some anti inflammatory medicine and an econe. That was on Monday. Clover seems fine, eats, drinks and behaves normal despite the super stupid cone. We have a check up on Thursday. Our problem is that we are insecure what the area is supposed to look like and how improvement of the situation should look. We researched a lot but have not found anything that looks like it.

Attached is a picture. If any of you had some information and could comment on the healing process, that would be highly appreciated. Thank you for any help, it is great being part of this forum now.
 
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GermanCat said:
]

Hello everyone,


As this is my first post, I would like to congratulate to such a nice forum and am sorry to bother with a health problem right away.

On Dec29th my wife and I finally got a cat, we had been thinking about this for a long time as we are young professionals and want to make sure we did a good job when accepting such a commitment.

So we got the most adorable, playful, cuddly lattle orange-white tabby named Clover. He is two years old and has brought us nothing but joy by being who he is.

However he has a health condition that causes us troubles and I would appreciate any input.
As he had been a stray he was not neutered when he arrived at the shelter which they then did a week before we met him and brought him home with us.

Despite the records saying he was in good health and having received all the important shots etc, we scheduled an examination with a vet in our neighbourhood that has a very good reputation. He confirmed that Clover is in overall good health with the exception of an infection he got at his neutering location.
He had appeared fine and happy with us the whole time but we had noticed him licking this area.

Long story short, the vet gave him a shot of Convenience, some anti inflammatory medicine and an econe. That was on Monday. Clover seems fine, eats, drinks and behaves normal despite the super stupid cone. We have a check up on Thursday. Our problem is that we are insecure what the area is supposed to look like and how improvement of the situation should look. We researched a lot but have not found anything that looks like it.

Attached is a picture. If any of you had some information and could comment on the healing process, that would be highly appreciated. Thank you for any help, it is great being part of this forum now.
Click to expand...
Hello and welcome! No need to feel sorry for coming with a health question, that is how most members start out!

Covenia injection is a 2 week lasting antibiotic, but in my opinion not really enough for this infection, and after the number of days should not look like this.

I would def call the vet asap and ask for an oral antibiotic like doxycycline or clavamox, which since already seeing him you should be able to simply go pick it up and not take him in again, but vets vary with this too.

Unusual to see a neuter become infected, they rarely do.
 
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Actually, convenia can remain in the system for up to 30 days, and a second convenia injection after 2-3 weeks if no improvement, can be done if the vet feels it is necessary.

It's hard to tell from your photo, did the vet open up the incision to clean it, and is that fur over the skin or is it sloughed tissue?  If it were sloughed, the vet would have removed it, flushed it and re-sutured it if there was enough healthy tissues at the borders to close the wound.

For peace of mind, please call first thing Monday morning and ask to be seen for a recheck - again, the photo isn't clear enough to determine if this is healing properly or not, and waiting til Thursday, in my opinion, is too long.  Problems like this should ideally be checked every 7 days, no longer...and sooner if wound like this is not responding to treatment.
 
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Thank you so much for the answer. I also thought that this was unusual.
As embarrassing as this may seem, we are not exactly sure how to identify any possible healing. We see new fur growing there, while it also looks as if it should fall off. Very strange and concerning and frustrating for us as we tried to do everything the right way.

:-(
 
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No need to be embarrassed! 

Do you mean it is scabbing over?  As long as there is no pus (yellowish or beige thick liquid), or bleeding coming from the wound and there seems to be scab formation, that might be a good thing.  You want to watch for draining pus, swelling, bruising, bleeding from the area.  Sometimes an infection can still remain under a scab, so that's why I suggest he be rechecked.

I just want to be reiterate that photos can be deceiving, so I would strongly recommend getting him seen for a recheck tomorrow.
 
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GermanCat said:
Thank you so much for the answer. I also thought that this was unusual.
As embarrassing as this may seem, we are not exactly sure how to identify any possible healing. We see new fur growing there, while it also looks as if it should fall off. Very strange and concerning and frustrating for us as we tried to do everything the right way.

:-(
Click to expand...
Also look for swelling and/or reddened skin directly around the area of infection.

It may be healing fine but pretty hard to tell in the photo, and of course you don't want this to get worse only better.

You're doing everything right btw :)
 
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Thanks for the help , it means a lot !!!
I will definitely try to stop by at the vet tomorrow morning. I can assure you that there is no drainage at all, it is very dry, we checked on that carefully as instructed by the vet.

We take a bit of comfort in seeing that he seems very happy and does not seem to be in pain. He is super is super playful, cuddly, has good appetite etc.

This is him, by the way
IMG-20161229-WA0010.jpeg

IMG-20161229-WA0010.jpeg

 
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It actually doesn't look bad, and may very well be healing just fine.

I do think it's best to ask what the vet thinks since we have no way of knowing how it looked before too.
 
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Thank you so much for the new photos!  It looks like the edges are granulating (forming new healthy tissue), and appears to be a bit of scabbing.  But, and I don't mean to worry you, new growth of fur over a scab can obscure seeing if there is truly healing tissue underneath.  Have peace of mind and have him rechecked tomorrow.  If the vet gives you the ok upon exam, chances are, he will continue healing and will be out of the woods in about a week or so. (be prepared to keep using the e-collar for a few more days or more)
 
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Thank you guys, I will stop by at the vet anyways tomorrow morning. They might be annoyed as I already had called once last week for some questions but oh well.

This will be a bit out of topic and therefore I will try to keep it short but:

He seems really OK with the econe which we so far have him wear without mercy. But he had moments that last around 5 min. when he licks it pretty strongly. Is this just because he can not clean himself or is it something to be worried about ?

I read some posts that suggest to put off the cone once a day to allow him to clean himself, but we are worried he might lick his wound so we did not do that yet but brushed him instead as was suggested somewhere else.

Also, in the last days he developed a bit of sneezing. Nothing dramatic, maybe 5 times over the day. When I brought this up to the vet on the phone she said it's nothing to be worried about for now unless it increases to a lot more times. Thoughts on this ? From what I understand colds can turn pretty dramatic for cats so that is the last things he needs right now.


You guys rock !!!
 
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Likely at some time during kittenhood he had a uri, the most common is herpesvirus, no relation to the human named virus other than it's there for life, and stress triggers it.

The surgery and vet visits, as well as that darn cone they hate so much, has caused enough stress to bring the sneezing out.

It will go away on it's own very likely, so no worries there.

It's fine to take the cone off as long as he can be watched for over-grooming the area, it drives them nuts not to be able to get those vet smells off of their precious fur!  
 
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Take the e-collar off ONLY for snuggles and eating - do NOT allow him to groom his private area, pets have bacteria in their mouth that can be easily and quickly transferred to an open incision area and cause infection there.  I don't know how he wasn't monitored at the shelter to have prevented this in the first place, but you certainly don't want to contend with a unrelenting infection.

Licking the e-collar is probably only a natural instinct, meaning he wants to groom, but can't, so he licks the collar. If the wound is healing, it could also be itchy, so perhaps driving him batty, but keep the e-collar on.

If he is not producing too much exudate and it's clear, from sneezing, may not be much to worry about right now.  If that exudate turns discolored and also develops discolored discharge from the eyes, then you might be dealing with an upper respiratory infection that will need to be addressed (tomorrow's recheck, talk to vet) - also rule out dust or dry heat in the home.
 
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Dear cat- tech,

Regarding why the shelter gave the little boy out like this...We are wondering about the same thing, especially since this is a very well regarded organization.

However, good news today. :-)
Had a check up with the vet, she looked at the site saying it is healing very well and that this is all she could have asked for within a week. She said this will definitely fall off as it is scab and not infected anymore, YESSS !!!!
He will need one more shot of Convenia next week, she said and that is when the cone is expected to come off, which is quite a relief. She did not even charge for the visit today which is really awesome. Thanks so much for the advice guy, seems like we are on the right track.
 
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IMG-20170122-WA0000.jpg

IMG-20170122-WA0000.jpg



So...I hate to bring this topic back up but now I am really angry.
At our last appointment with the vet last Monday, she said his infection looks a lot better than it used to and that she is sure the scap will fall off very soon, no big deal but we should wait for it to come off by itself, in fact, she was so secure, she did not even think it was necessary to give him a second shot congenial. Hooray.

All she said was that once it comes off to wait and check if there are any reddish areas that might look like they still could start bleeding. If there are any, we should wait just a few days and once these go away, we can take the stupid cone off.

So oddly enough, that same evening the scap fell off. We did not see anything that looked like a wound still, but anyways let the cone on until last night, when it looked perfectly fine. We took the cone finally off and he looked more happy than ever before, super playful and cuddly.


Well....This is what it looks like tomorrow morning .....


The result is not dramatic, but it worried us enough to put the cone back on just in case. Do you think this has the potential to become infected again should we not put the cone on ? This of course would be the last thing we want. It is a rather thin line as you can see but still worrysome to us a newbies. Any plan of action here ?


:-(
 
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