My kitten has an absess in her paw

I am so upset, Lilly, my 3 month old tiger/calico has an absess in her back paw. I first noticed Saturday nite that she was limping and caring for that paw. It was swollen and I thought that she may have been injured, my grandson was here and my daughter was watching him. I checked to see if it felt like any bones were out of place and every thing felt okay, and she didn't act like an animal that had anything broken the way I was pressing on her foot. I have been keeping her quiet in my room as much as I can and she has been resting. This morning she was licking her foot, I thought she was comforting herself, and she had chewed a little hole in her pad.

I saw the blood and it didn't look quite right so I checked further and gave a gentle press near the wound and sure enough puss came out of the opening. I immediately applied a warm compress to her paw and got quite a bit of the infection out of her paw. I compressed it again and put her in my room to sleep. I have some bandages that are perfect to put on her foot when she needs to use the litter box. I think she should have some antibiotics but I have no $ at all, and am already in debt about Loco's recent Vet trip. I thought if I could track down some of that Bactracin ointment that may do the trick, I know I had a stubborn one in my finger once and the only thing that got rid of it was the ointment after several rounds of antibiotic treatment. Please don't yell at me, I want to take her to the Vet, I have no money so I am trying to come up with some other ideas. Poor Lilly, she feels terrible and I am afraid after me doing all these things to her she is going to hate me.

If the puss is drained then the bacteria are probably drained out. Its when the bacteria builds up in a closed wound that it can get bad. I'd keep an eye on it for improvement. You could probably just call your vet and explain the situation. He might give you an antiobiotic without seeing the cat if money is an issue but most likely she will be fine now that is it drained.

Never yelling just strongly urging

I strongly urge you to get her to the vet. As you know, cats are quite maticulous with grooming, so I'd be leary of putting any oinment on her that did'nt come from the vets. Secondly, infection can spread rapidly, so the sooner she gets started on anti-biotics (which she needs) the better chance she'll have of it clearing up asap. I know money can be a problem, when I first adopted Murphy I was back and forth to the vet with him. There were quite a few times I did'nt have ANY $. Check with your vet to see if you can arrange some sort of payment plan, or write a post-dated check-- if they decline, get a different vet most good vets will be more concerned with the well beeing of an animal, than money. Call and explain your situation, I'm pretty sure they'll work with you if not, time for a new vet Good luck, please keep us updated.

Does your vet take CareCredit? I just applied for this becuase we have some major vet bills with Autumn. They will give you interest free for a 3-6 months to pay off anything from pet care to dental bills.

When Ox had his abcesses (three on his neck) I drained them myself as it was over the weekend and I didn't want to pay for the emergency vet. I also did the warm compresses and drained the abcesses a couple more times. But I got him on antibiotics as I did not know how long he had the abcesses (it could have been a week or two) and due to his age at the time (15 yrs) it took him about 6-8 weeks before he was "back to his normal self".

We just got home from the Vet. She needed a shot of antibiotics and we have pills to give her. It is a good thing that she knew what to do, (open up the skin so it would drain), because I was clueless. I also got her vaccinated while we were there. (Her Godmother did really ) I had no idea that she had an absess until this morning, she was so sick yesterday and in so much pain, I feel so dumb and so bad for her . I really thought it was an injury like a sprain, I have never seen this kind of thing before. He said that this kind of thing usually comes from the cats fighting or playing too rough. He thinks that a cat scratch must have done this since she is an indoor cat. He told me to continue the hot compress and the medicine and to clean her foot when she gets out of the litter box (duh!) and with the antibiotics she should be better soon.

I want to thank our family friend and kitty Godmom Thank you so much for you support and your input, I learn so much from all of you.

I am so glad that Lilly got treated.
I am sending lots of healing vibes Lilly's way & will be watching for your updates.

yeah for godmeowmies
I'm glad you were able to get her treated I hope she heals up quickly and nicely

How is she doing today?????

Little Lilly is doing so good, today is the first day she is acting like a kitten again!!!! She is out of my room and eating like a horse, and drinking a ton. She is beginning to bear some weight on that foot, paw. She was even scratching on my table leg, I decided to let her have at it just for today. The one tricky thing is, the Vet offered to give me liquid medication and I do better with pills. I didn't think of how little she is, those pills are kinda big for her. She had trouble swallowing it last night, I could feel it stuck in her throat, and she was gagging. So, this morning I crushed it up and mixed it into peanut butter, I put too much peanut butter though. She wasn't too happy about that. Any other suggestions of how to get this pill into my honey?

Yes, my friend is an angel on the earth. Since she has been helping me with my cats, she has found how little support there is out there for felines. She is now going to start volunteering for an agency that neuters/spays ferals in the area. What a great friend she is, and a great person, we know how blessed we are.

I always crush the pill and mix in with a bit of canned food or some plain canned pumpkin.

Stephanie

Cats will eat canned pumpkin, I never heard such a thing. I will try that tonite.

It's funny, the only food in the world Zissou won't eat is peanut butter. Maybe she's allergic? Dunno! It just seemed wierd to hear you say your cat likes peanut butter!

I'm so glad your baby has a godmother and you both! That's beautiful. I'm glad your kitty has gotten her antibiotics, I bet she'll be right as rain fore you know it!

Sending healing vibes!

Don't blame yourself for not realizing what it was before. Cats limp sometimes. Zissou does sometimes, when she jumps off something or is generally being too big for her britches she occasionally hurts her paw and limps a bit and then a few minutes later she's fine, it just seems like she stoved her toe or pulled a muscle the wrong way just like happens to us! If you got super-worried every time you saw your cat limp or such you'd be making yourself crazy! Cats have a way to let you know when somethings wrong, like how Lilly popped her abcess herself so you'd notice. Zissou chooses to puke on me or in sight when she's sick. Stuff like that.