Found bloody scab on cat’s upper arm this morning.

[TubbyBubby]

My cat had a hairball this morning and as I was cleaning it up I handled her to reassure her everything was okay, when I suddenly felt something rough on her arm. When I held her to look at the area more closely, to my horror I found this wound. She’s indoor only and I have no idea how she could have gotten this. I have two other cats but they are separated at night and they aren’t antagonistic to each other. She also spends the night on my bed and was there per usual this morning. She has sharp back claws and I noticed that she tried to itch the area right after I handled her and I think this may have dislodged part of the scab?? There is still a piece of scab attached that is brown but the other half is gone and the red part is exposed. she absolutely can reach the area. She is quite aversive to having her claws trimmed and I am just praying that this is just because she scratched herself recently. Or maybe it could be a food allergy??? But it looks awful. She has been eating and acting totally normal all week and this is so new and scary. What is this? Because of her behavior I determined it wasn’t something that warranted rushing her to the pet ER, but her vet opens in 3 hours and they are really great and likely will be able to squeeze her in this morning, She also literally just had her annual checkup this year in March and had senior bloodwork done and everything came back normal. They didn’t find this at her visit. I put regular plain neosporin on it and she even begged for a snack (despite it being 4am) and now she is asleep in her cat tree. She only tried to itch it the one time (in front of me at least). I feel so bad for her and I don’t know what this is. I handle her every day but I literally only felt it this morning so it must have been extremely recent. I was home all day yesterday and today though and there were no cat fights, nothing I can think of that she could have gotten into in my house to cause this. Pics are with flash and then without flash. It is no longer actively bleeding and I think it looks the way it does in the pics because she scratched at herself after I took a look at what it was. I used cotton q tips to clean the area with a bit of water+pat dry and apply the neosporin.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Sharp claws could be the culprit, and all it takes is one good scratching session to potentially cause a wound. Does that automatically mean it is a food allergy? No. Not likely even an environmental allergy - as either is probably going to produce more places/wounds on her body, if for no other reason than from scratching. Most allergies are not going to manifest themselves in just a single location - although, it is possible that she is scratching other areas and only happen to cause damage in this one spot.

I'd suggest you keep an eye out on her for an unusual amount of scratching going on to suggest there could be an allergy of some sort going on. If you do notice that, then consider seasonal allergies like pollen, or other environmental allergies like cleaning products, perfumes, scented candles/incense, dust, and even fleas (yes, they can get to an indoor only cat).

And get her claws trimmed. If you cannot trim them yourself, then you are pretty much stuck taking her periodically to the vet and let a vet tech do it - or, finding someone who can come to your house and trim them for you.

As far as using Neosporin, as long as you are getting most of it rubbed into the area to prevent her from being able to ingest any real amount of it, you should be fine.

 

[TubbyBubby]

Sharp claws could be the culprit, and all it takes is one good scratching session to potentially cause a wound. Does that automatically mean it is a food allergy? No. Not likely even an environmental allergy - as either is probably going to produce more places/wounds on her body, if for no other reason than from scratching. Most allergies are not going to manifest themselves in just a single location - although, it is possible that she is scratching other areas and only happen to cause damage in this one spot.

I'd suggest you keep an eye out on her for an unusual amount of scratching going on to suggest there could be an allergy of some sort going on. If you do notice that, then consider seasonal allergies like pollen, or other environmental allergies like cleaning products, perfumes, scented candles/incense, dust, and even fleas (yes, they can get to an indoor only cat).

And get her claws trimmed. If you cannot trim them yourself, then you are pretty much stuck taking her periodically to the vet and let a vet tech do it - or, finding someone who can come to your house and trim them for you.

As far as using Neosporin, as long as you are getting most of it rubbed into the area to prevent her from being able to ingest any real amount of it, you should be fine.

I took her to the vet a few hours ago and the good news is it’s not infected, nor an abscess, and it’s not skin cancer! Unfortunately they did say it looks like a wound and they think she got into an altercation with one of my other two cats. I have a feeling if that is the case that I know which one it is, my new boy (have had him 3 weeks; they are all fixed), but it’s just odd, because I’m certain I would have heard them get into a fight, which I did not; plus, he is such a snuggle bug, very friendly towards my cats when I’ve supervised their interactions and the rescue I got him from told me how he was always snuggling with the other cats. I have all of them separated again anyways and will be redoing introductions with him to be on the safe side. Otherwise maybe she was scratching herself. They gave her an antibiotic pack and she’s already taken the first one! She’s still acting normal which is a relief. They also said it likely looks gnarly because she likely has been itching the scab off. The rest of the scab actually fell off by the time she got in to see the vet. They didn’t find fleas (yay) and I don’t use candles or incense or scented stuff like frebreze; my cleaning products are pretty basic, the disinfectants like Clorox I use for the bathroom and kitchen surfaces are stored well away from their reach. I don’t use scented detergent or drier sheets either. I will do my best to trim her nails myself but you are right, if I can’t l I may need to get a professional to help me…

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

While at the Vet, did they trim her nails? Every time I got to the Vet, I automatically have them trim nails, even if we were just there two weeks prior! I just keep a note taped to the top of the carrier that says in big bold letters "Nail Trim Please"

 

[TubbyBubby]

While at the Vet, did they trim her nails? Every time I got to the Vet, I automatically have them trim nails, even if we were just there two weeks prior! I just keep a note taped to the top of the carrier that says in big bold letters "Nail Trim Please"

Yes! Phew haha

She’s doing good today.