help with cut repair on Socks

[Brian Schreiber]

Hello folks, first time poster here.
One of our two cats got tore up bit by a coyote or another cat or something. Both cats are outdoor cats. Rear leg has long cut which bared the skin in a Silver dollar sized area. It has been two days since it happened. Unfortunately, we did not notice right away.

So, typically, sutures are not used from what I read, if a wound is over 12 hrs old. If we had caught this it would have been easy to suture / staple it up in time. However, a vet estimates cost at nearly $500 after all work. I paid $170 to have them shave around wound and clean it up. I backed off when I heard the unreal cost to add sutures-- which, if you read the info on line is not done anyway after 12 hrs. So, present condition is we have a clean wound and my plan right now is just to add in some neosporin or bacitracin and wrap it up. No muscle or bone damage. She is wearing a little collar already which I quickly fashioned together after picking her up at the vet.
Questions:
-- Did I miss anything?
-- Is there anywhere on the internet where you can buy a stapler to close wounds in skin? buy antibiotics for animals?

 

[LuxBear]

Hi there. Sorry to hear about your cat! I don’t think it is a good idea to try to staple a wound yourself, especially since you say it’s not done after 12 hours anyway. That’s something best left to the doctors. Did the vet want to suture and you said no? If it is cleaned and shaved and not oozing or bleeding I don’t think it needs to be sutured up. I would suggest calling the vet and asking for antibiotics if you think she needs that, not sure why they didn’t offer that to you if they saw a chance for infection. Either way my suggestion is if you are planning to do any medical procedures on your cat you should call/visit the vets office for advice first.

 

[Brian Schreiber]

Hello thanks for your advice. Getting into ANY vet is nearly impossilble.
Yes, I did say no when he offered suturing. Not even knowing at the time it is not recommended after 12 hrs-- also not knowing the cost until his estimator called me with the costs! yikes.

Our normal vet could not get us in right away so after LOTS of calls finally found this one. They offered the whole nine yards including suturing, special one shot pain killer, etc etc. All jacking up the cost.

Within a few minutes of posting this, I found a place on line and ordered a stapler so I will have it next time, along with some topical anti-biotic. I could easily have dropped $600 at this place but felt good coming out with my shirt but short $170. In future, unless life threatening, I will be my own vet for "wound care." Hey, we love our cats but they are. . . cats, got 'em both for free.

 

[fionasmom]

Welcome to The Cat Site. I am sorry that your cat had this encouter which caused the injury.

I cannot recommend doing your own stapling on the cat. Unless you are a medical profession of some sort, there is a little more to this than just closing the wound. Incorrectly applied or applied to the type of wound that would not respond to that closure will open up a brand new issue.

I would try to get the antibiotics from the vet who treated your cat, oral or topical. They saw that cat and the wound and should not want another visit. Those products are not that expensive usually.

 

[Norachan]

I cannot recommend doing your own stapling on the cat. Unless you are a medical profession of some sort, there is a little more to this than just closing the wound. Incorrectly applied or applied to the type of wound that would not respond to that closure will open up a brand new issue.

Using staples or sutures to close a wound is something that should only be done by a vet. First of all, the area and equipment need to be properly sterilized or you risk injecting bacteria into the wound, which will cause a secondary infection. If not inserted correctly the staple will tear the skin, leading to an even worse injury than you started with.

Please call your regular vet, or e-mail them a photo of the wound if you can. They'll be able to treat the cat at a lot lower price than you were quoted.

It's nice that you got the cats for free, but getting cats isn't the expensive part of having a pet. Caring for them, making sure they are spayed, neutered and vaccinated and ensuring they receive adequate medical attention is what costs the most.

If you allow your cats to go outdoors in coyote country you're going to need to spend a lot more on vet bills, if they survive long enough to be seen by a vet. It's a good idea to budget for this in the future.

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[Brian Schreiber]

Yeah, good advice folks. Quite a situation here. We have spent hundreds of dollars at our vet with chips, annual shots etc. The other vet that looked at the cat only wants to do the full Monty on it after charging me $172 to clean the wound. They told me over the phone it would be $18 to drop the cat off and get an estimate on final charges, then charged me $172 when I said no to $400+. . . I cut my losses and put a cone on the cat's head. My regular vet, who refused to let us come in(too busy!), can't find our two cats med records on their computer so the receptionist refuses to even give the vet my phone number to have her call and won't even tell me if an image of the wound would be useful to help the vet make a decision on antibiotics.

Open muscle to the air but no cut into it, just skin pulled back from the laceration. Cat won't allow us to bandage it. We held her down long enough to put Bacitracin on the wound once, after that no more bandages when we tried to re-dress the bandage! She eats fine and is happy as long as the collar is off. Can walk and jump fine. I am pretty fed up with the vets. Plan to just let it heal best as we can while wearing the cone except to eat / drink.

Cats are 4 yrs old and been in coyote country their whole life. Hey, they have nine lives right? Not sure what caused this laceration, coyote was an initial guess. Could have been a coon, a feral cat? Who knows.

I didn't staple anything but ordered a stapler from a Vet supply for next time. Since it was, from the start, over 12 hrs when the wound occurred-- too late this time.

My only confusion is why did the vet that saw her offer to staple her up? It was likely over a day and half since the wound happened.

 

[game misconduct]

i would follow vets advice and really try to get both cats into indoor only cats you already have one with a wounded leg that may well afffect its ability to escape predators or conflicts in the future once its healed up and you know 9 lives is a myth your cat got lucky this time. why push its luck?

 

[Willowy]

I know some hunters staple up their own dogs but cats have much thinner skin so I wouldn't try it myself. Too easy to cause a major situation.

I think leaving it uncovered is probably a better choice than bandaging it, if she's outdoors, but you'll have to keep an eye out for maggots and fly bites. Nasty bugs.

Do try to get some antibiotics; the vet that saw her should be willing to sell them to you without seeing her again or any other formalities, or if your regular vet has seen her in the last year they should be able to prescribe them over the phone too.

 

[Brian Schreiber]

i would follow vets advice and really try to get both cats into indoor . . . why push its luck?

I appreciate your time to reply but putting them inside is not practical. Our cats are "mousers". They have a job to do on our 80 acre farm-- kill mice and moles and gophers if they find them. They get to eat them as their reward. It gets to 30 below zero here and they have a cushy garage penthouse that keeps them warmer than freezing temps. Besides them, there are lots of predators here-- coyotes, mink, bears, dogs, and raptors. Overall, after living with them 5 years they are holding their own-- Happy cats.

Cats in the country are a lot different than the in-house, urban cats. Pretty tough. Probably not with nine lives though. . .!

 

[game misconduct]

good point

 

[Brian Schreiber]

I know some hunters staple up their own dogs but cats have much thinner skin so I wouldn't try it myself. Too easy to cause a major situation. . . . I think leaving it uncovered is probably a better choice than bandaging it,. . . Do try to get some antibiotics;

Update:
Actually I bought a staple gun and remover tool, specialized vet wound cleansing solution(Keto C Plus), and a really good product called Vetricyn which mists on a microbe killing solution in a small pump spray bottle.
I have not yet used the stapler but am now considering it as the wound is about 75% closed up on its own without any bandage or staples. Stapling it now that the skin is closer together may accelerate healing with a more closed wound.

Looking at the wound now I have reconsidered the source. I don't know what exactly caused it but it now looks like a clean cut through only the skin, no longer looking like a "bite". Whatever the case, rather than being a wide open half silver dollar size wound with the red muscle showing, it is more like a cut in the skin with the middle, widest part open about 3/8". We bought a "recovery suit" on line-- basically a stretchy fabric pajama for a cat with holes for the legs and head-- not pant legs. To cover the wound, at least partially, I cut off one of the wife's thin stretchy socks and bobby pinned the ends of it high on the back and rump and let the open end free, like a pants leg. It worked well so far to protect the wound from her licking it and outside microbes to a degree. She hates it and has actually gotten out of it twice. We call her Houdini now. The cone of shame was off after a few hours. This lasts for days.

Long story short, the wound is healing pretty well and the antibiotics I got from our original Vet are almost gone and the swelling is way down. I figure that is why the skin is coming closer together. I may still staple it and take it out after 3 or 4 days.

We will see. Of course, that depends on if she will let me hold the leg long enough for taking a shot at it! Cats are NOT like dogs. Ha! understatement, huh?!

 

[fionasmom]

Thanks so much for the update. Hopefully she will heal with the recovery suit.

 

[Norachan]

I don't think there is any point trying to staple the wouldn't together now. If it is healing and free from infection then just let it heal on it's own. Some of my semi-feral cats have had open wounds from burst abscesses, but our vet advised us to not even cover them. The wounds heal better if left open. The cats were given antibiotics and healed up without any scars.

Try using the staple on your own skin first of all to see how painful it is. Then imagine holding a cat still for long enough to carefully staple a would together without causing any further damage. It's not going to be possible and you risk injuring the cat further