Male cat - Lymph node abscess - anything to worry about? (i.e. underlying cause)

[TommoLB]

I have a very active 5 year old male cat. He's been through the wars of late, last year suffering an abscess on his tail from a probable bite, while also a few months later reigniting a tail injury as a result of a scrap with another cat (an injury he got as a kitten, although how he originally got it remains a mystery).

On Friday, I spotted a swelling on his cheek and took him into the vets. Ended up being an abscess of a lymph node in his neck. He had it drained and has been recovering well.

My main concern is the cause of this latest abscess and wondered if others folks' cats had had something similar and if the cause was found in those cases?

I asked the vets on probable causes. No teeth issues. No sign of bite or scratch marks on his neck. The vets said he "hoped it wasn't from a fight with another cat" and suggested a mouth injury as a possible cause (not that there was any sign of a mouth injury).

I had felt scabs on his skin a few days prior to the onset of the issues, so I do suspect a cat fight of some description. Sadly those scabs all fell off prior to the vet visit, The vets comments about "hoping it wasn't from a cat fight" made me somewhat concerned. Being aware of FIV and FeLV I was concerned this might be a cause of the lymph node abscess?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
You might consider keeping him inside. I realize you're in the UK and there's a different perspective about letting cats outside is, but this is too much for him. Is he neutered?

 

[TommoLB]

He is neutered. He never went outside until after he was done. Sadly keeping him inside is impossible. He gets very frustrated, attacking members of the household and the other cat. We tried putting cat netting up in the garden (spent hundreds of pounds on it) and he overcome it and found ways out of the garden, risking injury in the process. The garden ended up looking like Guantanamo Bay for years as a result of efforts to keep him inside and plug the escape routes. Letting him roam was the only solution we had. Thankfully the nearest roads are hundreds of meters away as the back of the house opens up onto a railway embankment that is 30 ft up so it's a cat paradise out there with tree's, bushes and tall grass.