There's no vet, pelase help

[lightblue]

Please, I need some real advice. Might not be serious but there's no vet reachable.

I noticed my sweet little 4-year-old girl squinting one eye, and when I took a look I found it being caused by a scab just under her eye, then another at the base of her ear, and a third in between the two. They are about 5-6mm. The one by her ear was hanging mostly off so I removed it and rubbed all three of them down with some hydrogen peroxide just to make sure they were clean.

I'm pretty sure these showed up within the last day. I might not have noticed a scab but we were playing for a while this morning (as she often demands) and I think I would have noticed the squinting. Her behavior is totally normal, still sweet and silly and not acting irritated or like she's in pain.

She lives indoors only and has been in the exact same environment without going outside for about 9 months. I have another cat who is indoors 95% of the time and he is fine, so it is unlikely he got fleas or something outside and they passed to her. Unlikely but not impossible.

Also her diet has been the same for many months, and she eats and drinks out of glass dishes that I clean pretty regularly (but not as regularly as I should).

Everyone says the same thing, to go and see your vet so they can check it out. Unfortunately I live on a little island in Africa, so that doesn't work. There is a man I can call that knows a thing or two and has animal antibiotics, steroids, vitamins, anaesthetics, etc. If the scabs or her eye get any worse I'll give him a call. If they aren't healing, how long should I wait before calling the guy? I don't think he'll hurt her but he may not do anything to help. I just want anyone offering help to understand I need the best vet advice I can get, not 'go to the vet' advice.

I am an overworrying kitten-parent for sure. A year and a half ago I lost my two 17-month-old boys within 36 hours, one to a goddamn kidney infection and the other the next day because he was so in love with the first that he died of sadness. Because of our situation and my desperation for his life, I tried to save the first one by performing multiple cystocentesis procedures based on internet articles and freaking youtube videos. I did them successfully but it didn't save him; really succeeded only at traumatizing me and (I'll just keep telling myself) relieving some of his pain before he passed.

I buried half my family in a day; nearly did myself in from the pain and still haven't really recovered. So probably these little scabs will just heal up and she'll be fine. But she has never had any issues like this in her life and I trust you can understand why I am more-than-rationally worried.

Again please don't say 'get her checked out' because the only one who can check her out is me.

Thanks for any help. And thank god her mother is out of town or she'd be losing it.

PS Sorry this got so personal, good grief.

 

[handsome kitty]

I am new here and have no advice.  Can you post a picture of the cat & wounds so the people w/knowledge can see it?

 

[lightblue]

Unfortunately I can't. My wife is off the island with our only camera and won't be back for a few weeks.

 

[nansiludie]

How large are the sores? Her eyes are not dripping anything yellow/greenish anything like that?  Is she sneezing or coughing? we aren't supposed to give medical advice but maybe the moderaters will allow a little help given yours is  a special case I am so very sorry about the loss of your other two kitties. May they run free and you take a little comfort in knowing they are together now.

As long as the scabs are not in the eyes or anything like that, it should not be too bad. Do you happen to have any triple antibiotic ointment like neosporin? As long as its not any with pain relief in it, it would do good to apply a little to the sores. I would advise you to not wash the sores anymore in hydrogen peroxide, it kills infection but it also damages the healthy tissues.

 

[ellie mae]

Hi! I run an kitten/cat rescue & deal with these things all the time. Especially eyes, because a lot of our kittens are orphans without mommas that clean & naturally care for them to prevent eye infections and conjunctivitis. It's actually pretty simple. Use a cotton ball or cotton pad and a warm saline solution. Make the solution yourself (store saline isn't salty enough) using sea salt or Epsom salts (make sure it's not "bath salts" because of added stuff like fragrances etc) add about 1tbs of salt to 1 1/2 cups warm water & mix ( I make this much so I can just use it for several days if store air tight) & then let it cool down to just above room temp. Apply using the moist cotton pad by lightly stroking across the wound/eye. You can do this to other scratches as well but I would use a separate pad/ball for the one on the eye (& wouldn't do it on the other wounds unless they look infected because too much moisture might keep them from scabbing over) Do this 3-4 times a day For several days. More than likely your kitty got scratched when playing with your other cat and because of cat box bacteria they get on their paws, it quickly showed infection. Hope this helps!
Ps because of where you said you were located I didn't mention trying to use triple antibiotic ointment on it because the only one I know of that can be used around the eyes is WalMart brand Equate. If you are able to get your hands on that it speeds things up. Do NOT use Neosporin, due to the other ingredients. Hope this helps!

 

[lightblue]

 
How large are the sores? Her eyes are not dripping anything yellow/greenish anything like that?  Is she sneezing or coughing? we aren't supposed to give medical advice but maybe the moderaters will allow a little help given yours is  a special case I am so very sorry about the loss of your other two kitties. May they run free and you take a little comfort in knowing they are together now.

As long as the scabs are not in the eyes or anything like that, it should not be too bad. Do you happen to have any triple antibiotic ointment like neosporin? As long as its not any with pain relief in it, it would do good to apply a little to the sores. I would advise you to not wash the sores anymore in hydrogen peroxide, it kills infection but it also damages the healthy tissues.

The sores are about 5mm (1/4 inch) across.  Her eye is not dripping/oozing (had that once with an eye infection that seemed awful but healed immediately with some steroids).  She is not sneezing or coughing. The one scab is on her eyelid right by her eye but not actually on the eyeball.

I do have some triple antibiotic around, I'll use that on them now.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[lightblue]

Hi! I run an kitten/cat rescue & deal with these things all the time. Especially eyes, because a lot of our kittens are orphans without mommas that clean & naturally care for them to prevent eye infections and conjunctivitis. It's actually pretty simple. Use a cotton ball or cotton pad and a warm saline solution. Make the solution yourself (store saline isn't salty enough) using sea salt or Epsom salts (make sure it's not "bath salts" because of added stuff like fragrances etc) add about 1tbs of salt to 1 1/2 cups warm water & mix ( I make this much so I can just use it for several days if store air tight) & then let it cool down to just above room temp. Apply using the moist cotton pad by lightly stroking across the wound/eye. You can do this to other scratches as well but I would use a separate pad/ball for the one on the eye (& wouldn't do it on the other wounds unless they look infected because too much moisture might keep them from scabbing over) Do this 3-4 times a day For several days. More than likely your kitty got scratched when playing with your other cat and because of cat box bacteria they get on their paws, it quickly showed infection. Hope this helps!
Ps because of where you said you were located I didn't mention trying to use triple antibiotic ointment on it because the only one I know of that can be used around the eyes is WalMart brand Equate. If you are able to get your hands on that it speeds things up. Do NOT use Neosporin, due to the other ingredients. Hope this helps!

I do like the simpler idea of using saline.  Only trouble is I can't warm it up because I ran out of gas for my stove last night and won't be able to get more till at least tomorrow night.  Oh Africa.

For now I'll dissolve some salt in room temperature water and gently wash it with that.  Closest thing I have to cotton balls/swabs is toilet paper though...

It's a little hard to believe that my other cat would have scratched her even by accident, and weird that its three round spots about an inch apart, but who knows.  Also little lizards, cockroaches, and huge spiders come in the house all the time and she loves to hunt and kill them.  Probably should have included that originally.

In any case, I'll wash with saline and see how she looks tomorrow.

Thanks!

 

[nansiludie]

You're welcome. As long as she's eating and acting normally,using litterpan normally,  she should be fine.

 

[mewlittle]

I think she will be fine just keep an eye on the sores and keep them clean if they dont heal or seem irritated or swollen etc call that guy for some antibiotics

 

[lightblue]

They seem to be healing fine, her eye is mostly open now.  I'l continue cleaning with warm saline and make sure they don't get worse.

Thanks all for the advice!

PS As for using the litter pan normally, she doesn't, because she is toilet trained.  It was easy and is the best thing we ever did for ourselves.  Not having to buy litter and clean out the litter box is SO nice, and as a bonus it is flipping hilarious (still, after 3 years of it) every time I walk in on a cat on the toilet.  Too funny.

 

[handsome kitty]

Does she flush?

 

[lightblue]

For the record her eye healed up just fine, no complications.  Thanks again.

And lol no she does not flush. In fact, we moved to a new apartment and got a new kitten and a piglet, so much of the routine and environment changed that she (and our toilet-trained boy) reverted to the litter box.  Though the boy pees in the bathtub drain...

 

[catdaddy007]

Could it simply be scratches for either fighting with the other cat, or from her own claws not being trimmed? If her claws are too long she can scratch herself while cleaning.

 

[lightblue]

 
Could it simply be scratches for either fighting with the other cat, or from her own claws not being trimmed? If her claws are too long she can scratch herself while cleaning.

They were raised together since kittenhood and in 6 years have never fought once, so I'm sure that wasn't what happened.  But we have a huge apartment with a giant living area where they get up to incredibly fast speeds when playing, so my best guess is that she was running really fast and ran into something like a shelf or bookcase.  It was awful how quickly it became infected, but simply cleaning it with warm saltwater let it heal within 2-3 days.