An extra article today because we had to deal with an accident with one of our cats. I’d like to explain to you how you should treat wounds on cats.
Accidents Happen
Whether cats are indoor only or both indoor and outdoor going, accidents can easily happen. As by statistics, most accidents seem to happen at home anyway. Cats can hurt themselves on usual things by getting stuck or doing something clumsy. A clumsy planned jump for example can get them easily hurt. Especially young cats that have little world experience, can easier get hurt or caught in silly situations.
Most of the time though, cats get wounded through fights with other cats, bites from insects or other creatures (such as snakes).Most accidents don’t cause big cuts, but it can happen.
It’s especially annoying when these things happen in the middle of the weekend when everything is closed.
Depending on the level of emergency you can go to an emergency veterinary somewhere in the region you live in. An emergency case is not when your cat got a little scratch on their nose. Serious injuries such as a cut where the skin is cut in two parts and where possibly bone is visible are serious enough wounds for immediate action.
How To Treat Wounds On Cats
First of all, you cannot treat wounds on cats yourself. The best person to do this, is your veterinary! There are many reasons for this.
First of all you need to clean the wound of the cat as you would with any other person or animal. The thing is though that you cannot use the usual stuff that you use on humans. Human medicine is extremely dangerous to cats and other animals. So you cannot use things like perisept or any other human medicinal cleaning solution. These substances are often very toxic to a cat.
After cleaning the wound, the next course of action depends on what type of wound the cat has obtained. Is it a cut in the skin, then it probably needs to be sewn into place. If there is a chance for a broken bone, the cat actually needs X-ray images first to get that verified.
A broken bone needs to be set, the skin needs to be sewn and the whole body part needs to be put in gips. A normal cut in the skin can be sewn into place using stitches.
After the sewing of wounds has been completed, a few extra treatment injections are given, such as vitamins, minerals and pain killers. It is also a good idea to check the rest of your cats overall health.
Forget about bandaging a cats legs/paws, it will come off as quickly as you can count to 10. Bandaging a cats paw or leg is anyway a very bad idea as their paws are part of their blood circulation system. Cutting off that circulation with a pressure bandage is deadly to cats.
Cat don’t like foreign things on their body and will try to get it off as soon as you put it on them. Bandages and plasters would be bitten off, scratched off and licked off as soon as they were put on. Stitches might also get bitten off again, so how do you make sure that they leave the wound alone for healing?
To make sure the cat will not open the wounds again, a vet has the following options:
- Neck Brace
- Bitter Tasting Spray
Neck Brace
Neck braces (shielding them to use their teeth on anything) can work very well, but cats really dislike them. You will also have to remove them to let them eat and put them back on afterwards. Just a big hassle for cats, dogs are easier that way.
Bitter Tasting Spray
Vets also use (and sell this bottle) a spray that has a bitter taste to them (and us). This bitter taste is not harmful, but it will keep them away from licking or biting the affected area. This spray is an excellent way for keep your cat from licking, biting and scratching bandages, stitches or wounds.
Today’s Story
One of our cats, Tiny, had some sort of accident outside. We think it was because of her jumping off something and onto something with a sharp edge, such as where the airco unit is standing upon (sharp metal bars connected to the house). She must have hung from it to swing down to the ground level and hurt herself on her front paw right there.
We hoped to bandage her paw to get her transported to the veterinary immediately. Unfortunately she managed to get the bandage off within mere seconds, so we ended up transporting her with a bleeding wound.
At the veterinary’s office (which has been very nice to us by the way as it was a Sunday), the vet used anesthetics on her, so she would be calmer. Our cat is a tough fighter, so she tried to stay active as much as possible.
Once calmed down, the wound was cleaned with a special cleaning solution. After cleaning the bone and wound was assessed. The bone didn’t seem to be broken, so the skin was sewn back into place with a couple of stitches. She used a bitter tasting spray on her paw. Afterwards the veterinary used a green stretchy material to bandage her paw.
Our cat got a few more injections and a general inspection. The veterinary found some mites in her ear. Now you understand why it is so important to go to the veterinary, as they can check your cats health at the same time. She treated our cat for the mites and gave a couple of other vitamins and mineral injections as well as a pain killer for when she wakes up. At last, she gave our cat an injection to make her wake up quicker.
We took our cat home and gave her a safe place to wake up. Once woken up, she waggled around like a drunk cat. You can try to keep a cat in one place in that state, but you just don’t manage. They got their own willpower and it is strong! Every move they make they get sleepy and sit down silently. The next moment they are charged up to make another move, such as a jump (that they shouldn’t be doing) or run to a place.
In the first 5 minutes after she was awake enough to walk around, her bandage fell off. That didn’t survive very long!
So far she seems to do very well, she doesn’t seem to be in much pain, but we got another pain killer shot ready for her when needed.
Have any experience with wounds on cats? How did you deal with it? Did you home treat it or go to the veterinary? Please leave a comment below.