My sick cat

Our cat disappeared last week. He is an indoor only cat. He usually hangs out under our bed or in the living room. We didn't see him for a couple days and then over the weekend he was sighted in the basement. Figure he had made himself comfy and didn't want to come upstairs for a few days. He re-appeared yesterday. Bad news is he is sick. Wife noticed he had lost weight and went to pick him up. Noticed at that point that under his chin and down to his chest was covered in blood. He looked like his throat had been slit. Tidewater had closed for the afternoon 20 minutes earlier and all the vets were on farm calls. I took him to 3 Notch since they had a vet on duty. They cleaned him up and looked him over while I did paperwork.
He has 2 holes in his neck/chin area about the size of my pinky nail, and a swollen lump the size of 1/2 a golf ball. They don't know for sure what caused it. Figure the holes are where there were additional swellings that burst. Gave me antibiotic for him and sent us home.
He is doing better after 1 dose of meds. He ate a bit and drank quite a lot overnight. This morning I cleaned his neck with a warm wet washcloth as per the vet's instructions. He enjoyed that (not kidding). He was purring the entire time.
He goes back for a checkup on Friday. Hopefully the swelling will be gone and the holes will start to heal by then.

Anybody ever have this happen to one of their animals before?
 
S

StrwberryKisses

Guest
Something Biting him would be my first guess too. As long as you follow Vets instructions and his shots are up to date he sounds very happy to just get some attention while he heels.
 

mAlice

professional daydreamer
Sounds like kitty may have gotten his head stuck somewhere and was lucky to get unstuck. I'd be down on my knees trying to find out where.

Scary. Hope kitty will be okay.
 
My cat has had that sort of thing, but not in that area. On his main body. I figured they were infected scratches or bites from a fight, but he is an outside cat. Antibiotics and time worked.
 
cattitude said:
Was it close to his mouth? What type of food/water bowls do you use?
Hole #1 is on the flat part under his lower jaw, slightly off to the side. Hole #2 is about a 1/2" lower and closer to the center of his throat (side to side). Feed is Purina One urinary health formula dry food. We use plastic food bowls and have one of the big waterbottle self waterers for them to drink from.
 

cattitude

My Sweetest Boy
huntr1 said:
We use plastic food bowls

Cats can have a real problem with plastic food bowls and develop what is know as kitty acne. They can scratch themselves up pretty bad digging at it and it can become a bloody mess.

One of my old guys had a big problem with it a few years back. I thought he had cancer or something under his chin.
 

cattitude

My Sweetest Boy
Chasey_Lane said:
My friends boxer used to have acne, probably from plastic food bowls also. The vet gave her cream to use on the dog often. :lol:

You wouldn't be laughing if Timon's chin and neck looked like my poor Forrest did. It was awful...actually dripping blood as he walked. He had two open wounds. I felt terrible because it seemed to happen overnight.
 
I

Inkpen

Guest
huntr1 said:
Our cat disappeared last week. He is an indoor only cat. He usually hangs out under our bed or in the living room. We didn't see him for a couple days and then over the weekend he was sighted in the basement. Figure he had made himself comfy and didn't want to come upstairs for a few days. He re-appeared yesterday. Bad news is he is sick. Wife noticed he had lost weight and went to pick him up. Noticed at that point that under his chin and down to his chest was covered in blood. He looked like his throat had been slit. Tidewater had closed for the afternoon 20 minutes earlier and all the vets were on farm calls. I took him to 3 Notch since they had a vet on duty. They cleaned him up and looked him over while I did paperwork.
He has 2 holes in his neck/chin area about the size of my pinky nail, and a swollen lump the size of 1/2 a golf ball. They don't know for sure what caused it. Figure the holes are where there were additional swellings that burst. Gave me antibiotic for him and sent us home.
He is doing better after 1 dose of meds. He ate a bit and drank quite a lot overnight. This morning I cleaned his neck with a warm wet washcloth as per the vet's instructions. He enjoyed that (not kidding). He was purring the entire time.
He goes back for a checkup on Friday. Hopefully the swelling will be gone and the holes will start to heal by then.

Anybody ever have this happen to one of their animals before?

Sounds like an abcess that busted open and drained.
Cats can get infections from wounds: bites, cuts, scratches, and the skin seals up fast..infection sets in, area swells really big, and can burst open, like a big, (excuse me) pimple.
Go google "Cat Abcess" and learn more.
Do you have other indoor cats that could of swatted him?

Anyway, keep up the good nursing care and he will be back to his normal self in no time!! Keep up on his antiboitics until it is all gone!
Purr, purr.
 
Inkpen said:
Sounds like an abcess that busted open and drained.
Cats can get infections from wounds: bites, cuts, scratches, and the skin seals up fast..infection sets in, area swells really big, and can burst open, like a big, (excuse me) pimple.
Go google "Cat Abcess" and learn more.
Do you have other indoor cats that could of swatted him?

Anyway, keep up the good nursing care and he will be back to his normal self in no time!! Keep up on his antiboitics until it is all gone!
Purr, purr.
He went back to the vet on Friday after 4 days of meds. 1 wound was healed over, other was still draining. We got a huge amount of drainage on Saturday morning and a little more on Sunday. 2nd wound is now healed over. Still on antibiotics. Goes back to the vet on Friday.
 
I

Inkpen

Guest
Good news to read that he is doing better!!!
Thanks for the update!
 
Remington is all better now.

Took him back to the vet on Friday, March 9. He still had an open wound in the neck. I had been washing it down with a warm compress every day to keep working the crap outta it. Walked into the vet that night, straight from work. Weighed him at the counter and then sat on the bench with him. Noticed that he had a scab over the wound and it was hanging 1/2 off (hadn't had a chance to wash the wound that day) so I gave it a gentle tug. It came right off. In the middle of the scab was 1/2 of a sewing needle, with about 2" of thread still thru the eye. Now we knew what caused the abcesses in the first place. When I first started washing the wound, he loved it. The last couple of days, he hated it. After I got the needle out, he went back to loving it. Now I knew why he didn't want me messing with it the last couple of days, the needle was working its way to the opening.

Now that he is all recovered, he has decided that he no longer must live under our bed. We think the under the bed deal was because it reminded him of living under the shed behind the house (which is where we found him as a kitten). He now sleeps on the bed with us. In the past, the top of the bed was Mackenzie's domain, which she ruled with an iron paw. Now she is being forced to share. He has also stopped sucking down the food en mass when we put it down. I think he couldn't get out of the frame of mind of "better eat it all, never know where the next food is going to come from" that he developed as a stray until he realized he was loved and part of the family as he realized thru this trauma. He has lost some weight (he was 13 lbs. at last vet visit prior to all this, got down to 11 when this all started, and back to almost 12 at the last visit). Now he is a nice healthy size (before he was rather Garfield in form). He has filled back out thru the torso and hips, but no longer has the fat pockets hanging down or the bulging mid section he had prior to this happening.
 
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