Wound on cat

[2Btoo]

I wonder if anyone can help me here.

Our cat is about 14 years old, female, and an only cat. She's slightly overweight but otherwise in very good health (according to the vet 4 months ago).

Three days ago, my wife and I noticed a wound on her flank. It's on her right side, nearer the rear quarter than the front quarter. We hadn't noticed it before because she has a lot of fur in very good condition, which had covered the area. However we noticed it by the bald patch around it.

She has absolutely fine in herself. No change to mood, habits, eating, sleeping, movement etc. She doesn't appear uncomfortable and is still happy to be picked up, fussed and so on. She will sleep on the wound side (with the wound on the ground), and rubs against things on both this side and the other side in the normal way. Her only awareness of the wound seems to be that she licks it quite a lot (but she is a clean cat who licks herself copiously anyway.) This wound is bothering us a lot more than her!

The wound looks like this. It sometimes seems to be crusting over fine, but sometimes seems to be a bit weepy. My wife, who is a pharmacist, says it doesn't look infected but we are not sure it is granulating that well. For what it's worth, we think she was bitten (a somewhat feral cat has appeared in the area who has attacked her before).





Are we fussing over nothing? Should it be a trip to the vet or wait and see what the next few days bring?

Thanks.

[bexVN]

Trip to the vet, she needs to stop licking it and tbh it is showing early signs of infected tissue to me. (the reddening of the surrounding tissue after 3 days much more likely to be infection than inflammation)

Difficult to see what type of wound it is, burst abscess for example or caught on wire etc.

Cats heal well so probably won't need stitches but it does need help to heal esp as she is 14 (can take longer to heal than a youngster etc) unless the surrounding tissue is too damaged in which case surgery becomes more likely.

She could well heal without intervention but it will take much longer and more risk of it becoming worse.

Looking again I would be concerned it could even be an airgun pellet wound as it looks quite round from these pictures.

Edited by bexVN on Thursday 11th June 22:29

Edited by bexVN on Thursday 11th June 22:31

[stevensdrs]

Needs an anti inflammatory injection, antibiotic injection and wound to be bathed with a dilution of tee tree oil and water until it heals.

[2Btoo]

Thanks for the answers. Sounds like a trip to the vet is in order.

The photos aren't clear (she wriggled when they were taken) but it looks like there are two sides to the wound, hence the suggestion that she had been bitten. Given where we are (small back-to-back terraces in London) I doubt it's an airgun pellet or wire, but thanks for the suggestions anyway.

Part of the problem is that we have no idea how long this wound has been here - she hasn't been off-colour in the slightest, and we only noticed it when I caught sight of it when she was walking around. There's no suggestion that it is painful or bothering her in the slightest. (She's currently flat-out on her side being tickled by the wife, wound-down, squirming on the carpet. Just the sort of thing that would cause pain if the wound was at all tender.)

I'll post back when we've been to see the vet. Thanks for the input.

[bexVN]

Cays instinct is too hide pain as much as poss, however it could be that it was an abscess that burst (esp if suspect cat bite) she's cleaned up the exudate. This becomes less painful once burst (but a burst abscess will leave tissue damage. Less likely to need stitches though!

Sounds unlikely to be pellet from what you have said though they occur in all environments (suburban and urban)