My cat has a small wound..

[Pinoikoi]

My 15 yo 16yo? cat has a small wound on her face. It is about the size of a dime, which considering the size of a cat is not so small. I noticed it not quite a week ago and checked it out. After a couple of days it seemed to be healing on its own. I checked her again yesterday and it seemed to be back where it began She is not in pain. She yowls when she is in pain, but it looks like I don't know a rug burn? I have noticed she scratches it, which is probably the reason why it isn't healing very fast. My assumption is that it is itchy as it heals.. and she finds that annoying.

She is an Alaskan indoor cat. Fleas are HIGHLY unlikely. I have been locking my two cats in the large bathroom at night (litter box and water dish) as they were getting into trouble at night prior to this- some peeing issues, but also walking on the table, harrassing the keets, etc. It is possible they had a tussle, but really, they do love each other...

I held her yesterday and applied some hydrogen peroxide with a q tip. It did bubble so I am thinking that I have now killed whatever germies were in there.. any other thoughts? I will take her to the vet if I have to, but she doesn't do well at the vet's (and we have tried a lot of different ones- she will "swallow" pills until they aren't looking and then hack them up, etc- non violent protestor- this one).

She is older, and I want to help her and I was hoping to start with some home remedies to kick start her own healing process?

ETA: I just checked her out again, and the spot is about 1/2 the size it was yesterday, so perhaps the cleaning yesterday helped?

[phatchristy]

I would just flush the area with salene a couple times a day and watch to make sure it's healing fine.

If it's a bad gash and scars she may not have hairgrowth there btw. Happened to my girl, however she's a long hair so the hair around it covers it.

[ScarletBegonias]

we keep neosporin around for just this reason. i would swab some ointment on there. if you don't do neosporin, honey is antibacterial and antimicrobial. i hope your kitty is better soon!

[Pinoikoi]

Thanks for the tips! I was really worried that I would get flamed for what I have done or not done, but I really didn't know WHAT to do.. thanks SO much.

[SunShineSally]

Originally Posted by ScarletBegonias

we keep neosporin around for just this reason. i would swab some ointment on there. if you don't do neosporin, honey is antibacterial and antimicrobial. i hope your kitty is better soon!

We use the neosporin on our cats. That is what the vet said to do but to make sure to keep our eye on it and check it a few times a day to make sure it doesn't get infected.

Mine love each other too but end up once in a while hurting one another. It just happens. I never used the porixide but that is a good idea that I will keep in mind if one of mine get hurt again. But the neosporin helps a lot IME!

I hope your Kitty heals fast!

[Pinoikoi]

Update.. well, now there is a small mark above each eye and on each side of her nose in ADDITION to what she had before.. she keeps scratching herself.. which I am sure is making the situation worse.. I am broke as a joke, but taking her to the vet on Wednesday.. she isn't crying, but she HAS to be suffering.

[phatchristy]

Now, you have me wondering if she has fungus aka ringworm. Why don't you google it and compare some images.

[Pinoikoi]

Originally Posted by phatchristy

Now, you have me wondering if she has fungus aka ringworm. Why don't you google it and compare some images.

There was one picture that kind of looked like it (perhaps that one had been scratched a lot?), but most of them did not look anything like them. There is only the one bigger wound the others are more like prick marks- I assume from her scratching.

[Pinoikoi]

UPDATE: Went to the vet, and after spending a whopping $180 that I didn't have, we STILL don't know what's wrong with her.

The vet said it is HIGHLY unlikely that she has ringworm- it is more likely that she has some kind of bacterial infection (from what? don't know), OR she has developed allergies.

If it is bacteria- well, he gave her an antibacterial shot, he said to look for improvement within the next couple of weeks, if it seems to clear up SOME but not all the way, then he will give her another one- he said they can show some resistance that way

If it is ringworm then it will show up on the fungus culture he took- which apparently has to go out of state for testing?? He said it will take weeks to get results back on that.

Lastly- it might be allergies- in which case she is getting started on a hypoallergenic food. He said some pets just develop allergies as they age.

He said her symptoms are not very common up here (for example fleas don't live here very long so animals here get them if they travel out of state or hang out with other animals that have been in contact with out of state animals) he said he sees about 12 cases like hers in a YEAR. Wow.

Of course, he was not really pleased about her general condition, (she has some tarter, minor tooth problems, slightly pudgy) but then, she is OLD so he wasn't displeased with her, either. "Did you notice she is losing some fur above her eyes?" "um, yes. She's OLD. It was gradual." "oh."

Ah well.. hopefully something we did will help her out. She is 14 or 15, though and although I love her dearly, she is not in a place for really far out there life saving procedures..

[phatchristy]

Sorry that you don't feel like you got answers. And, feline dermatology can be so extremely frustrating!

I don't think they would ship a ringworm test out of state, but rather likely just leave the culture to grow for that long to see if anything does grow.

I hope something works, please keep us updated! I had a bad experience with my girl a while back, and after they basically couldn't figure out what it was the vet basically OK'd my own philosophy on it (aka treat her for every possible thing LOL). I treated her topically and medicinally for mites, ringworm, bacterial infection AND I switched her food. The shampoos I had took care of the first three and were effective on all (I used a combo sebolux-malaseb) and dosed her with ivermectin 2x . Though my cat was a retired show cat--who I took out of retirement and showed AFTER all of this happened. The skin/coat issues unfortunately are another thing that persians are notoriously bad with! UGH (yeah I remember and dread it!)