Should I take him to the vet?

[Birdie B.]

My 8-year old indoor/outdoor cat came in last night with a bloody wound on his tail. A bunch of hair is missing around it, and there were some small open sores. I cleaned it and disinfected it, and I'm planning on keeping him in until it heals. Should I take him to the vet? I'm worried about infection, but at the moment it seems ok, not very deep and not infected. I don't want to spend a bunch of money at the vet if I don't have to (I know that sounds terrible, but we are really cutting it close this month!), and if they won't do any more than I can do at home.
Typing this out makes me think I should take him in though. I don't want to risk a bad infection. What do you think?

[SophieAnn]

Do you think the wound is from an attack (teeth puncture marks)?

Is your kitty up-to-date on his rabies vaccine?

With humans, a bite from an animal requires a tetanus shot, because animals' mouths are so dirty. If it's an animal bite I would worry about risk of infection. If it's not an animal bite I would consider just keeping it clean, bandaged and monitoring it for signs of infection.

If it were me, I would just call my vet - they're great about telling me over the phone whether or not it's worth coming in.

[LeahBoo]

No, I wouldn't go to the vet for that. But if you can swing $20, go to a feed store and get a bottle (comes in a spray bottle) of Schreiners Herbal Solution. It's a bunch of herbs, plus cayenne pepper and in an alcohol base. It is awesome at healing wounds like that. It's for horses, but you can use it on any animal. I even use it it on myself if something feels like it's starting to get infected. It stings, and then burns, but it works SO WELL. It's like a miracle spray. I've used it on my mom's fighting cat (came home with wounds on his head, couple days later they turned to abcesses, just sprayed him and you couldn't tell what happened the next day). And my chinchilla when his cagemate tried to kill him.

[mattemma04]

I would wait a few days and see how things go.If there is no improvement or a decline I would take the pet in.Might cost you more to wait,but if the kitty heals you saved a vet visit for another time.

[Birdie B.]

Thanks for the replies. Leah, that stuff sounds awesome! I'll have to find some around here.
I ended up taking him in this morning - the bite marks weren't getting any better, and they were still bleeding. I'm thinking that if we get it taken care of now it could prevent it from getting too bad and costing a bunch in the future. Darn cat!