My cat has an abscess on his leg...

[majazama]

and I know that you're going to tell me to bring him to the vet, but I live in a rural community, and I don't have a car..

so I have been trying to take care of it as well as I can. I just found the (quarter sized) wound last night and I washed it out with hydrogen peroxide, put emu oil and antibiotic (pain relieving) ointment on it and dressed it with clean dressings (which he promptly took off as soon as I let him go) So I have some questions...

-is it ok if he licks/eats the antibiotic ointment? or should I just not bother?
-is there some natural remedy I can give him orally/topically to help him heal up? I have lots of herbs and such, but I'm not sure whats safe for cats.
-when does it get to the point when he needs extra help?
-any other useful info you can give me about this?

thanks
J

[lonegirl]

Is it an open abcess? keep it flushed out. Be careful with peroxide as it can damage tissue. I would dilute it 50/50 with water. Emu oil is good for healing, and should not cause any vomiting if licked. Try to limit licking though, as it can make it worse.
Keep an eye on the tissue around the abcess...it can become necrotic. If the abcess doesn't improve over the next 48h I strongly recommended going to your vet and getting antibiotics.

[majazama]

Originally Posted by lonegirl

Is it an open abcess? keep it flushed out. Be careful with peroxide as it can damage tissue. I would dilute it 50/50 with water. Emu oil is good for healing, and should not cause any vomiting if licked. Try to limit licking though, as it can make it worse.
Keep an eye on the tissue around the abcess...it can become necrotic. If the abcess doesn't improve over the next 48h I strongly recommended going to your vet and getting antibiotics.

yes, it's open.. I should have mentioned that in the title. peroxide kills the dead tissue though, and brings oxygen to the remaining tissue. I don't think I will do the peroxide again though, it already cleaned out his wound, and my was that gross! it was all bubbling.

[lonegirl]

Originally Posted by majazama

yes, it's open.. I should have mentioned that in the title. peroxide kills the dead tissue though, and brings oxygen to the remaining tissue. I don't think I will do the peroxide again though, it already cleaned out his wound, and my was that gross! it was all bubbling.

THis is what I was initially taught and we used to use it all the time for flushing wounds and abcesses. Recently though, there has been new research showing that at even the 3% solution it will actually damage the healthy edges of tissue, and slowdown the healing. It, as well as Betadine (which used to be commonly used for irrigation of wounds) are both cytotoxic. So it is recommended to dilute further. What we use now is either sterile water or Saline.

[majazama]

are you a veterinarian?

[lonegirl]

me? not a veterinarian but a vet tech for 14years now.

Here is the notes from the annual tech conerence I went to
Non-antibiotic approaches to wound care:
http://www.oavt.org/conference/Conf1...oWoundCare.pdf