Zero Omega
I've got a cat question for our resident vet, Mala.
This one cat we take care of suddenly appeared the other day ago with a big wound on the right side of his body, my dad thinks that that an owl may have tried to get to him (seeing as how we believe an owl got to our kitten about two weeks ago). The cat is doing fine but it is an open wound, we don't have money to see a vet about it so my dad wants to know if there is anything he can do to treat and close the wound.
So far the only thing my dad has done is put Neosporin on the wound, like I said the cat is doing fine my dad just wants to prevent any infection from the open wound.
Pheo, laughing at you for not realizing I would eventually get to it. >>
It's hard to say much without seeing what the wound looks like right now, but if you have some sort of clippers or electric razor, it would be helpful to trim the hair immediately around the wound to keep the hair from matting into the wound. If it
is an animal-induced wound, which seems likely, it's probably already pretty contaminated, so you don't really want to do anything to close the wound. Letting it drain on its own will be for the best. If possible, you should keep the cat indoors and in a clean area so that he won't get anything else into the wound.
If the wound is still recent then you can try to clean it out with tap water, but avoid rubbing at it with a cloth or anything that might disrupt blood clot formation. If you have some kind of squirt bottle you can use to help wash out any debris that might be in the wound (if any is present,) that would be helpful, but not at too high a pressure.
Topical over-the-counter treatments like neosporin or bactoderm may or may not help, but it could be worth trying.
Keep a close eye on the cat for any signs of a systemic infection like decreased appetite, lethargy, excessive hiding behaviours, vomiting, etc. Increased redness around the laceration site or yellow/green discharge would also be indicators of an infection that really ought to be seen.
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