I have an outdoor cat who has a huge wound on his head. Everyday it gets bigger and bigger. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make him stop scratching it? He's and outdoor cat, though so cones don't really work.
My cat came in with a tiny scratch on the side of his head, which he then opened up into a large raw wound. He has been to the vet at least 3 times with this.
He has worn a cone now for weeks, and the original wound has almost healed (after 2 false starts when he opened it back up again).
While wearing the cone he scratched around it, making new wounds. The cone is not too tight (in fact, I loosened it a bit when it irritated the skin underneath it). I cleaned these twice/day with salt water and applied antiseptic cream (vet advice), so there is no infection.
Good news: the old original wound seems OK now.
Bad news: now I have taken the cone off he is still scratching these new wounds (caused by scratching at the cone itself) and spraying blood on to the furniture.
The cone is no use here, he caused these while it was on. Any ideas about how to stop this new problem? We're on holiday ina couple of weeks and if he's not fit for the cattery it will be really expensive to have him admitted by a vet as an inpatient.
Also, we have 4 cats - all RSPCA rescue animals, and having to keep one in prety much means having to keep all 4 in. This is very stressful, as we can't have any windows or doors open and this has been going on for months now.
Please take your cat to the vet for treatment. Wounds should never go untreated. He can probably get an antibiotic injection and perhaps follow up meds to be given and you wouldn't have to deal with a cone. Even the cone would be a short duration of time. This is a serious matter needing vet attention!
Hello, Please take your fur baby to the Veterinarian ASAP, it could be an abscess. If he is outside, he could be fighting or being bitten from another cat. It is now breeding season so you must keep him inside. Good luck
You need to keep him inside, with the cone on, until it's healed, you have not much choice in the matter. It should only take a week or two to heal up good enough that he can go back without scratching.
How I know? My outdoor/indoor cat got in a fight twice and I had to cone him and keep him inside as he was also scratching at his. It worked perfect :)
You need to figure out why he is scratching. You didn't say where the wound was on the head . If it is near or around the ear then look inside his ear. If you see a bunch of dark brown discharge he probably has an ear infection or ear mites. If you take care of the infection then he should quit scratching his head. If he doesn't have an infection in his ear then there are a few other reasons to scratch at the head. None of those are usually easily treated (mange mites, ringworm, allergies, fleas). A vet visit would probably be best. They can check for ear mites, fleas, culture for ringworm, skin scrape for mites or try a steriod injection for allergies to begin with. The sooner he gets looked at the better, if the wound gets too big he is going to need antibiotics for the skin infection.
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