Whatcha do when cats hurt themselves?

[Valiant]

Frankie's an active cat, he's forever climbing up the fence/wall and playing with other cats and birds. Trouble is every so often he comes back with cuts. He doesn't seem that fazed by it but it worries me. Should we just leave it? Or should we be doing something?

[andygates]

Cat skin is good stuff (it's almost totally disconnected from cat meat).  Most of the time, it'll fix itself.  Battle scars are cat cool.

If he gets an infected cut, he'll be listless, off his food, floppy, and his ears will be really hot.  Then it's vet time for an antibiotic shot.

[border-rider]

If it's an open cut then clean it with a bit of salty water.  Keep an eye (or nose) open for abscesses developing (quite common if it's a bite from another cat) & go to vet if they appear.

As Andy says, small nicks & scratches from undergrowth are normal. If there are bites & scratches from other cats then make sure all vaccinations are up to date & have as wide a range done as possible.

Be religious with flea treatment - in the spring/summer, every 4 weeks or so like clockwork, and use a treatment that works. None of this herbal lark, you need strong chemicals from the vet or pharmacy,

[Mrs Pingu]

I've always just used salty water too. (steer clear of the TCP, it's toxic to cats).

[Tail End Charlie]

Leave 'em to it, cats are ultra tough.
Anti biotics - bah. Cleaning them up - bah. Letting them stay in at night - bah.

[border-rider]

I don't know if that's meant to be funny, but if not it's very very poor advice.

[rogerzilla]

I read the thread title and thought you had a self-harming emo cat 

One of ours (who, at 14, successfully saw off another cat this evening, leaving bits of fluff everywhere - he's still got it) used to be beaten up quite regularly by his far more vicious sister.  About half the time no treatment was needed, otherwise he got some sort of infection that needed antibiotics.  Cats have a lot of dirt under their claws which gets pushed into the wound so abscesses often develop.

Since his sister was exiled four years ago he hasn't picked up a single fight injury.  He did have a dodgy leg for a few days at New Year, but we put that down to a bad landing off the wall.

[border-rider]

  Cats have a lot of dirt under their claws which gets pushed into the wound so abscesses often develop.

The teeth are often the problem.  Unless they have regular dental work, as they get older their teeth get toxic.  (Monitor lizards use this effect to have a toxic bite also)

A bite from a manky old bruiser of a tom cat can be really, really bad and almost always develops into an abscess.

[Tail End Charlie]

I don't know if that's meant to be funny, but if not it's very very poor advice.

No, not supposed to be funny, but every cat me and all my family have ever had have sorted things out themselves. The odd bit of ointment, but that's it.

[Feline]

Are his cuts deep skin thickness cuts or are they more superficial like scratches?
Scratches and small puncture wounds I would go with salt water bathing twice a day (1 teaspoon of salt in a pint of warm water is the equivalent saltiness to blood and so doesn't sting open wounds). If they are deeper and happening a lot I would be concerned there might be glass somewhere he is going. This is a tricky problem to solve if you don't know where he goes of course!

[Valiant]

It's hard to tel with all his fur.

[TimO]

Like everyone else has said, it's inevitable to a certain extent with cats, unless you want to make Frankie an indoors only cat, which he's likely to be unhappy with if he's been used to going out.

Talisker only ever had a few noticeable injuries, and none of them caused hospitalisation or required any sort of treatment.  On the few occasions that he did end up in the vets, on a drip for dehydration, we never found out what caused it, so possibly the proverbial "bad mouse" or similar.  The vet did inspect him for injuries, but we never found anything significant.

... Be religious with flea treatment - in the spring/summer, every 4 weeks or so like clockwork, and use a treatment that works. None of this herbal lark, you need strong chemicals from the vet or pharmacy,

Yes.  Frontline Spot-On, which you can get over the counter now, is essentially useless in the UK, most of the fleas in this country are apparently immune to it.  It had bugger all effect on Talisker's fleas.

Go to you vet, and see what they recommend.  I forget what the stuff I last got for Talisker was, but it worked very effectively.

[Valiant]

Thankfully he doesn't seem to have fleas

[border-rider]

he will, sooner or later

treat immediately or he and your house will be crawling.  Been there.

I think Stronghold is the one they recommend over Frontline now. Frontline still works for our cats because their fleas are from totally wild birds & rodents and not other cats, but in an urban area it's not going to work, as TimO says

[Jaded]

Abscesses are brilliant!

Trust me. They develop a bit, then a bit more, then poor kitty stays in because of the pain and you feel sorry for him/her so you let them in the bedroom to sleep in the warmth with you.

Then, at three o'clock you are woken up by an explosion of warm ectoplasm. Not normal ectoplasm, but red, stinky, foul, slimy ectoplasm. It is over you. All over you and the bedclothes.

Your cat is happy and purry.

You have only four hours to clean up the mess and get rid of the smell before going to work.

[Kim]

That sounds suspiciously like Space Mumps.

[Valiant]

he will, sooner or later

treat immediately or he and your house will be crawling.  Been there.

I think Stronghold is the one they recommend over Frontline now. Frontline still works for our cats because their fleas are from totally wild birds & rodents and not other cats, but in an urban area it's not going to work, as TimO says

He has injections every so often and so far so good.

[Feline]

Abscesses are brilliant!

Trust me. They develop a bit, then a bit more, then poor kitty stays in because of the pain and you feel sorry for him/her so you let them in the bedroom to sleep in the warmth with you.

Then, at three o'clock you are woken up by an explosion of warm ectoplasm. Not normal ectoplasm, but red, stinky, foul, slimy ectoplasm. It is over you. All over you and the bedclothes.

Your cat is happy and purry.

You have only four hours to clean up the mess and get rid of the smell before going to work.

 
I simply love lancing cat bite abscesses 

[ian]

Both Kitties 1 and 2 often come back from their tours of duty in the Helmand Province of our back garden and nearby rail embankment with assorted scratches and bruises. The white one is purple today, evidently having lost a fight with either (a) an angry, pregnant martian omflug or (b) some blackberries. The jury is out.

I suspect the majority of the damage is from the undergrowth, the embankment gives me 'Nam flashbacks and I've not even been to 'Nam. Occasional scratches from territorial disputes. The little ginger one seems to come off better, but she's a little neutronium-dense ball of fury when riled. Pity the cat that messes with her. It's like they made a cat out of Mr T's spare bits. Ginger spare bits. I think that may be wrong. Scientists, stop it!

Temporary purple kitty did put a large thorn through her eye earlier this year. That was expensive and painful. Kept the vet entertained though, since he got to play vet ER. "Ophthalmology consult, stet!" Still, she's doing her bit to ensure we get value from her insurance policy, and funding the vet's secret Australian veterinarian smuggling pathway. He's shipping them in, apparently far safer for them to practice in a country where the indigenous fauna does something other than aspire to be immediately fatal.