am I awful

meritaten

I wouldn't use soil from the garden unless it was sterilised - not with an open wound.
another option would be to use the shredder (if you have one) to shred paper.
what kind of litter are you using pukkamum? Fullers earth? because if so although it is 'bitty' it will be clean and is actually healing for wounds. (Fullers earth in a ground state was widely used for poultices and nappy rash in the early 1900s)

calicocat

I went back 3 times to the vets with mine (possibly as it was mahoosive poor thing), but I think I would have done anyway without their say so to make sure with them being open woulds that it's healing right. Having said that she will clean it a lot herself you know, and I assume she had an antibiotic injections etc too.

If it's like with mine she will be loads better within a couple of days.

The info about the fullers earth cat litter is interesting, I didn't know that, so will use it if I ever find myself with a cat with a poorly leg.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Keep bathing her paw with salt water; boil water in the kettle, put in cup, add salt (I used sea salt because it was all I had) until it won't dissolve any more, allow to cool to warm. Use a clean cloth or cotton wool every time.

It's how I dealt with the old boy's head abscess. It took a good while, as the teeny hole on the top of his head hid nastiness lurking all the way underneath to the back of his ears and the orbital bones. He was on antibiotics, but I still had to bathe it, remove the sticky bits of fur and every so gently ensure it stayed open so I could stroke the muck up and out.

I'm not suggesting you do that bit; that was advice from the vet as it had spread so extensively; but bathing it helps a lot.

And if you don't know already from the bursting - be prepared for a smell like no other, although it might not be so bad now she's had it treated.


PS the old boy would wail and scream all the way there, all the time in the waiting room - but when he had to stay overnight, he was perfectly calm and an absolute sweetie to the guy who was the nurse in charge of the cat block. Cats can be very pragmatic; all the time you're there it's 'mummy mummy MUMMY!' And then you go and they almost shrug their shoulders and get on with it.

meritaten

How is she pukkamum?