Help please. My cat's cone was too short and he damaged the neuter incision.

tabbytom

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Hi, thank you so much for your reply. There is debris and like cat hair underneath the scab. When I try to remove it it cracks and breaks the scab and damages the area even more. I'm not sure what to do about this.
Any scabs will dry and harden and fall off eventually. Just be careful and touch the area gently and try not to remove anything as not fully dried and hardened scab coming off is painful for the cat and takes a longer time to heal.

If the scabs have fallen off, just continue to apply the ointment and get the saline solution to wash the site. Just do your best to keep it clean and help your cat to heal faster.
 
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Lily Scott

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Any scabs will dry and harden and fall off eventually. Just be careful and touch the area gently and try not to remove anything as not fully dried and hardened scab coming off is painful for the cat and takes a longer time to heal.

If the scabs have fallen off, just continue to apply the ointment and get the saline solution to wash the site. Just do your best to keep it clean and help your cat to heal faster.
I remove everything i csn but everything is dried under the scab I'm afraid
 
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Lily Scott

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Any scabs will dry and harden and fall off eventually. Just be careful and touch the area gently and try not to remove anything as not fully dried and hardened scab coming off is painful for the cat and takes a longer time to heal.

If the scabs have fallen off, just continue to apply the ointment and get the saline solution to wash the site. Just do your best to keep it clean and help your cat to heal faster.
He also constantly scratches open the scab over and over and over again so i don't know what to do about that
 

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oh my goodness! Along with the saline, do you have any chamomile tea? That would be safe to use, and it will ease the itch.
 

tabbytom

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I remove everything i csn but everything is dried under the scab I'm afraid
Keep it dry and don’t worry so much. Your job now is to keep it clean and keep on applying the ointment and also get the saline saline solution to wash the area and hopefully the skin will start to grow and close up.
 

silent meowlook

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Honestly, please trust me on this. Don’t put anything on it and leave it alone for a couple of days. I promise you it will heal if you leave it alone. He is inside. If he scratched a scab off another will form. The ointment will trap bacteria in instead of letting it air out. There are also cases of cats having an anaphylactic reaction to anti bacterial agent in the ointment.

If you have an open wound on your body, which is superficial, it doesn’t mean it will get infected. Cats are super good at healing on their own.

Feral cats are trapped neutered and released the same day. They are ok.
If this was a spay surgery it would be different. This is a very simple procedure that doesn’t involve opening up the abdominal cavity. Two little cuts are made and allowed to heal open.

Is he acting ok otherwise?
 
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Honestly, please trust me on this. Don’t put anything on it and leave it alone for a couple of days. I promise you it will heal if you leave it alone. He is inside. If he scratched a scab off another will form. The ointment will trap bacteria in instead of letting it air out. There are also cases of cats having an anaphylactic reaction to anti bacterial agent in the ointment.

If you have an open wound on your body, which is superficial, it doesn’t mean it will get infected. Cats are super good at healing on their own.

Feral cats are trapped neutered and released the same day. They are ok.
If this was a spay surgery it would be different. This is a very simple procedure that doesn’t involve opening up the abdominal cavity. Two little cuts are made and allowed to heal open.

Is he acting ok otherwise?
Yes he is acting perfectly normal. He is dying to go outside so he is very energetic but otherwise everything normal. But I am a bit confused, what do you mean ointment trap bacteria in the wound? I thought it killed bacteria. Sorry, I'm clueless and know basically nothing about this kind of stuff
 

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Perhaps that is true, but what happens if he continually uses his claws to scratch off scab after scab after scab? There is no guarantee that it won't become infected. If no one is able to keep an eye on him, something covering that area for a few days is hardly a big deal compared to L Lily Scott fretting over it while she is not home.

Do you see a reason not to cover it if she can find something, at least during the hours she is not home?
I have never seen a cat willing to wear a covering over his naughty bits. He will also, if it somehow stays on, wind up soiling it and then maybe it will get infected. I have seen bandages, pants, all sorts of wraps go horribly wrong with cats. I’ve seen nerve damage when they have worked a leg through a wrap and then flipped out. I knew a lady whose cat hung himself on a wrap. Not trying to be doom and gloom but much safer to leave the cat alone.
 

silent meowlook

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Ok. Didn’t have time to read replies. The ointment is not to be used in open wounds. The ointment is in a greasy ointment base and that traps things like bacteria in the wound. Think about how oil repels water. Some cats have a bad reaction to the ointment. Every time you put it on the cat thinks he has to clean it off. The area needs to have air to it and dry up. You don’t need to clean it. Just leave it alone.
If you can put the collar back on him for 24 hours, that would be good. Also play with him to help get that energy out.
 
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Ok. Didn’t have time to read replies. The ointment is not to be used in open wounds. The ointment is in a greasy ointment base and that traps things like bacteria in the wound. Think about how oil repels water. Some cats have a bad reaction to the ointment. Every time you put it on the cat thinks he has to clean it off. The area needs to have air to it and dry up. You don’t need to clean it. Just leave it alone.
If you can put the collar back on him for 24 hours, that would be good. Also play with him to help get that energy out.
Oh, OK. The wound is dried up but covered in debris and I'm scared to remove it in case i damage it and a lot of it is under the scab. Do i just leave it?
 
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Lily Scott

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Can you take another pic? What kind of litter are you using?
Sure. The debris is mostly from him running under the bed where it's dusty and there's cat hair collecting there. We use wooden pine pellet litter. Please let me know if you need another pic
 

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silent meowlook

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I would still leave it alone and let it heal. Ideally you should take him back to the vet, but I understand it’s not up to you.
 
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It is now the next day. This is what it looks like. Does it look like it's healing well?
IMG_20230323_081620.jpg
 
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