Cat health

[Emily_2019]

Can someone tell me what they think this is on my poor baby?
I’ve took him to the vet but she doesn’t seem to know what it is & wants to run a few tests on him but I’m anxious & wanna know what others think it may be!?
He’s an outside cat so it’s hard telling what he’s gotten into but my family thinks it’s a snake bite.

 

[tabbytom]

Can someone tell me what they think this is on my poor baby?
I’ve took him to the vet but she doesn’t seem to know what it is & wants to run a few tests on him but I’m anxious & wanna know what others think it may be!?
He’s an outside cat so it’s hard telling what he’s gotten into but my family thinks it’s a snake bite.

Oh poor baby.

We can't tell what it is nor know what did this to your cat. Can you bring him to another vet ASAP?

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. Please keep him inside. Find another veterinarian ASAP. If he was my cat I would go to the ER or an urgent care facility. This is a serious wound that needs immediate care. If you have other outdoor cats keep them inside for now until you figure this out.

 

[vampiric_conure]

Yeeeek! Hope you can find out what's wrong! Looks painful :O

 

[Meowmee]

Can someone tell me what they think this is on my poor baby?
I’ve took him to the vet but she doesn’t seem to know what it is & wants to run a few tests on him but I’m anxious & wanna know what others think it may be!?
He’s an outside cat so it’s hard telling what he’s gotten into but my family thinks it’s a snake bite.

Yikes! It looks like a big abscess that broke open to me, but I’m not sure, which could be from any type of bite or scratch which became infected. Did she give him antibiotics, etc. has she run tests? I assume they did otherwise I would go to the ER if not.

Abscesses look very alarming, especially when they break open. And they need to be treated- sometimes you need to put drainage holes in them. But sometimes they will heal very rapidly. It’s amazing to see the huge gaping wound close up so rapidly.

 

[Kwik]

Hi. Please keep him inside. Find another veterinarian ASAP. If he was my cat I would go to the ER or an urgent care facility. This is a serious wound that needs immediate care. If you have other outdoor cats keep them inside for now until you figure this out.

E emily - I agree with above 100%

 

[fionasmom]

If it is the bite of anything like a recluse spider, the wound has degraded substantially and need medical care.

 

[Emily_2019]

Yikes! It looks like a big abscess that broke open to me, but I’m not sure, which could be from any type of bite or scratch which became infected. Did she give him antibiotics, etc. has she run tests? I assume they did otherwise I would go to the ER if not.

Abscesses look very alarming, especially when they break open. And they need to be treated- sometimes you need to put drainage holes in them. But sometimes they will heal very rapidly. It’s amazing to see the huge gaping wound close up so rapidly.

Yes, she gave him an antibiotic shot & done a culture test on him for ringworm, she said results take about 10 days or less. I’ve also been putting some antibiotic solution on it twice a day, it’s looking a lot better from the day I took that picture

 

[xenonentity]

If it is the bite of anything like a recluse spider, the wound has degraded substantially and need medical care.

While I completely agree that that wound needs immediate medical care, I can almost guarantee it's not from a spider. Spider venom utilizes a lot of energy for them to make, so in anything other than a life or death situation, it's wasteful for them to use it on large mammals rather than their prey. If this wound was on the face or paws, I'd give the theory a bit more credence, but a bite to the back of the neck just doesn't make sense from the perspective of the spider. The only two situations I could think of, with effort, are if the cat had a collar and the spider somehow got trapped between the neck and the collar (which seems horribly unlikely), or if the cat was laying on its back and pinned a spider below it (technically possible, but again, it would be quite a coincidence).

Most "recluse bites" are misdiagnosed necrosis from things like MRSA; lots of doctors misunderstand spiders and their venom, and as such they get the blame for bites that didn't happen. Of course, it IS possible to be bitten by medically significant spiders; it's just much rarer than people are led to believe. Brown recluse in particular are, well, reclusive - they are very shy spiders, living in the shadows and utilizing speed to hunt their prey and avoid detection. They're extremely skittish, and really the only instance where a bite is likely is if the spider was trapped between your skin and another surface (such as the inside of your jacket sleeve or shoe).

E Emily_2019 Were you able to get an answer from the vet? Is your baby okay?

As for a snake bite, I don't see any signs that would point to that - there's no bite marks, for one. A burst abscess as mentioned above might make a wound like that, or a burn that's gone raw came to mind, though I think some of the grotesqueness is likely due to infection and / or necrosis rather than the original injury.

 

[Meowmee]

Yes, she gave him an antibiotic shot & done a culture test on him for ringworm, she said results take about 10 days or less. I’ve also been putting some antibiotic solution on it twice a day, it’s looking a lot better from the day I took that picture

I am glad it is better now maybe post us an update pic. It sounds like your cat was given convenia, and I don’t want to alarm you but that can cause terrible skin reactions even though it’s supposed to be for skin infections so, just keep an eye on that. I hope that he continues to recover well and they figure out a possible cause for this. I hope he’s not in pain from that. It looks really awful.

 

[Kwik]

While I completely agree that that wound needs immediate medical care, I can almost guarantee it's not from a spider. Spider venom utilizes a lot of energy for them to make, so in anything other than a life or death situation, it's wasteful for them to use it on large mammals rather than their prey. If this wound was on the face or paws, I'd give the theory a bit more credence, but a bite to the back of the neck just doesn't make sense from the perspective of the spider. The only two situations I could think of, with effort, are if the cat had a collar and the spider somehow got trapped between the neck and the collar (which seems horribly unlikely), or if the cat was laying on its back and pinned a spider below it (technically possible, but again, it would be quite a coincidence).

Most "recluse bites" are misdiagnosed necrosis from things like MRSA; lots of doctors misunderstand spiders and their venom, and as such they get the blame for bites that didn't happen. Of course, it IS possible to be bitten by medically significant spiders; it's just much rarer than people are led to believe. Brown recluse in particular are, well, reclusive - they are very shy spiders, living in the shadows and utilizing speed to hunt their prey and avoid detection. They're extremely skittish, and really the only instance where a bite is likely is if the spider was trapped between your skin and another surface (such as the inside of your jacket sleeve or shoe).

E Emily_2019 Were you able to get an answer from the vet? Is your baby okay?

As for a snake bite, I don't see any signs that would point to that - there's no bite marks, for one. A burst abscess as mentioned above might make a wound like that, or a burn that's gone raw came to mind, though I think some of the grotesqueness is likely due to infection and / or necrosis rather than the original injury.

I don't even like to hear " brown recluse" lol after have being bitten and grateful I was taken to the ER in time and so Blessed it was recognized accurately ( long story) but the reason I'm commenting is though it looks very similar to a necrotic lesion from a recluse bite I think it's unlikely but stranger things have happened so cannot be counted out so glad she's taken a culture and thats it's being addressed

E emily good to hear you are seeing improvement - do keep us updated with the results and your boys progress

What's is his name? Can we see a photo of him- we only got to see the poor boys boo boo

 

[silent meowlook]

He would have to be in pain with that wound. I hope he has some medication prescribed for pain.
Have you felt everywhere on him looking for additional wounds?
Have you looked at his toenails to see if they are shredded?
Are you sure the vet said checking for ringworm? Or did she send a culture and sensitivity to the lab?

It is hard to tell how deep it is from the picture.

It doesn’t look like a spider bite or a snake bite to me.

I have only seen one brown recluse bite on a yellow lab and it was very necrotic and continued to spread. It didn’t look at all like this.

The Black Widow bites I have seen have a very necrotic center to them and also don’t look like this.

The snake bites I have seen were rattlesnake bites and they start out very swollen. That would be a very unlikely place for a cat to get bit.

I have seen animal bites look somewhat similar, but usually it is puncture wounds that go unnoticed and get infected leading to swelling and hair loss and eventually rupturing, but not that big unless it was a big bite from a dog or something else. In that case, usually there would be another set of punctures near by.

I have seen severe food allergies show up in this area, but usually it is in more than one spot and you can see scratches on the skin from the cat scratching. I don’t see that here, another sign that it is painful.

I have seen car fan belt injuries look many different ways.

Then, of course there are so many other things that can be done to cats by people, or people’s equipment.

Can you post a current picture of it?
How does he seem to be doing otherwise?

 

[Kwik]

He would have to be in pain with that wound. I hope he has some medication prescribed for pain.
Have you felt everywhere on him looking for additional wounds?
Have you looked at his toenails to see if they are shredded?
Are you sure the vet said checking for ringworm? Or did she send a culture and sensitivity to the lab?

It is hard to tell how deep it is from the picture.

It doesn’t look like a spider bite or a snake bite to me.

I have only seen one brown recluse bite on a yellow lab and it was very necrotic and continued to spread. It didn’t look at all like this.

The Black Widow bites I have seen have a very necrotic center to them and also don’t look like this.

The snake bites I have seen were rattlesnake bites and they start out very swollen. That would be a very unlikely place for a cat to get bit.

I have seen animal bites look somewhat similar, but usually it is puncture wounds that go unnoticed and get infected leading to swelling and hair loss and eventually rupturing, but not that big unless it was a big bite from a dog or something else. In that case, usually there would be another set of punctures near by.

I have seen severe food allergies show up in this area, but usually it is in more than one spot and you can see scratches on the skin from the cat scratching. I don’t see that here, another sign that it is painful.

I have seen car fan belt injuries look many different ways.

Then, of course there are so many other things that can be done to cats by people, or people’s equipment.

Can you post a current picture of it?
How does he seem to be doing otherwise?

First thing I thought of was a burn from a hot exhaust pipe underneath a car..... it's something I've seen on the backs of critters crawling undercars and up into engine compartments etc.....It does look like a burn wound after blistering,I had one just like it on my own leg from a motorcycle..... boy thst was bad,wearing shorts!

 

[Meowmee]

Yes, she gave him an antibiotic shot & done a culture test on him for ringworm, she said results take about 10 days or less. I’ve also been putting some antibiotic solution on it twice a day, it’s looking a lot better from the day I took that picture

Here is a cool video on a dvm popping a cat abscess, kinda gross though too, poor kitty.

I remember once Wizard had a very large abscess right around the same place your kitty has whatever is going on with him. I took him to DVM as I recall, and they put him on the oral antibiotic because it didn’t seem really bad, but I also tried some homeopathic remedies too. And then all of a sudden it burst open, I don’t know why they didn’t drain it. I guess it didn’t look like it was that big at the time maybe. But it was so horrific looking, such a big hole and then within like a day or two it was gone and healed so fast. His did not have a black area like your cat seems to have.

They had also told me to put hot compresses on it. I think and saltwater saline solution which I did and that’s probably why it eventually burst open. Most of my other cats when they had an abscess were treated at dvm, by popping/ draining it, and then sent home to recover. They put some drainage in if it was needed. Byron, when I took him in from outside, had a group of abscesses on his rear end and he had to have drainage holes put in.

The pain was not bad because once a large abscess is drained or bursts, it doesn’t hurt as much anymore, but they probably used some topical anesthetic, etc. to do the abscess treatment I’m sure. The kitty in this video was very tolerant, poor baby. The dvm said he needs some buprenex I think so hopefully they gave him some. I’m guessing Byron probably got a shot of a painkiller before they sent him home maybe, I don’t remember because it was years ago.

 

[Emily_2019]

While I completely agree that that wound needs immediate medical care, I can almost guarantee it's not from a spider. Spider venom utilizes a lot of energy for them to make, so in anything other than a life or death situation, it's wasteful for them to use it on large mammals rather than their prey. If this wound was on the face or paws, I'd give the theory a bit more credence, but a bite to the back of the neck just doesn't make sense from the perspective of the spider. The only two situations I could think of, with effort, are if the cat had a collar and the spider somehow got trapped between the neck and the collar (which seems horribly unlikely), or if the cat was laying on its back and pinned a spider below it (technically possible, but again, it would be quite a coincidence).

Most "recluse bites" are misdiagnosed necrosis from things like MRSA; lots of doctors misunderstand spiders and their venom, and as such they get the blame for bites that didn't happen. Of course, it IS possible to be bitten by medically significant spiders; it's just much rarer than people are led to believe. Brown recluse in particular are, well, reclusive - they are very shy spiders, living in the shadows and utilizing speed to hunt their prey and avoid detection. They're extremely skittish, and really the only instance where a bite is likely is if the spider was trapped between your skin and another surface (such as the inside of your jacket sleeve or shoe).

E Emily_2019 Were you able to get an answer from the vet? Is your baby okay?

As for a snake bite, I don't see any signs that would point to that - there's no bite marks, for one. A burst abscess as mentioned above might make a wound like that, or a burn that's gone raw came to mind, though I think some of the grotesqueness is likely due to infection and / or necrosis rather than the original injury.

No, I haven’t received any answers from the vet yet, we’re still waiting, it’s only been a few days & it takes up to 10 days to get any results back. I will post as we go & keep y’all updated!
thanks for all the help & suggestions!