About a week ago, Maura showed up for dinner without his collar. I scanned him for injuries, but didn’t see anything. I put a new collar on him and forgot about it.
Until two days ago, when I noticed a scabby bit on his back. It was matted with hair and hard to see what was going on under there. I gooped him up good with antibiotic cream. That will usually head off any infections.
But the infection was already imbedded. Yesterday the hidden abscess burst. Ouch. Not hidden any more, I took him to the vet.
It was deep, a vortex drilled into his body, and he needed stitches. Surgery happened While U Wait. In an hour he was back in the car with me, still unhappy and in pain but pumped full of antibiotics and stitched up to heal.
Like every cat I’ve ever known, Maura hates bandages. Within an hour his bandage and its hand-tied cover it had shifted off the wound. I adjusted it and covered him with Fritter’s purple harness.
That lasted til about 2:30 this morning, when I found him playing contortionist. I don’t quite know how he managed to get the harness twisted around him the way he did. Maybe I was dreaming it. I removed the harness, leaving the dressing and its simple wrap in place. I hoped he’d sleep so that I could, but nope. By 4:30 he was requesting breakfast and padding around the house with the dressing flapping off.
I used my first aid training and my dressmaking draping skills to put a fresh dressing on and to secure it. Unfortunately, my knowledge of cat anatomy isn’t great and he was pretty squirmy as I took care of him. It may be a bit too tight. I’ve impinged his shoulders, but he is able to walk and jump, even if finding a comfy resting pose is a challenge.
I think this “backpack” style bandage is the best option for keeping the dressing in place. He gets his stitches out in 10 days. I am sure I will be rewrapping this a few more times. Next time, a touch looser if he doesn’t wiggle while I work.
