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Conference misery::feline_v1

Title:	Meower Power is Valuing Differences
Notice:	FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY
Moderator:	MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO

Created:	Sun Feb 09 1986
Last Modified:	Tue Jan 11 1994
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5089
Total number of notes:	60366

34.0. "abcesses" by ADVAX::C_WAY () Mon Aug 27 1984 12:32

One of our cats, Bandit, came down with a nasty abcess. He had to go to the
vets for three days, where they stuck this tube in him to drain out all the
nastiness. He must have been quite ill, because his temperature took almost
the whole three days to drop back to normal. According to the vet, when they
drain an abcess, temperature usually falls right away. He seems to be o.k.
now, though.

I have two questions:
  1- What causes abcesses? Can anything be done to prevent them?

  2- When the vet put the tube in, he made two incisions about three inches
     apart, stuck the tube in one side and out the other, and sutured cuts
     up against the tube. However, when he took the tube out, he did not
     suture the rest of the cut. So Bandit still has two good-sized gashes
     on his stomach that are just open to the air. Is this standard
     procedure? Leaving open cuts like that really rubs me the wrong way. Or
     did the vet screw up?

Charlie

T.R	Title	User	Date	Lines
34.1		ELUDOM::FAIMAN	`Mon Aug 27 1984 13:28`	15
	Many years ago, our Thlay Roo had an abcess. The explanation, as I understood it, is that cat skin is much "looser" than human skin, so a puncture wound (like a cat bite) tends to produce an infection between the skin and the tissue underneath. Because of all the free space, this fills up with pus and becomes the abcess. Naturally, the essence of the treatment. is to drain the infected area. (I think that in Thlay's case, the vet actually inserted hydrogen peroxide under the skin to clean it out!!!) But anyways, I wouldn't be surprised if they want to leave the incisions open to keep it from getting inflamed again before the infection is 100% gone. (But I don't know what standard procedure is -- why don't you give your vet a call and check?) -Neil
34.2		RAVEN1::HOLLABAUGH	`Wed Aug 29 1984 14:02`	4
	I used to work for a vet and I helped with several abcesses. When the tube was removed, the cuts were always left open. tlh
34.3		ELUDOM::WINALSKI	`Sat Sep 01 1984 19:08`	19
	Abscesses are bacterial infections in or under the skin. Cats tend to get them because they don't immediately wash out wounds with clean water and apply tincture of merthiolate or antibiotics when they get a cut the way people do. The two most common kinds of wounds are scratches and bites from fighting (these mostly appear on the stomach) and self-inflicted scratches from ear mites (these abscesses occur behind the ears). The treatment is to drain the pus from the wound, which involves exposing the abscess to air and squeezing the pus out (for small abscesses) or inserting a drain (for large ones). After draining the abscess, you clean out the wound and disinfect it (this is where the hydrogen peroxide comes in). Then you allow it to heal. The cuts are left unsutured so that any remaining pus or foreign matter in the wound can continue to drain and be exposed to oxygen (which kills off anaerobic bacteria). If the vet sutured all the incisions, then the abscess might just re-form. --PSW