my cat has a bite wound to his right side, its slightly raised but is clean and i think is starting to heal, but i am still worried about it, my parents wont take him to the vet, any advice?
Buy a bottle of peroxide and dab some on his wound. I work at a cattery so I know for a fact that this works great
take him to the vet anyway. my cat had the same thing, and a year and a half later, was dead of feline lukemia that she contracted through the bite wounds.
Vet is the best bet. Who knows what the other cat had, what is more important is getting it treated professionally. Not treating it now could cause some very expensive procedures later on.
I totally agree with the other posters. First of all, your cat needs a rabies booster shot, just in case. The vet needs to ascertain the depth and dimensions of the wound, as well as clean it out properly to help prevent infection and remove any dead tissue so that it can properly heal. If it is big enough, they may need to place a drain to make sure that no fluids are collecting. As a vet tech, I can tell you that some very serious complications can arise from bite wounds. Some wounds may heal on their own, but the odds against it are high. You should DEFINITELY take the cat to the vet ASAP.
Well, keep in mind that the bite has to have been from another cat for there to be a chance of that, since Feline Leukemia Virus is only spread between cats. Even then, in a large amount of cases it is not fatal, and subside without treatment. However, if the cat is immunocompromised (i.e on prednisone for allergies), the chance of the virus spreading to the bone marrow (and becoming untreatable, unless you want to convince the Vet to irradiate your cat's skeleton and find a donor cat for a marrow transplant, which if the sarcasm wasn't obvious, none would do ) is greatly increased. To be honest, unless your cat seems sick and/or the wound does not appear to be healing/appears infected (i.e pus being secreted, the wound is swollen, etc), your cat's probably fine, especially if the bite was received from an animal you known to be free of disease (i.e another of your pets, or a neighbours pet). If the bite was received from a wild animal/stray cat/dog, AND your cat hasn't been vaccinated for the common diseases (rabies especially), then you should go to the vet.
i think he got into a fight with the local devil cat in our area, a siamese cat. its much bigger than him despite the fact that my cat is only four and has stayed the size of about an eight month old kitten
Do you know the owner of the cat? Do you regularly see the cat, and does it appear sick? You may want to get your cat tested for rabies, though if it's been more than a week since this happened, the rabies will likely be incurable unfortunately, however if your cat received it's vaccination shots before/when you got it, it should be fine in regards rabies and a few other bad diseases. If you don't know the long-term condition of the cat that bit yours, I'd bring your cat to the vet for a checkup. Couldn't hurt.
thought id let you all know, my cats wound has started to heal even better now, its just a slightly raised scab now
It should be fine. In the future, when you find an open cut on your cat clean it with hydrogen peroxide and then put something like polysporin on it (or a stronger cream if you've got it). You can keep applying cream every day, but don't use the peroxide after the first time unless it gets infected, as it will also kill healthy healing cell growth. For everyone saying "take it to the vet", that's not always an option, and an answer that I find really frustrating when I need pet medical help. I'm an unemployed student with a dog and a kitten--I can't afford to take them to the vet unless they're going to die without (in which case I still can't afford it, but I'll make it work). The OP is a teenager, her parents' decision is final.
exactly! my dad has had cats since his early childhood and he knows if its serious i get worried easily especially about all of my pets, he was fine in himself he was eating drinking moving and seeping normally so it wasnt awful par say but he's my baby. we cant always afford to pay the high vet bills