Infection
Two days ago I was holding our cat, Sarah. Sebastian asked me to pass her to him, so I did - but not carefully enough. She pierced him in the shoulder with one of her hind claws. It was a small deep piercing rather than a scratch.
He screamed. The clawed spot instantly turned black and looked bruised. Teri took him into the bathroom, wiped the spot down with a baby wipe, put antibacterial ointment on the scratch, and put a Spongebob Squarepants band-aid on it.
Last night she took off the band-aid. The entire area where the band-aid had been stuck was bright red and splotchy. The injury itself was clearly infected; he had a perfectly round spot about the size of a dime that had turned darkish and swollen.
After a bit of arguing (Teri sometimes seems to think that I don't know what I'm talking about) I used some hydrogen peroxide on the infection. A small scab had formed, but after several applications the scab dissolved, and the peroxide foamed up quite a bit. Sebastian was very scared, but relieved that the peroxide didn't really hurt. I kept applying peroxide until it stopped foaming.
As far as I could tell, the peroxide had affected the center of the infection; a spot in the center about the size of a large pencil eraser had visibly improved. The swelling basically disappeared. But there's still a circle around the perimeter that's dark and infected. My guess is that the peroxide couldn't penetrate that far under the skin from the central entry point.
We're going to check it again tonight. If it's not visibly better, we'll call his doctor; he may need antibiotics. I'm hoping we can avoid the necessity of having it lanced, since that would scare him very much. But unless it's swollen again, I don't think lancing will be necessary.
As for the band-aid, I checked the packaging. Sure enough, it was a latex bandage. I don't know that Sebastian is allergic to latex, but it seemed a reasonable possibility. So I put on antibacterial ointment, got a sheer latex-free band-aid (without Spongebob, but that's life), and put it on perpendicular to the orientation of the original band-aid. If he has a reaction to this one, he'll end up with a red plus-sign on his shoulder.
He screamed. The clawed spot instantly turned black and looked bruised. Teri took him into the bathroom, wiped the spot down with a baby wipe, put antibacterial ointment on the scratch, and put a Spongebob Squarepants band-aid on it.
Last night she took off the band-aid. The entire area where the band-aid had been stuck was bright red and splotchy. The injury itself was clearly infected; he had a perfectly round spot about the size of a dime that had turned darkish and swollen.
After a bit of arguing (Teri sometimes seems to think that I don't know what I'm talking about) I used some hydrogen peroxide on the infection. A small scab had formed, but after several applications the scab dissolved, and the peroxide foamed up quite a bit. Sebastian was very scared, but relieved that the peroxide didn't really hurt. I kept applying peroxide until it stopped foaming.
As far as I could tell, the peroxide had affected the center of the infection; a spot in the center about the size of a large pencil eraser had visibly improved. The swelling basically disappeared. But there's still a circle around the perimeter that's dark and infected. My guess is that the peroxide couldn't penetrate that far under the skin from the central entry point.
We're going to check it again tonight. If it's not visibly better, we'll call his doctor; he may need antibiotics. I'm hoping we can avoid the necessity of having it lanced, since that would scare him very much. But unless it's swollen again, I don't think lancing will be necessary.
As for the band-aid, I checked the packaging. Sure enough, it was a latex bandage. I don't know that Sebastian is allergic to latex, but it seemed a reasonable possibility. So I put on antibacterial ointment, got a sheer latex-free band-aid (without Spongebob, but that's life), and put it on perpendicular to the orientation of the original band-aid. If he has a reaction to this one, he'll end up with a red plus-sign on his shoulder.