What is "excessive" licking?

[dr_scholl]

After living on our front porch for a week and refusing to leave, we've taken in a stray. We've looked for his original humans, but the signs we put up, the ads on Craig's List and other local "lost/found  pets" places gave us no leads, and so now we have in the house the sweetest black 1-year-old boy I've ever met

Comments

[redheadforever]

Does he seem otherwise ok? Unless he's brewing something yet unmanifested, he seems just fine for a cat with a healing wound. Your cat's keeping the site clean, soothing the area (cat saliva is very good for both) and grooming. Not all vets use stitches any longer; is the patient trying to pull his out if they're there? No? Sounds like your new lad will be fine. The Elizabethan collar is for wound chewers who threaten to rip stitches or savage healing sites. One more thing: he may be wondering where everything went and reassuring himself nothing else is different when he wakes up.

Thank you for adopting and sterilizing! Get used to and enjoy your new family member -- they all, including humans, on occasion start out for the bathroom and decide they really don't need to make that pit stop after all...

[dantesmom]

I think if the skin looks okay, you don't have to worry. If his skin is starting to look raw or irritated (like, friction burn) then you might want to go the cone route for a couple of days.

[dr_scholl]

Thanks guys. I can see the incision still this morning, but nothing else in the area looks overly raw. He's acting GREAT, except for the licking and the tail flopping. But the tail flopping happens at the same time as he's purring, so I think it's just discomfort.

Still not 100% sure we're keeping him. We'll have to see...

[themachinestops]

Our cat Macro (the only one who didn't come to us fixed) licked at her spay site for like a week afterwards. She was "glued" shut, not stitched, which could be what they did to your black cat if you can't see any stitches. It didn't cause any problems, and I'm sure he's fine too as long as there's not any bleeding or super redness. Think of it this way: when you get a cut, don't you kind of want to pick at it? Isn't it only your knowledge of infection and scarring that keeps you from doing it? Knowledge a cat wouldn't have. E-collars are cheap at Petco but honestly that would probably upset him way more than being left to his own devices.

We also have a cat who enjoys hanging in the litterbox, especially when it's freshly cleaned with new litter. He's an older male so I say he's just doing what old men like to do. So yeah, I think this is "normal" (for a cat) behavior too. :)

[makale_83]

Sounds like he could have a UTI? Also he definitely shouldn't be licking the incisions until they have closed up all the way.