My cat has a serious coyote bite wound

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by Corene
(AZ – USA)

My orange tabby was attacked by a coyote or dog a couple of days ago. He was missing and showed up on my doorstep with a serious wound that appears infected.

I have cleansed and bandaged the wound. I’m pushing fluids. Due to money trouble at the moment, I cannot afford to go to a vet.

I am wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to care for him at home.

Corene

Hi Corene…Sorry to hear your story. It seems that your cat is beyond the bleeding stage. That has stopped. Stopping bleeding and preventing infection are the two important things to do.

Your cat has an infected wound. The wound may need further cleaning. I don’t know. Don’t use hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound as it is toxic to tissues.

Your cat needs antibiotic treatment for the infection, which is a bacterial infection. It may be the case that your cat needs to take antibiotic pills and you can apply topical (at the site) antibiotic ointment. You’ll need to get both from a vet but these are not expensive.

Make sure your cat does not lick or bite the wound. Elizabethan collars can help as can bandaging your cat’s feet (to cover the claws). Covering the wound at this stage may make the infection worse. If the wound is draining pus, it is best left open to help drainage.

Infected wounds that are draining pus require the application of “moist sterile compresses’. Topical antiseptics are effective “in treating superficial wound infections”. Your cat’s wound seems to be more serious than superficial however.

Topical antiseptics include: Betadine, Funacin, I percent Silvadene cream and triple antibiotic creams. Apply the topical antibiotic cream direct to the wound. You cat will feel pain so restraint is required – common sense.

The dressing should be changed 2x per day.

It may be that there is dying tissue at the site of the wound. This needs to be removed. You can read about Sealy a cat who had his left ear chopped off by a car fan blade. The story by Elisa may provide some tips. There is more than one page so go to the home page and use the search box to search for “sealy fan blade” (or read this). Removing dying or dead tissue requires a vet really as you have to tell the difference between living and dead tissue.

The last issue is whether the wound should be closed. This can only really be decided by a vet. But if it is infected it should not close in my opinion as it needs to drain and be treated. Closing an infected wound will make things worse. If the tissue is clean and uninfected then it can close.

I will ask Elisa to comment as she has first-hand experience in dealing with open wound injuries.

This sort of injury can be life threatening due to infection I would think. Antibiotic treatment must be the first call and a vet is really the only person to provide best advice.

But the best of luck to you both.

Source: Cat Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook

Comments for
My cat has a serious coyote bite wound

Apr 05, 2012So sorry for your loss
by: Ruth (Monty’s Mom) Corene, I’m so sad to hear of your precious kitty’s passing. Ellisa wrote an article about infections in cats, probably inspired in part by your post, so perhaps other cats will be helped by it, and your loss will not be for nothing.

My mother won’t have cats anymore either, because she said it is just too sad when they die. I guess it’s a risk we take in life. You can’t have the joy of relationships without also accepting the reality of grief and loss. Every relationship will eventually involve a parting unless you are lucky enough to die together. How often does that happen? Once in awhile a cat will outlive his human, but it’s usually the other way around.

You shouldn’t blame yourself for what happened, because hindsight is always 20/20. We had a cat get a bad, infected bite on his paw when I was a kid and it healed up fine. I can’t even remember if we took him to the vet or not. You just never know, and we never would have thought in a million years that a tiny wound on his paw could have been fatal. Of course, it very easily could have been, but we were lucky.

You could foster a cat or cats. Some places will cover medical care while you are fostering and others will even give you help buying food. This gets a cat out of a shelter and buys him some time until a suitable home can be found.

Apr 04, 2012update
by: corene I was able to contact a retired vet who graceously made a home visit. unfortunately, my beloved pet had a seizure and passed away 10 minutes before she arrived. I want to thank all of you for your advise and concern. Littleman will be missed terribly. It is most unfortunate when pet bills are too high to save an animals life. I will rethink any decision I make in the future about owning another pet. It hurts to much to watch them die. Again, you folks were a great comfort to me and I thank you.
Apr 04, 2012update
by: corene I was able to contact a retired vet who graceously made a home visit. unfortunately, my beloved pet had a seizure and passed away 10 minutes before she arrived. I want to thank all of you for your advise and concern. Littleman will be missed terribly. It is most unfortunate when pet bills are too high to save an animals life. I will rethink any decision I make in the future about owning another pet. It hurts to much to watch them die. Again, you folks were a great comfort to me and I thank you.
Apr 03, 2012Elisa says
by: Michael Elisa says this:

“Can you tell her I will write this afternoon at work. But tell her she needs to ask a vet for doxycycline. Its around $8 per dozen. Tell her to get 100mg and give half a pill daily. I don’t have a good signal on phone right now. And tell her if vet won’t sell it to her to go to pet store and get tetracycline or amoxcillan and look up dosage online. Its in fish department.”

She will hopefully have time to comment later on.

Apr 02, 2012Please see a vet somehow
by: Ruth Corene please try to borrow the money to take your cat to the vets as she needs antibiotics and possibly a steroid injection too for the inflammation. She will become very ill if the infection reaches her bloodstream.
If she is off her food this is very urgent.
She could die !
At the very least if you delay she would need a longer course of treatment than she would need now which will of course cost you a lot more in the long run.
I’m a retired vet nurse and her wound sounds to me too serious for home treatment.

Kattaddorra signature Ruth

Apr 02, 2012SOME ADVICE
by: Kathy W I have problems with my cats fighting sometimes and I too cant afford a vet for every little bite wound. I have found a wonderful wound topical cream called ZYMOX. I purchased this at my friends pet shop. It cleans the woulnds right up. Ive had them get infected a leak some very smelly pussy stuff but when I apply the zymox it heals right up. It also aids in the treatment of skin infections, hot pots and wounds. It is Antimicrobial and inflammation relief. It is made by Pet King Brands, Inc. Westmont, Ill. They have a web site at www.petkingbrands.com. I really think it would help with your bite wound, depending on how long he has the wound.
Apr 02, 2012thank you
by: corene thank you michael, my cat has made it through the night and seems to be breathing easier. he has gotten up serveral times now to drink water on his own and his nose is now moist. i think his chances of survival have improved. he has yet to eat anything and i think later this morning i will try some chicken broth. i never thought about putting the silvadine cream on the wound but by the grace of god i have a bottle of it. i will be contacting my vet by phone today to get her advise. he is a very strong willed cat, and i love him very much.
Apr 02, 2012Your cats life hangs in the balance
by: Ruth (Monty’s Mom) Your cat is in danger to the point that even under a vet’s care no one can promise you a good outcome. Infections can very easily go systemic and overwhelm a cat’s little body. I’m reminded of a cat I wrote a song about– Simon the SeaCat– a cat from the 1940’s who “served” on a naval vessel. He was wounded in an attack on the ship, but seemed to completely recover only to die later from massive infection that was deep in his body and not detected until it was too late. Elisa is caring for a cat with an infection right now. Another cat wounded in the same incident with a car fan blade died from massive infection. These are two examples, and I’m sure other readers can provide more sad stories. Please don’t let your cat become the subject of another sad story. If you can’t afford vet care you can do an online Chipin. Elisa does them for her cats and many readers here and those who follow her on Facebook have contributed. I know it’s hard to swallow your pride and ask for help, but your cat’s life depends on it. You don’t have the training to tackle wound debridement, nor do you have access to antibiotics. Without those things the odds are unfortunately very much against your cat in this case. For some reason, maybe that their bodies are smaller, cats seem to be more prone to infections going systemic and being fatal than humans are. But it can happen to people as well. If I had a deep wound that was infected, I’d get to the doctor stat and worry about how to pay the bill later. Your cat deserves the same consideration.

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