Did your cat get into a fight? Did you notice your cat has an abscess and are you looking for a home remedy?
What is an abscess?
An abscess is a swollen, red, and painful area on your cat’s body. It is caused mainly by a fight between cats or with other animals. Sometimes you can even see the teeth signs and if some days have passed you might see pus coming out. Pus is an accumulation of bacteria and inflammatory cells. You see, cats have lots of bacteria in their mouth, and when they bite, those bacteria multiply in the victim’s bite area. Normally the wound gets infected, it swells, and eventually exèplodes to drain out all the pus. That is really painful for your cat so if you see a swollen area on your cat’s face or body just take him immediately to the vet. He will have it drained and disinfected. If however, it is already open you can disinfect it yourself, with some home remedies.
What to do?
The first thing you need to do is keep the area clean. If you can, and your cat lets you, try to trim the area so the hair gets out of the way and avoid further infection. After that, you need to clean it well. Use plenty of water or a physiological solution is better. Get all the dirt, hairs, and debris out of the wound. Then. wash it with chlorhexidine soap, do that twice a day for a few days. The wound needs to stay open so all the pus can drain. So make sure you rub well the area.
What if my cat licks the wound?
That’s fine in the first few days. Your cat’s saliva has antibacterial properties so that can actually help. The problem is later when we want the wound to heal and close. If he continues licking himself even after the infection is gone just use an Elizabethan collar for a few days.
Herbal remedy for your cat’s abcsess
After you have cleaned and disinfected the wound, it’s best if you continue the therapy with some topical antibiotics to stop the infection. One way to do that is with herbal medicine. There are different plants you can use. One of the is Hydrastis canadensis (Goldenseal). You can find a tincture at the pharmacy or herbalist shop.
Goldenseal tincture
Hydrastis Canadensis is a plant that grows mainly in North America. It’s a green leaf with a single red fruit in the middle, which is not edible! It was always used as a cure-all remedy. Today it is mainly used topically as an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory remedy for wounds. Apply a few drops of the tincture on the wound, twice daily for 6days.
Another home remedy- Honey
Honey is also great for wound healing and has antibacterial properties. So you can use also that for your cat’s abscess. Just make sure it’s unpasteurized, dark, quality honey, that’s important.
Be aware of general symptoms!
If however, you notice your cat is being himself lately, he’s not eating as much, lethargic, take him immediately to the vet. Sometimes with infected wounds, if they are not treated the bacteria can spread through the body. In that case, don’t take a risk and bring him to the vet, he might need antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicines.
Also, don’t just use any medicine or tincture you would use for yourself, some are not suitable for cats.
Hope that helped, and if you have any questions I will be more than happy to help 🙂
