Recently trapped feral Civvie - odd wounds

Discussion in 'Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)' started by Gina & Yittle (GA), Aug 18, 2010.

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  1. Gina & Yittle (GA)

    Gina & Yittle (GA) Member

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2009
    I'm currently working on socializing a recently trapped approximately 1 year old (we think) male civvie cat that we've named Kerry. I'll skip all of the details about the socialization and the minor custody battle over him between my mother and I.

    He's got these odd open sores/wounds/lesions on him. We trapped him the first week of July, and it took us until the end of July to get our hands on him for more then a moment and get a really good look at him. He's FIV/FLK negative, he's been vaccinated, been treated with flea/tick and parasite medicine and has since had a negative fecal parasite test. At the end of July/early August we noticed that he had these 2 dime-sized open sores in what you could call his armpits. To me, they looked like hot spots, and since up until recently he's spent all of his time imitating a little kitty salami on the window sill seat in his private quarantine room I figured thats what they probably were. Still, since he had only been trapped about 5 weeks at that point we took him to the vet and got a ringworm culture test done and they gave us some spray to put on the sores twice a day. The results of the test should be back by the end of this week. However, he's now developed 2 more dime-sized spots, one on his belly above his "boy bits" and the other on a rear leg. These are also spots that are underneath him when he sits on the ledge and could be hot spots but I'm getting suspicious. If the ringworm test comes back negative we are of course marching him right back to the vet for another look.

    In addition when we first got to handle him we realized he had several small scabs on him that looked like they were either bug bites, bite wounds from another cat, or perhaps from when he was trapped and flipped out in the trap and in the room for the first day or two. None we infected, inflamed or anything, just scabs. As time has passed a few have gone away but a few new ones have shown up. I have gone over his room with a fine tooth comb and I can't find anything he could be getting into that would leave a scrape or puncture wound - its a tiled bathroom, with a ceramic bowl for food, another for water, a paper plate for moist food, a plastic litter box, his window sill seat, a bamboo cat condo, a few toys, and of course the toilet and sink. There's nothing in there that could hurt him. I see no evidence of flea bites or flea dirt, and he's finally started being calm enough to bath himself but it doesn't seem to be excessive by any means.

    Food allergies are possible, he's getting Purina One kitten chow and either Friskies or Fancy Feast cat food (all low carb flavors leftover from Yittle's stash). The food made his fur softer, more fluffy, and he doesn't have any dandruff but there could be something he's allergic to I guess. He got cheap kibble and whatever he could catch outside.

    Anything else I should consider? I know there's a good website for lumps and bumps on cats, is there one for wounds/sores etc ? If it was any of my indoor only cats I'd swear it was a hot spot but with him only being recently brought in it does open up the possibilities a bit. Ringworm wasn't the most likely, but because it could be transmitted to us humans and the other cats in our households it needed to be ruled out first. I wasn't at the vet appointment, my mom took him but she indicated the vet didn't suggest any other likely option besides ringworm/hotspots but again I wasn't there so I don't know if my mom didn't entirely pay attention or what was asked etc. So if anybody has any other top of the list ideas I'd be glad to hear them before he goes back to the vet.
     
  2. Joanna & Bix (GA)

    Joanna & Bix (GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2009
    Not top of the list thoughts :) but my idle thoughts:

    - Could it be something he is self-inflicting, either chewing or with claws? Overly-vigorous scratcher?
    - Some sort of burns? Maybe a reaction to anti-flea meds if nothing in the environment is suspicious?
    - Any sign of tumors underneath that have ulcerated through the skin? Seems like the vet would have picked up on that of course during an exam...

    Hope you get it solved soon, it sounds puzzling!!!
     
  3. Gina & Yittle (GA)

    Gina & Yittle (GA) Member

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2009
    If any of them were near where they put the flea/tick/parasite medicine I'd ponder that, but it was between the shoulder blades and he's got nothing going on there. When they neutered him etc they also trimmed his claws very short for me, and they re-trimmed them when he went in for the ringworm test a week ago. When he plays with me he likes to knead me with his paws and except for 1 claw which has split in half they all are still rather blunt. The split on has a bit of point to it, because its 1/2 the width - but they are nowhere near as sharp as any of my 6 other cats claws. It goes without saying that he's still in quarantine while we wait for the ringworm test results so he can't be getting anything new from another cat.

    I've felt him over pretty good and I don't feel any lumps or bumps. The sores are completely flat except for the scabs. The other ones all feel like a small scab, and the ones I've managed to pin him down long enough to move the fur away from them are just small scabs. Its possible one of the ones I haven't been able to exam in detail might be a small growth, mole, pimple/abcess type thing. I note that he does have a few blackheads on his chin, one of which he let me get rid of. They however don't seem to be anything more serious then that. His food and water bowls are all ceramic or paper.

    He is a little "twitchy"... He might be itchy, or just finally feeling kitteny. He's REALLY into his catnip beaver toy and he plays quite hard with it. Its a refillable one so there is a small bit of velcro on it, which does have the tinest sharp corner but I dragged it across the inside of my arm as hard as I could and couldn't come up with more then the tiniest, almost not visable, not even really a scrape - scrape. Within 10 minutes it looked like I hadn't done it. I can't see how anything he's doing with the beaver could leave a mark through fur. He was bathing a bit more tonight, but then thats partially just me seeing him bathe more. He did not appear to be obsessing over any of the areas I know he's got sores in though. Plus I'm not sure how he could get where the ones under his arms are anyway, he could scratch them with a hind foot, but I don't think he can bite or lick there. Mostly he did a nice full head to toe once over, scratched behind an ear once and then he smacked the beaver off his window sill seat and proceeded to chase his tail in circles on the ledge. Second kitten-hood don't you know. Now our sh*tten Nicholas will get into fights with himself and kick himself in the head, bite his own paws till he squeals and generally give himself the beating that really, one of the other cats NEEDS to give him. However when he's done he doesn't have any wounds like Kerry does, so I doubt he's doing himself in while chasing his tail.

    Only other thing I can think of is that we did remove a lot of cleaning chemicals from the room before he got locked in it, there MIGHT be reside from something on the floor. The problem with that idea is that it was always a litterbox room for my 6 other cats until it became part of the quarantine room (been using it for that for 14+ years) and none of them had any issues or problems like this. If something had spilled near the litter box in the past you'd think somebody else would have gotten into it. Unless he's allergic to the faux-fleece covering on his window sill seat, or something on it, I can't think of much. I suppose I could take it off and launder it in Tide Free & Clear (hypoallergenic) or something, or put a towel on top since all of our towels are already washed in that.

    I'm just coming up empty on ideas - so thanks for your suggestions and everyone else, please chime in!
     
  4. Karen & Smokey(GA)

    Karen & Smokey(GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2009
    Is/was he all matted up ?

    Hair mats can pull on the skin and cause raw areas.

    Especially if he tries to pull them off himself.
     
  5. Lisa and Merlyn (GA)

    Lisa and Merlyn (GA) Well-Known Member

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    Dec 28, 2009
  6. Gina & Yittle (GA)

    Gina & Yittle (GA) Member

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2009
    Thanks for the link, it was helpful.

    No mats, in fact he's got really, really short fur. Its a bit fluffier with the better diet but he's definately the shortest hair short-haired cat we've got right now. I did note all of the sores are on the underneath of him (belly, etc) and are either where he's coming into contact with the window sill perch, or simply under him and therefore the hottest/getting the least ammount of air. We grabbed the cover off another identical perch we own and are washing it in hypoallergenic stuff today. We will then put that cover on his perch, and take his cover off and wash it in the same stuff.

    Unless the test results come back tomorrow as ringworm I'm still prepared to swear the silly things are hot spots or an allergy to the sizing material on the window sill perch. I'm trying to get him off the perch more to run around and air stuff out. He doesn't appear to be bothered by them, I haven't seen him licking them excessively. There is no pus or infection. They're just flat, round, sores that are either open and leaking a little plasma, or scabbed over. No lumps, no bumps, no oozing icky stuff. When you consider he's spending probably 22-23 hours of every day lying down on the perch while he works up the nerve to wander around his room and the ante-room, its not unreasonable that he might get hot spots. Obviously we'll take him back to the vet and have them go over them once more regardless of the ringworm test results. I might have them shave him a bit around them too. And we can still explore food allergies I suppose but its just odd that everything that isn't a pinprick mark is underneath him. In a person you might well call them bedsores.

    And yes, - he can walk. He's perfectly capable, he just prefers to stay on that perch. He will hop off and eat food, use the litter box, sometimes at night when its quiet he'll leave the 1/2 bath he's staying in and explore the computer (bedroom) I'm in. He even made it up on the other perch thats in the room I'm in. But he's timid and he's comfy where he is. And flying catnip beaver's aside, he sees few reasons to leave. When I come in and pet him he lays with all four feet up in the air and asks for belly-rubs, loves those.

    Thanks for the ideas, we'll see what happens with the test results.
     
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