Bugsy - Claw injury :( - Happy Cat Family

Bugsy - Claw injury :( 01/02/2010

Guys, This is what I posted on TCS, I will just cut and paste...
Here is the link...
Bugsy got a claw boo-boo
Day one:
This seems to be a bad one... :(
Yesterday there was what looked to be a peace of poop stuck in one of his back claws, in between his toes, he was annoyed by it, trying to get it off. I tried to see what it was, it smelled like poop, and looked like poop, so I left him to take care of it.

Today I saw him still annoyed by this toe, so as he was sleeping, I went to inspect... I found out my baby was hurt

I guess he was SO annoyed by it, that he took the poop AND THE CLAW with it .

So, I took him to the bathroom do a good cleaning, and what I found out was not good... There was still some of the darn poop in there, so I took it out first, of course - It was cemented with the litter; I can see how that can bother... On this one claw the was only the quick left! No claw at all! just the raw quick! It was swollen and started bleeding a little when I cleaned...
Three of his toes were very swollen - the area around the claw, the skin that hides the claw - very red and swollen.
He is walking normally, jumping, eating, etc, but he was crying the whole time I was cleaning his paw

I was able to clean very well with Bactine, and put neosporin on it.
Tomorrow I will go to he vet first thing in the morning, at 8 am, when they open...
I HATE HATE HATE HATE that my baby is hurt! I feel so bad that I didn't clean his paw yesterday... I could have prevented this had I done that
Can you guys send him some vibes please?

Day Two, today:
Open the wine, start drinking, update
The vet was not open today, but luckily his wound was looking a bit better, so I decided to treat it on my own and wait until Monday, instead of taking him to the ER. I did research the subject, and it seems that this is a common injury, losing claws, and my research indicated that as long as it doesn't show signs of infection it is ok to treat at home...
Please PLEASE - if you do have experience on the field, and I am sure many of you do, please let me know...

So here is what I did today:
I closely inspected, and here is what I found:
He did indeed loose the whole Claw
The Quick today is not as raw, it already started to heal . There was just a tiny little amount of blood today, a dot, when I cleaned his paw, compared to yesterday...
The toe is swollen and red, but not too much - he did feel pain when I cleaned...
The adjacent toes were not as swollen as yesterday, so, a good sign!
There is no sign of pus, and the toes, even though a little swollen they are not warm to the touch.
He walks normally.

So, I washed the wound very carefully with Hibiclens, and dried as much as I could... Of course I couldn't dry it completely...
Then I put Neosporin on it, covered with gauze, wrapped with a bandage, tape, and tubular dressing holder... It looks professional, and more importantly, it will keep it away from litter and poop... - See now why I am drinking wine?? This is Bugsy.... The boy who is impossible to pill... He is a tough tough guy...
He is not happy about it... He takes a step and shakes his leg, but has not tried to take it off yet, so that is good

He is walking, jumping, and doing everything normally - in fact he is right now on the top of the cat tree :)

There are controversies about covering or not claws injuries, so I am going to cover it only for today, since it is so raw, and from tomorrow on I will just wash it with Hibiclens and keep it clean and dry.
Hopefully it doesn't get infected....
My poor baby!!!
Please keep your vibes coming for my baby!

Comments

The Island Cats

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 6:48:38 pm

Ernie had his claw pulled out when he got it caught in Wally's collar when they were playing. It really bled alot! I immediately took him to the vet who cleaned it up and wrapped it mainly because it was still bleading. They also put him on antibiotics. The vet told me to leave the wrapping on but she thought Ernie would get it off himself after a day or two. After one day, I took the bandage off. The wound looked good. The vet also told me that I should change the litter in the box to Yesterday's News so the wound wouldn't get litter in it. I tried but the cats refused to use it so I switched back to their regular litter.

I think you're handling Bugsy's wound the right way...just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get infected...we're purring that it heals quickly!

Rumblepurr

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 7:19:01 pm

Poor little guy... I hope you feel better soon!

Angel and Kirby

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 8:30:08 pm

It sounds like you are taking the right course of action. I know you feel bad that you did not treat it sooner, but he was not complaining or favoring that foot. Hindsight is 20 20! Don't worry about what could have or should have been done. Just keep going forward and give him extra treats!

Everycat

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 2:05:34 am

Poor Bugsy! We've dealt with this type of injury more than once. We have used the vet each time, because of the need for systemic antibiotics. It sounds as if you have handled it well. Sometimes the paw needs wrapping, others not. I think a change of litter to something softer whilst it heals is a great idea. I would avoid using Hibiclens on the wound from now on, it will damage the granulocytes which the wound needs to heal. Tepid salt water is a good thing to use (boiled and cooled water) as it doesn't damage healing tissues. Similarly I would stop using Neosporin, it may not be the right antibiotic for the type of infection and using topical antibiotic creams can contribute to antibiotic resistance. Also the cream cannot get in to the seat of the infection. I think the key to how well the wound is doing with this sort of injury is the smell, if it smells bad in the slightest way then you do need to take him to the vet. There are long acting antibiotic injections now (Convenia and Betamox LA) which avoid the need to pill the cat (hurray).

Get well soon Bugsy fella!

Happy New Year to you all!

Gypsy & Tasha

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 8:37:53 am

It sounds like you've done very well in looking after Bugsy. We'll purr and purray for him to keep on getting better.

{{{hugs}}}

Gypsy & Tasha

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