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One of the most irritating and debilitating conditions that cats seem prone to are abscesses. When cats are afflicted with an abscess they generally run a fever, quit eating, sleep more than usual (like 22 hours a day instead of the usual 21!) and may exhibit pain. The sooner a treatment for a cat abscess is administered, the sooner the health of the cat can be restored. Take a look at

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one case where a cat developed an abscess just over his left hip and deep under the skin. He was a hurtin' kitty when brought in to the veterinarian.
Click on the small photos below and a full size picture will will appear.

	This photo shows the anesthetized cat on his right side. The hip area has been shaved, cleaned well and is ready for the procedure to open, flush and drain the abscess. A tiny puncture wound is now noticeable and was undoubtedly the entry point for the bacterial contamination.
	The abscess has been entered with a sharp scalpel. Since the buildup of pus and fluids is so vigorous the contents of the abscess are under pressure. This explains part of the reason the cat has so much pain when an abscess is forming.
	The forceps enters the abscess, probes for any foreign material such as a piece of wire or glass, and frees the contents of the abscess for exit from the subcutaneous pocket. If nothing else was done, the cat would still say "Thanks" for doing this!
	The forceps is placed through to the opposite side of the abscess to allow the scalpel to incise the skin in a second spot. Now the abscess can be thoroughly flushed out with a mild antiseptic solution.
	The forceps is now able to grasp a thin strip of surgical tubing which is left in the surgical opening to allow for additional drainage over a period of five days. Then the surgical tubing is removed and the incisions heal rapidly.

Most often the abscess is a result of another cat's claw penetrating the victim's skin during a street fight over whose turf is whose. Otherwise, any cat that has access to the outdoors probably has developed the fine art of eliminating chipmunks, gophers and red squirrels. These little rodents will fight back, too! If seized by the tail they will turn and defend themselves by sinking scalpel-like incisors anywhere on the cat that is accessible. These tiny bite wounds often go undetected for days, hidden by the cats fur. Most of the time they probably heal with no difficulty... the owner and the cat hardly notice such trivial battle wounds.

However, if the bite wound is contaminated by the bacteria from the rodent's mouth or bacteria dragged in from the cat's skin, the result very well could be an abscess. And cat's toenails are notorious instigators of infection. Many kinds of bacteria can be cultured from the area of a cat's toenails.

So... just exactly what is an abscess?
It is a collection of pus and inflammatory fluids that develop at an internal site for the purpose of counteracting a foreign substance. That foreign substance could be a sliver of wood, a broken toenail, colonizing bacteria or even a chemical. (We've all heard of the "local reaction" that can happen after a vaccination. These usually are a response by the body to the chemical material to which the vaccine particles are attached. See ThePetCenter's article on Vaccinations.)

When the body strikes a response to these various invaders, all sorts of chemical messages are sent throughout the body calling I'M BACK!!! And I'll get even!

for reinforcements in the form of white blood cells and blood-borne proteins. These defenders can themselves be a problem when they and their casualties build up but cannot be carried off the field of battle. So they build-up into a big pool of ... well, of PUS! The enemy may have been neutralized long ago but now the body has a different problem and that is getting rid of this enlarging pool of dead defenders that itself triggers more reinforcements. A cycle develops until the pressure under the skin eventually disrupts the blood supply and erodes through the skin... the abscess ruptures to the outside and the pressure neutralizes and all those dead and rotting defenders exit to the outside world where the cat's body could care less what happens to them!

Once the cat abscess opens and the pus has a way to escape, the healing process can take over. The purpose of intervening in a case of a cat abscess to to assist the cat in this process by facilitating the escape and cleaning up of all those dead and dying defenders, plus, often when the pus drains the offending instigator of this whole process gets swept right out of the cat with everything else! Some gentle flushing of the wound cavity cleans things up quickly, a touch of antibiotic prevents the damaged tissues from being reinvaded, and the painful pressure from the abscess is relieved.

An abscess starting in a finger due to a cat bite

You might be interested in viewing a surgical flushing of a cat bite wound in a human. A 19 year old cat bit the veterinarian and subsequently, even after vigorous (and uncomfortable) washing of the bite wound, the doctor's finger swelled, throbbed, turned blueish-red and required surgery under general anesthesia to flush and debride the infected tissue. The images are not for the feint of heart, so... take a deep breath and click here to see the images.

Now the cat is ready to have a little "bite" to eat and sneak back outside to get even!