FIV Cat w/Bite Wound That Won't Heal

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caseysmom
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Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2022 9:05 pm

FIV Cat w/Bite Wound That Won't Heal

Post by caseysmom »

Newbie to the chat here! My 3-year-old foster fail has FIV. He has a year-old bite wound he got when he lived outside and was rescued. The details are below, but the bottom line is that he recently had surgery/total cleanout/stitches to permanently close the bite. A biopsy showed staph inside. With the stitches in, he was playing, and one of the stitches pulled through his incision. That little hole won't close and there is some ooze. The poor guy has been in a cone for six weeks now. As per the vet, we've been giving him antibiotics and epsom salt soaks to help draw out whatever may be still causing the ooze. The vet can't sew it shut because there is not enough skin there. They are hoping the inside of the hole grows new cells/tissue and fills up/closes. For some reason, I don't see that happening, it feels like the hole will never close. Does anyone have any advice to share?

About a year ago, he was found on the street with a bite wound on his paw. When we started fostering him about six weeks later, the wound was healed and the cat could care less about it. Months later, for some reason, he started licking it and we saw the puncture wound from the bite was still a hole. At the vet's advice, we put him in a cone with antibiotics and it seemed healed, he left it alone. About four months later, he became interested in it again and licked it open again. The vet thankfully closed it surgically about 6 weeks ago, doing a total cleanout of the wound. An X-ray showed no bone infection. The x-ray and cleaning out showed no piece of tooth or anything still left in there.
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