August's Second Butt-Adventure

[juushika]

August is okay but first there is a saga: Two days ago, Wednesday, I noticed August was struggling with the litterbox and that her anal area was swollen on the same side as her first anal gland impaction. I told Devon, he called the vet, they had an appointment in an hour, we went in, they cleaned emptied out both sides and got significant matter out of the swollen side. It was immediate, painless, super cheap, and I got that feel-good feedback of "there's nothing you can do to 100% prevent this, but pumpkin probably does help* and you caught it before it became a problem, good job!"

And then she had a day of minor diarrhea, which made sense after having people poke at her butt. And then the vomiting in the evening, and more diarrhea, and then it was 2am today, Friday, and I was manhandling an obviously suffering cat to see that her behind was swollen again, and then after another trip to the litterbox was leaking pale fluid and blood!

If you're thinking that that sounds a lot like a ruptured abscess, then congrats, that is just what it looked like and indeed what it was. They didn't have an appointment slot today, but they had us bring her in so they could get to her at the next available moment, and they flushed out an anus-neighboring ruptured abscess cause by a cat bite, aka:

Toby bit August's butt when chasing her. The infection presented like an impacted anal gland, and since she is prone to those there was matter in the anal gland. But, despite vet techs digging around in her behind, no one noticed the actual abscess, which then ruptured. !!!?! Most abscess pain comes from pressure/infection, so dissipates once ruptured—she's obviously feeling way better now. They put her on antibiotics, and she should be fine. But coming so close from saving her pain and a more expensive vet visit and then end up there anyway is like ... but why tho.... and how ... they had hands ON HER BUTTOCKS in a veterinary environment and ....yet???

* And it's so convenient to be able to feed a low/no calorie bonus meal that's easy to doctor with supplements and extra hydration that I'd continue to feed it even if it didn't/doesn't help with the anal glands in particular.


But, as I told Devon, it could have been terminal butt cancer and I would at this point not be the least bit surprised, so all of this ultimately ends well. It was stupid and stressful, and it breaks my heart whenever she's in pain. But it resolved to have an obvious, finite explanation, and I'll take that over another tragedy any day.

Comments

[sixbeforelunch]

Oh no, poor kitty! I'm glad she'd feeling better now.

[starshipfox]

Poor baby! I'm glad she's doing better now. Abscesses can be hard to see until they rupture or become really large: I've had multiple occasions where cat-bite abscesses went unnoticed on the first examination, with a vet I respect and know is very thorough. It's unfortunate but seems to be unavoidable. I hope Toby doesn't bite her again!

[juushika]

This is super useful, thank you! I really appreciate the experienced insight. I figured that since I went in telling them to look for a specific issue which did turn out to be there, that it made sense no one noticed the issue they weren't looking for. & I've seen abscesses in cats only twice before, and in the one I spotted in advance I couldn't get the cat into an appointment before it ruptured--a 24 or 48 hour wait time, which gave me a good indication of how quickly they go from unnoticeable to already ruptured. It's comforting to know that that's also true for vets, and this isn't the case of anyone's oversight--just bad luck.

Ironically, we had just started to get really good handle on monitoring how Toby and August were interacting, how to anticipate him chasing her, how to trade up to a toy or other appropriate behavior ... but I guess the damage had already been done! Which sucks, but it still bodes well for no more bites in the future.

[starshipfox]

I'm glad that was helpful! I've seen A LOT of cat bite abscess, both in my own cats, and when I worked in a vet, and they appear really really quickly. One of the problems for cats is that they heal so fast: the abscess generally occurs because they wound heals before it has time to drain, and then the bacteria builds up and becomes an abscess. This fast healing also makes it hard to spot an abscess: often there is no noticeable swelling, and the fur and skin cover the puncture wound. Cats are also really good at hiding their pain! I've had abscesses burst while I was petting a cat, and the cat gave no indication that he was pain, and there was no obvious sign of injury until there was pus everywhere.

I'm glad you're able to keep track of Toby and August, and their interactions have mostly been going well. There are often a few hiccups with introducing cats.