This weekend we had most of our chores all done. We did all we can to the rental that will be vacated at the end of the month (until they move out of course), the small house on 13th Street is scheduled to close this Friday, and our house has been cleaned. So, we got to do a few “fun” things. We went clothes shopping and picked up a few garments. We played in the yard and garden. We took a couple of walks.
Then I thought, let’s go hiking. We need to prepare for our 8 hour hike up a 14er, so we thought we’d get a little practice in by hiking Devil’s Backbone in Loveland (about 20 miles from Greeley). Britton was game, so we headed out. Devil’s Backbone trail is open to horseback riders, hikers, and mountain bikers. It was busy but not too crowded.
Us with Devil’s Backbone in the background
We do a lot of walking around Greeley, but Greeley is really flat, so we were huffing and puffing a little bit as we ascended. After about an hour of hiking, though, our bodies started to cooperate with us and it was really enjoyable and were able to walk for another hour and a half. Here are a few pics from the hike:
Yucca is the main plant you see out there
Beautiful mountain views
There was a part in the “backbone” called the “Keyhole”
Some pretty (and hardy!) wildflowers in the rocks
Some of the trail
We had a great time and got in some much-needed practice. I think we’ll need to do some more incline-hiking and for a longer time before we’re ready to tackle the 14er. Should get us in good shape that’s for sure!
Then after we hiked, we drove back to Greeley where we watched the full solar eclipse! It was spectacular. Where we were sitting, a girl had brought eclipse viewing glasses, so we got to see, and photograph it!
Eclipse through special glasses (click it to enlarge)
This is the same moment with our eyes (when you closed them, you could see the burned image of the eclipse in your eyes though!!) It was pretty eerie to see everything get a little darker when it would have otherwise been super bright out.
Well, it turned out Kitty’s lump was indeed an abscess as some of you mentioned. We really appreciate your feedback because we have never seen an abscess before!
We talked with a few people, including a friend who is a veterinarian and another friend who used to be a vet tech and they said that as long as we weren’t squeamish, we could take care of Kitty’s abscess from home and wouldn’t need to take him to a vet.
This post will attempt to describe what it takes to treat a cat with an abscess using just what you have at home or can buy in a store. It is very detailed, so if you don’t like to see open wounds, avert your eyes.
These are the tools we used:
Supplies needed/used to treat Kitty’s abscess
Non-stick gauze pad cut into smaller pieces
Adhesive Tape
Hydrogen Peroxide (in the vet’s office they prefer to use betadine, but we didn’t have any)
Witch Hazel
Small scissors (sterilize by boiling and rubbing with alcohol)
Tweezers (sterilized)
Q-Tips
Cotton balls
Razor (sterilized)
Neosporin (antibacterial gel)
Wash rag
Large Towel (not pictured)
(Note: Make sure to wash hands before and after too!)
Britton helping Kitty
First we washed the area with the hot wash rag. We gently pressed the warm rag into his head to loosen up the abscess. Soon we noticed pus leaking out, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. So we used the razor to shave the area around the hole. We also used the tweezers and scissors a little to get some of the weird material out of the way.
Our Pus–sy Cat
You can tell a lot about the progression of the abscess from the pus. In Kitty’s case it was white which means there were a lot of white blood cells in there trying to clear up the infection. If you see green, yellow or really stinky pus, it might be too far progressed to treat at home and the cat may need to be treated (at the vet) for blood sepsis. But for Kitty, this was actually a good sign: we noticed his lump early enough.
Soon, enough pus popped out that we could begin to see the puncture wound: Puncture wound at first
As we got a little deeper into cleaning out the pus and the area around, it was apparent that the wound was much bigger than we initially thought: Poor Kitty with his gaping hole
Once we got most of the pus and water out and the lump above his eye was gone, we were able to really clean it. We again put a hot wash cloth on him and let it ooze for a little bit as we cleaned it. Kitty didn’t seem to mind. He seemed happy someone was helping him actually.
After a while it pretty much stopped and we poured the peroxide into the wound. It fizzed a little and then went down. We put more peroxide on a cotton ball and pressed it lightly into the hole where it really fizzed. Kitty squirmed a little at this, but was ok. Then we applied the Witch Hazel tincture which is an astringent and helps to reduce swelling (Witch Hazel is usually the main active ingredient in things like Preparation H). The Witch Hazel formula is mostly rubbing alcohol, so it also has antiseptic qualities.
Finally, we used a Q-tip to apply neosporin to the hole and we put neosporin on the gauze pad too. Then we put the gauze pad on him and wrapped his head with the medical adhesive tape. He looked like a brain surgery patient!
Kitty in recovery
We kept the bandage on the first full day. The second day we let him have it off so he could clean (lick) his face a little and the hole could air out to begin to form a scab if it was ready. Later the second day it looked like it was starting to scab, but we thought we would clean it again since it could have had any number of germy things introduced during the day. This time we didn’t try and get deep into the hole, but just washed the surface with a cottonball and peroxide.
The final step in treatment of an abscess usually calls for antibiotics to kill any system-wide bad bacteria. We don’t have access to any antibiotics, so we asked our vet friend if she would write us an Rx. She said as long as he is healing, they are not necessary; so that was surprising!
We are so happy that Kitty is getting better and we learned a lot in the process. If you have cats, we hope this never happens to them, but if it does, you’ll now know what to do.
By the third day, a scab had started to form and he’s feeling much better!
Last night Britton and I were just perusing the Greeley Tribune online and checked out the upcoming events section. We saw something called Walk with a Doc scheduled for Saturday morning at 8am in Sandborn Park. We thought that might be fun to do.
So we woke up early this morning and headed over to Sandborn AkA Westlake. We often walk around this park before we get our groceries at King Soopers, so it was a familiar park to us.
Walking around Sandborn
We got there a little late, but managed to catch up with the walking group. There were about 6 or 7 doctors or medical students in the group of about 25 people total. You could walk alone or walk with one of the doctors in the group and ask them medical questions or just chit-chat. Today’s walk was the inaugural event in Northern Colorado!
Walking around Westlake in the morning
We were able to take a lap with Dr. Kurt Dallow a local physician who is very much about preventative health and exercise. He is very active and rides his bicycle everywhere even in the winter.
It was a fun time and we shared an apple from Sprouts at the end. Apparently an apple a day keeps your doctor walking around a lake! 🙂
Britton having an apple with the group
I am definitely going to bring this event up to my work (the Health Dept) to see if we can have more collaborations with this group in the future.
The next Greeley/ Northern Colorado Walk with a Doc will be on Saturday, May 19th at Sandborn Park at 8am. You can read more about them at Walk with a Doc.
Britton and I try to eat pretty healthfully. I definitely have a sweet tooth and he has a salty tooth (if there is such a thing), but overall we try to watch what we eat. His family has a propensity toward diabetes, and my family has a history of cancer. My dad, his brother (my uncle) and his dad (my grandfather) all died of cancer at early ages.
So I try to avoid anything that has been linked to cancer -such as tobacco products, processed meats like hot dogs, even colas (the caramel coloring). All of these are known “junk” trash foods, but I recently read a report that said the perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in lining of the microwave popcorn bags could cause all sorts of things from infertility to cancer. I have come to believe that any sort of American food, fast food, convenience food -and their packaging!- is suspect.
Anyhow, I looked into how I could still eat popcorn and just not eat the prepackaged chemical-ridden microwave popcorn anymore. I found that you can very easily do it yourself with just a brown paper bag. Britton didn’t believe me. He said there was a reason they sold microwave popcorn in the little bags or else everyone would just do it themselves. So, we decided to try it out ourselves. We had a little bet between ourselves. Guess who won? 🙂 Check it out!
