*sigh*
Obviously apply common sense when cleaning a wound but no cat is happy to stay covered in smelly old blood. Tiny gentle tissue touches with sterile damp water (not dripping) works... takes time but works. A sterile bandage is effectively a think piece of gauze too... so if your using damp sterile bandage thats fine (same as ''gauze''). sterile is what matters (and soft)
(Who the hell said anything about rubbing or scrubbing??????)
Sometimes I feel like when some people have nothing very useful to add they will post just to pick holes in advice being given ...

To put your (unnecessarily worried by others) mind to rest on the subject - I am repeating the exact same thing my vet told me - (about removing excess blood around the wound)
and Im assuming of course, you have the basic adult intelligence to know you want the incision itself to dry up and harden asap.
In other words I knew you could clean away excess blood while not poking at the incision itself without having that pointed out to you like an infant.

Your doing a good job with her kmc ... bonding too?
Its a little worrying that the wound hasnt hardened up closed yet, keep watching it for any weeping, keep her in a clean environment (best you can) and if not seeing a nice scab/hard dry incision by 5pm (time your vet closes) today give the vet a tinkle to let them know.

(I may switch to PMs for further input but ill keep an eye in here for you)

It would be great to use at least once a month as an excuse for shouting or ranting but alas im cursed with the steady reliable nature of the human male

take another piccy for us to see pls?
head butts and brrups to your girl x
(hope you are getting a good sleep while I type this)

/edit
oh, and did you decide to ask about any painkillers?
(tbh it sounds like she might be agitating the wound with activity so a bit of pain might keep her from exerting herself... pain relief is entirely your choice if you want to use or not but be guided by the vet's advice when/if you ask)

Hi all,

Here's today's update...

This morning at around 5am after having her sit on the arm of the sofa whilst we watched late night shopping ads we managed to get her to go into a big carrier bag (all other attempts to tempt her, move her resulted in being swiped at). We took her into the well prepared kitchen (clean and minimal chance of things that could hurt her in there, fewer obstacles). We tried to get some sleep amidst the occasional meows and bashing noises of her cone against the door and wall.
I woke up at 10am and popped in the kitchen to check on her and she was sat there with her cone on still but checked again about 2 hours later and the cone was on the floor. The wound had been licked a fair bit and looked cleaner, here are the pictures. I think the cone may need to go back on again if she doesn't stop licking it.
I was welcomed by lots of rubbing and head butting and frantic purring so she seemed back to her normal self :)
Please let me know what you think of the incision from the photos (it was hard taking pictures owing to the headbutting of me and the camera!)

Hi BengalDaddy,

She seems to lick it loads so I keep trying to distract her, last time I just clicked my fingers near her and she hissed at me.

I called the vets and told them about the bleeding, they're seeing her again at 4:10 this afternoon.

I'll see if we can get something like a bodysock for her asap. Possibly the blood that comes out is when she tries to run about, I'm trying to ensure she stays fairly calm and relaxed. I got her to lay down next to me on an old towel on the settee for a little while today.

As far as the amount of blood goes, she'll leave a smeary bit of blood on anything she touches, lies on etc.

She's just cleaned it again and it doesn't look too bad now, just worried about her pulling the stitches out.

yes it does look alot better... but it needs to harden/dry and I agree her activity is probably what is preventing it from sealing up.
trouble with a skin contact body sock is that fresh blood/fluid will soak into it and stick... meaning it will pull the scab off when she moves or when you remove the sock....
:/
once the wound is hard and dry the body sock will help keep it that way by stopping her picking/licking so much.

To be honest with my girl I had to ''train'' her not to fuss with her wound... it took most of the first day and night of constant close observation .. which I was able to do.
I could tell she was learning she wasnt allowed to pick because she started to keep her eyes on me when trying to do it, in that way they do when they know they are doing something naughty.
Everytime Cleo began grooming and edging towards her wound i would place a cupped hand (so not touching the stitched incision) over her patch and allow her to groom all around my hand but refused to move my hand away. she tolerated this and after some time healing/drying up the wound stopped bothering her altogether.

Yours might be a bit more hissy and swipey because she is an adult and doesnt like you telling her no? (shes also in pain of course and I kept Cleo medicated)

I think keeping her as inactive as possible with boredom and seeing the humans laying around (sleeping not playing) in one room is the best way to keep her calm but you know her best.

Its great that the vet is supportive and checking her out today, pick their brains on ideas raised here and again consider painkillers if you wish (she sounds a bit swipey and cross to me).. Loxicom also makes kitty a bit drowsy which helped me when keeping my girl bored and sleepy long enough to form a dry hard wound site.

She is really bruised I have never used pain meds with spay/neuter but hers looks especially sore!! If the vet is game for it I think I would request something! Maybe if its not painful she will leave it alone more!!! The body suit is also a good idea that I have never thought of! Hope everything works out well and she is back to normal in a couple of days!!! Keep us posted with what the vet says!!

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bkilgore is right, have them look at that bruise and raise concern... because looking at the pics it seems to have grown?
As for painkillers im trying to avoid telling you she should be on Loxicom because its a personal choice and I dont wanna get yelled at by anyone for pushing you to medicate.
But IMO she would be happier and easier to manage on the Loxicom
(nobody shout at me or report me pls)

so ... looking very close (also learning your girls body shape/size from hard to scale pics) at that bruise and it has definitely grown so good news that you are going in today.
Have them look at her bruise.... apply some gentle owner<>vet pressure about your concerns about the bruise.
They will perhaps be a little defensive as this is their work being criticised in a way... so stay tough and get an answer/reassurance about the expanding bruise.
it should be fading (goes kinda yellow like in humans) and shrinking.

It should not bleed at all. Ooze yes, bleed no! She should be able to walk around, toilet and feed without it bleeding. Even cleaning the wound should not make it bleed.

The bruise is because of bleeding internally be it under the skin or deeper.

The incision line looks fairly clean and there is only one, the two lines are the sutures on either side of the wound.

I'm not entirely sure why all vets are not using internal dissolvable stitches and glue as this would not have happened

Regarding the body stocking. A piece of tube bandage meant for human legs would work. Cut holes for legs so it stretches passed the wound and makes it difficult to get off. This would only need to be on for a day or so till the wound is more stable. Thus will reduce her stress and upset which, in turn, will reduce the overall recovery time. A stressed and upset cat will take far longer to recover from any surgical treatment than a calm and happy one. You can do supervised removal for an hour or so every now and then to let air get to the wound but really it is far nicer than the uncomfortable cone. I've never had to use a cone for any surgical treatment with my cats.

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Lollo

Lollo is there a facric you suggest to better allow the wound to breathe and not sweat ?... also what to do about weeping and sticking to the stocking and movement pulling at the forming scab?

kmc is back from vets soon ... I was worried too about deep stiches maybe pulled and internal bleeding (the bruise growing) but didnt want to cause too much worry when kmc is going to see vets already to get professional advice today.

It shouldn't be so tight that it clings to the body and air will get to it through a bandage, they are not completely occlusive! Might help prevent infection as well from a kitty tongue. Removed every few hours for a short while and she will groom the fur underneath not just the wound. If the wound does ooze and it'd sticks to the bandage then some warm cooled boiled water will loosen it fairly easily.

Like I said, tube bandage designed for human legs is perfect, just stretch it out a bit. Or even a baby grow, with feet cut out. You can buy surgical jackets in the US.

The cone will prevent her tongue from licking it but often they still try and end up scraping the wound with the edge doing far more damage than a bandage would.

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Lollo

Hi all,

She's been to the vet who straight away said it didn't look right. She felt around the area and said the stitches inside were ok and there was no inflammation in the are and the muscle around there seemed fine. She suggested it was a subcutaneous vein that must have been damaged leading to the bleeding.
She gave her an injection of antibiotics and some antibiotic tablets and said to ensure the cone was being used. We didn't get charged for the consultation which was nice.
The wound is looking less scary now I think, not sure because we're getting used to it or not. It's still very purple coloured but she is definitely behaving like her normal self.
She was ridiculously affectionate this afternoon, constantly head butting, meowing, rolling around onto her back and reaching up our legs and being very playful. She often rubs up frantically, purring like crazy then starts to bite.
It's been reassuring seeing the vet, my other half was worried about her needing the stitches out again etc. but hopefully it's ok.