Neosporin for a wound on a cat

[ginnyinWI]

Where weeks of antibiotics (Orbax) have failed, just putting on some Neosporin ointment has helped heal an abcess wound that has been festering on my kitty's forehead since May 2012. I am in the third week of treatment now, and the wound has gone from 1 cm across to just a little scab. For the first week I kept her cone collar on her for eight hours a day, so that she would not clean it off.

It is so good to finally see the healing of this thing!

Ten weeks of Orbax: about $140. Plus $$$$ additional for vet charges for six visits, some blood tests and one exploratory surgery.

One tube of Neosporin: $4.00.

[Curmudgeoness]

1. That's great!

I am sorry that you have had to go through so much (as well as the cat going through it too). But wonderful that you found a solution.

I use Panalog on abscesses and wounds on my cats, and on me if I get bit or scratched. Same idea, but Panalog has several (I think 5) different uses. It is anti-bacterial, and also anti-fungal and anti-yeast plus it stops itching. I am surprised that your vet did not have you use this. I actually keep this in my medicine cabinet at all times. (Just to be correct, this is only a veterinary medicine....not to be used by humans.... )

[ginnyinWI]

2. no, I never even heard of that.

I will look it up.

Yeah I don't know why they didn't have me use anything topical but went right to the antibiotics! Duh.

The only thing I can think is that when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and the things they do most often is prescribe pills, run tests and do surgery. They have been, shall we say, less than imaginative in their treatment of our cats these last few years, and a few times diagnosed a problem wrong. They've put our cats through needless treatments and needless suffering because they made assumptions that were not true. At one point my husband made the observation that, "they don't really care if our cat gets well or not!".

Enough of that--we are changing vets.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. Good decision.

As I read through the post, all I could think was "please change vets"----and your final line said what I had hoped. We really do need to find the best care for our furbabies.

[KC]

3. Is Panalog

over the counter? I need to get some
to have on hand.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. To my knowledge, it is not over the counter.

I have a generic now (Animax), and I had to get it from the vet. But I really have not had any problem getting it....I just ask my vet and tell him that sometimes my cat gets scrapes and scratches, or a thorn in her paw, and I like to have it at hand. It is kind of pricey, but it is worth it for me. I have told the vet that I use it on myself if my cat scratches me, and he has said that he uses it on occasion too, but I don't recommend admitting to human use. It I get scratched or bit and do not use it, the area festers and stays red and swelled up. If I do use it, all that disappears and it heals quickly.

[ginnyinWI]

7. I did a little research on it.

Panalog and its generic, Animax have antifungals, antibiotics, anti-itch medicine, and a couple of other things--anti-strep I think was another.

But the antibiotic part of it is Neomycin, and that is the same ingredient in Neosporin--which has three antibiotics, Neomycin being one. The other two are Bacitracin (an older, sulfa-type drug if I'm remembering right) and Polymyxin. So when you are using Neosporin, you are getting the same antibiotic as in Panalog, and more.

Panalog is only available by prescription and is about $17 for a small tube, online. But Neosporin is $4 for a larger tube, and if you don't need the anti-fungal and the rest of it, why not just use that.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. You are probably right that it is overkill.

I am just so used to grabbing it that I don't even think of other things anymore. It all started with a cat fight that one of my cats was in, and the vet said this was the best treatment for the bite that she had. So when I was bit, I tried it and it was great at healing it up. I will say that the small tube lasts for so long, since I have only ever had to apply it once to any scratch or bite, and it doesn't take much. I have Neosporin in the medicine cabinet too and maybe I will test that to see if it works as well next time I get scratched, which happens too often because I am always picking up my cat to hug on him, and his back paws thrash around. I don't always get out of the way.

[oregonjen]

6. My cat used to get abscesses often and we would use oral antibiotics

The antibiotics always cleared it up, but I also had to use a syringe filled with a liquid that was bluish in color to flush the wound out. I used it twice a day on him and it cleaned the abcesses up nicely. I can't remember the name of the liquid, my cat has been gone a few years.

[ginnyinWI]

10. this one antibiotic I used wasn't up to the task I guess.

Orbax is supposed to be good for this kind of thing. So even when it wasn't working, the vet just thought, "give more and more!" Isn't that the definition of insanity--to do the same thing over and over and expect different results? Anyway, they didn't think any other antibiotic was needed.

[Texasgal]

8. I've found neosporin

to be great with cuts and scrapes on my babies too.

I am learning now to keep some first aid supplies on hand for the babies.

I am so sorry that you had to go through this, I hope kitty is better!

[DainBramaged]

11. A&D ointment, through the years I've found it best

and non-toxic to critters. Dermatitis, wounds, bites, burns (outside kittehs from exhaust pipes/engies) it works.