Raven again :(

[angieh]

Very good news JB. Please give little Raven a gentle cuddle from me and pass on some purrrrrs from his uncle Merlin.

[JBalways2000]

Thankyou everyone, it certainly is a relief! purrs have been passed along to Raven from his uncle Merlin too

obviously Raven doesnt think he has worried me enough because somehow he managed to pull all but two of his stitches out i have no idea how because we only allowed him to have his cone off for a couple of hours and we were watching him like a hawk the whole time. thankfully his incision site has healed enough that it didnt open or anything like that but now there is a lump/fluid under the skin where the incision is!! shall be ringing the vets first thing as im sure they will want to check that it isnt an abcess or anything. oh these cats are taking years off my life!

[pinklizzy]

Is there any discharge from the wound? Is it inflammed? If not, it's likely to be a seroma (a build up of serous fluid) which can occur after sutures are removed and generally resolve without needing any treatment. Obviously you should still contact your vet but hopefully it shouldn't be anything to worry about. Naughty Raven, worrying his mum like this!

[dandysmom]

Originally Posted by pinklizzy

Is there any discharge from the wound? Is it inflammed? If not, it's likely to be a seroma (a build up of serous fluid) which can occur after sutures are removed and generally resolve without needing any treatment. Obviously you should still contact your vet but hopefully it shouldn't be anything to worry about. Naughty Raven, worrying his mum like this!

PL, can you explain why some vets use the stitches that dissolve and some don't? That has always puzzled me. Misty had the dissolvable ones when she was spayed; Leia didn't.

[JBalways2000]

Originally Posted by pinklizzy

Is there any discharge from the wound? Is it inflammed? If not, it's likely to be a seroma (a build up of serous fluid) which can occur after sutures are removed and generally resolve without needing any treatment. Obviously you should still contact your vet but hopefully it shouldn't be anything to worry about. Naughty Raven, worrying his mum like this!

nope no imflammation and no discharge, infact the skin has healed really well where he was opened up so hopefully its what you said! will definately contact the vets though, he needs to have his two stitches removed anyway so will probably get them to give it a check then. thanks for that though, and yes hes very naughty!

[pinklizzy]

Originally Posted by dandysmom

PL, can you explain why some vets use the stitches that dissolve and some don't? That has always puzzled me. Misty had the dissolvable ones when she was spayed; Leia didn't.

I'll try my best Eileen! I think that for the main part it has to do with the surgeon's abilities and the length of the anaesthetic. Dissolvable stitches involve putting a layer of suture into the subcuticular of the skin. They can be tricky to place correctly and if the surgeon is more inexperienced, can take longer to do. Obviously, it is always preferable for the animal to have as short an anaesthetic as possible so the vet may opt to put in skin sutures which are much quicker to place.
We use dissolvable sutures if we know an animal is particularly likely to have a go at removing them themselves and also for feral cat spays etc and it does tend to give a neater scar.
Does that help? Sorry it's a bit rambling!

[dandysmom]

Originally Posted by pinklizzy

I'll try my best Eileen! I think that for the main part it has to do with the surgeon's abilities and the length of the anaesthetic. Dissolvable stitches involve putting a layer of suture into the subcuticular of the skin. They can be tricky to place correctly and if the surgeon is more inexperienced, can take longer to do. Obviously, it is always preferable for the animal to have as short an anaesthetic as possible so the vet may opt to put in skin sutures which are much quicker to place.
We use dissolvable sutures if we know an animal is particularly likely to have a go at removing them themselves and also for feral cat spays etc and it does tend to give a neater scar.
Does that help? Sorry it's a bit rambling!

Thanks so much; that was very informative! The vet who did Misty had been in small animal practice for years, so I assume he'd done many many spays. Whereas, the one down in Maryland who did Leia knew she was coming to a house with two adult cats and as Nora said to me, he wanted to be sure she was stitched up tight !
Her stitches were purple and I had a dreadful time getting them out ...

JB: apologies for hijacking your thread with this!

[JBalways2000]

no problem dandysmom, i was wanting to know myself actually! i suppose with how long Raven would have been under already with his op and the fact that they used dissolvable stitches to stitch his bladder back up probably explains why they used normal ones for the last part.

he has just been lying on his back on my lap(something hes been doing often lately so il scratch those nasty stitches for him ) you could see the lump better and it is quite large so will definately feel better if a vet has a check of it. here was me thinking all the Raven drama was over, wishful thinking!

[angieh]

That's one naughty little Raven, JB. What a worry he's put you through. Let's hope it is now good news about the lump when you see the vet.

Oh and thanks pinklizzie for the info on different types of stiches - most helpful.

[JBalways2000]

he is indeed a naughty one, but hes been too lovey lately to stay mad at him for too long

my partner is just on the way back from the vets with him but rang to let me know that hes fine. the vet took his last two stitches out which means we are going to have one very happy crazy cone free cat when he gets home! she said the lump is most likely a heamatoma or, as pinklizzie said, a build up of fluid and to just keep an eye on it incase its gets bigger but it should go on its own. so fingers crossed this really is the last of the problems now-not holding my breath though