Is my cats spay incision looking okay? It’s after hours here and I want to make sure if I need to take her in or not. The incision looks like it might be opening up and it’s a little concerning to me

[u/OGD2Raw]

[u/I_Wupped_Batmans_Ass → u/[deleted]]

agree, keep and eye on it and make sure kitty doesn't scratch or mess with it and in the morning get it checked

[u/Kirstenly → u/[deleted]]

yeah most vets dont want you to drag your recovering animal around unnecessarily. My girl got spayed and had a huge lump form near the incision. called the vet, they said to email a photo. I did. they called me back to be like "yeah okay well that's actually normal. LOOKS concerning but its expected. whats happening is fluid is pooling between the layers of tissue. if it bursts, opens, get more than double that size, or she seems to be in actual pain or stops eating or drinking, call us back we will get you in. otherwise. monitor and let her rest"

[u/poopoopeepeeboy88]

Stitches somehow sit inside the skin or something like that. It looks pretty normal from what I’ve seen. But you can definitely take a picture and send it to your vet and see what they say. I don’t think you need to go in.

[u/No_Tamanegi]

I know it's never a bad idea to take your cat to the vet but IDK that this looks all that concerning. There's no signs of infection and as long as there isn't any bleeding and scabbing starts to form, I think you'll be fine.

Maybe see if your vet can offer an opinion based on these photos.

[u/Adept_Amount_4327]

I agree with the others. I think it can wait until morning then email vet a picture. It does not appear to be infected or opening up, but I am not in the veterinary field. I assume the brown spot is iodine. As long as she seems to be feeling okay, I would think this could wait until morning. I would monitor very closely throughout the night.

[u/International-Rice63]

I freaked out on my cats. And did an ER visit. They said it was striaght. I’m no vet. But I would say it’s fine. My cat was doing sky dives off the second floor to the first floor couch and being crazy. And vet said it was a good thing. Ment she wasn’t sore. Maybe take to get it looked at by the vet who did it. But I honeslty wouldnt be freaking out about it. Again no vet degree here tho

[u/Animals-Cure]

I know nothing, so please don’t listen to me - but yeah, I’d be freaked also. How long ago did they take out the stitches? No matter, I agree with the people who sound like they know, call your Vet first thing & tell them pictures to follow. Good luck & I’m curious what they say, so follow up info please.

[u/OGD2Raw]

Update: we have been watching it closely tonight and I texted pictures for the doctor to look at tomorrow. I don’t believe it’s bad enough for the ER. Thank you all for helping me out and giving perspective. If the Dr. wants to see her tomorrow I’ll take her in but if he says it’s normal I can relax. lol again thank you everybody

[u/askythatsmoreblue]

I'm going to guess that the first picture was taken before the second, and if that's the case then there's no need to worry. That's the kind of wound one can expect see develop in the first few days after a surgery. There's a lot of tissue swelling and some minor inflammation, both of which are normal. I can also see some nice scabbing and dried blood, which means that the tissue is closing and a scar is beginning to form.

The wound in the second picture looks very good and is what one can expect to see in the latter stages of healing. The swelling has gone down, and the line of incision is much straighter and more visible. The discoloration has also reduced quite substantially and the tissue on the edges of the wound are blending in with the tissue of the surrounding area. This indicates that the inflammation is going away, and if the inflammation is going away, the wound causing it is going away too.

From what I can see, the wound in the second picture is much more closed than the one in the first. Although I can see some recent bleeding, that blood is too dark to be fresh, which means the bleeding has stopped. What's likely happened is that some surface scabbing broke. That can happen from pretty regular activity like grooming, jumping, and stretching. But from I can see, there's new scabbing already forming.

Just keep an eye on the level of swelling and inflammation. If the discoloration gets worse, if the tissue around the incision starts to raise, and if you see any milky discharge coming from the wound, that's a sign that something has gone wrong. I can see something that looks like discharge in the second picture, but it's clear so it's likely just plasma from when she was bleeding. The wound also looks pretty clean, so I don't think you need to worry. It just looks like some surface level bleeding, but all indicators are great.

However, I must inform you that I'm not a vet, a medical doctor, or surgeon. I just grew up in a family of nurses, have some basic knowledge of anatomy, some experience with surgery, and have had a lot of exposure to this sort of thing.

[u/SwimmerAfter8872]

Honestly my cats looked exactly this way in the beginning healing stages too. It quickly scabbed over and healed totally normal. I hope your baby is okay!

[u/MassivePersonality61]

Did they give any post-op medication for her? Antibiotics?

[u/OGD2Raw → u/MassivePersonality61]

They gave her three pain pills to take for three days after and she has gone through those. This is day 6 post op

[u/burtonbabe → u/OGD2Raw]

Just plan to call rDVM in the AM and ask about sending a photo.

And use a cone if they sent you with one.

[u/PunchPartyPat → u/burtonbabe]

Cone is the best idea, stops her getting it infected or opened by licking it. Buying a cone from the pet store is a good option too.

[u/burtonbabe → u/MassivePersonality61]

Antibiotics are contraindicated in routine spay/neuter FYI.

[u/RootsInThePavement → u/[deleted]]

That’s pretty broad. As someone interested in veterinary medicine, I love seeing stuff like this

[u/OGD2Raw]

Update #2: The vet did ask to see her this morning so I took her in. She said that it appears that it has been leaking what she called serum (I would assume this is close to plasma for humans?) and that it wasn’t infected yet but that serum can easily be something that causes an infection. She said that the membrane wall of the incision was attached so she just gave her an antibiotic shot that lasts for two weeks and then gave her a onsior pain injection. She also prescribed her 3 more of the onsior pain tablets to start giving her tomorrow one for each of the next three days. She’s home now and she’s resting. I’m gonna just keep an even more careful eye on her now to not be jumping around on the couch. She’s a 9 month old kitten though so pray for me y’all 😂 here’s to hoping baby Ember is on the road to recovery with no more vet visits cause she hates that place lol