First aid for cats. Advice please, for next time.

[Mo]

I've always been a 'nature will fix it' person, both for myself (not seen a doctor for more than 20 years) and my pets.

But Pat is a regular at the vet these past 2 weeks, having his neck seen to. And the past few days he's been coming into the garden ( when I was there, not unsupervised). Last night oh, panic, I noticed a lump on top of his nose (between the eyes).

He had an appointment today, so as well as cleaning and removing the stitches she trimmed the fur round that - said it was a cut. It's small but quite deep. She thought he was due another antibiotic injection and that would protect that as well.

So my question is, what should I do when I find lumps and bumps on him. Drag him to the vet, trim the fur off myself and clean it in some way, or leave it to him (when he hasn't got a collar on and can reach all the parts that need cleaning.??? I don't want to go from one extreme to the other (and run up huge bills unnecessarily), but I don't want to see him like he was 2 weeks ago.

[Gwenoakes]

This might sound barmy, but, I clean small wounds with boiled cooled water which has a tiny amount of salt in it. Not near the eyes though.

I use tea bags for eye probs, but only for a day or two and then take to vets if no better or gets worse.

Any foot problems I use boiled cooled water with salt in and immerse the limb, they dont like it, but it does work.

The only time I would not attempt a DIY would be if eye/s were really bad or if I thought it was from a cat as their claws hold thousands of bugs.

Now you know I am barmy..........yes?

[Mo]

What do you do with the tea bags?
The salt water sounds obvious not you say it.

[Gwenoakes]

Boil kettle and soak t bag, let the liquid cool then use sterile dressing soaked in t bag liquid and place gently on eye/s. Like babies I only use sterile dressing once for each eye, never go from eye to eye as it transfers any infection if there is one.

There is something in a t bag/liquid that soothes quite a bit. Cant remember what it is, but I have used them on us before now and it feels very nice.

[Mo]

The salt water sounds obvious noW you say it.

Interesting, do you use teabags on your own eyes too - if needed? I would never have thought of that.

[Gwenoakes]

I have used the tea bags on us, Mo and it is very soothing tbh.

Its on the same lines as rubbing a gold ring on a sty, cant remember why that works, but it does. They are all very old fashioned things to do that I remember as a child having done to me. LOL

[Mo]

I don't think tea bags were around when I was a child (I still use leaf tea)

[Gwenoakes]

No, the t bags were not around when I was small either. LOL

Sorry, I had yet another blonde moment.