Injury is a commonplace among outdoor cats. If the cat is your pet, you might have some luck handling him, but treating a stray is difficult. Fortunately or unfortunately, when the injury is severe, they are too weak to protest, and may be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and put into a basket and carried home for treatment. We have done this several times, not always with a happy ending, because oftentimes the infection has spread too far to be healed.

You will need the following when you set out to treat an injury:

1. Antibiotic: Azithromycin has worked wonders in my experience, although Gentamycin is, I believe, the drug of choice. I use Azithromycin Oral Suspension 20mg/ml. My preferred brand is Azithral Liquid 100 for Paediatric use, available in 15ml ready to use packs, manufactured by Alembic. Personally, I have not found the other brands as effective.
2. Betadine Liquid for washing the wound
3. Negasunt® Dusting Powder for maggots. This is a product of Bayer Healthcare manufactured by Pfizer in India
4. Pincer for taking the maggots out of the wound
5. And of course, lots of cotton

Case Study: Almost Completely Severed Paw of a Stray Cat

To cut a long story short, my mom and I put him in a basket and brought him to our cat shelter. One of his hind legs had been injured and the paw was almost gone, the bones were visible, and broken near the paw.

This cat was a stray and would often fight with mine, especially with Chew. He was strong and lean and probably the father of Small P, one of my babies. Age might have been around six or seven years at that time. I could not weigh him, but he looked like he was around five kilos or less.

Mode of Treatment

• Wash wound with Betadine Liquid sprayed through a syringe (needle off)
• Grab neck cautiously and force feed 2.5ml Azithral once a day for seven days
• Spray Negasunt® on the wound to stop the rot and maggot infestation.
• Feed him boiled fish and milk: we used to leave it there for him to eat. The first two days, he had to be force fed diluted protein powder meant for convalescent humans. We did this several times a day to stop him from getting dehydrated.

I shall try and post his photos later. He was completely healed. In time, flesh covered the bones sticking out of his hind leg, and now he limps around alright. He somehow managed to run away once he was a little better. We did not see him for days. Then once or twice here and there. At least he was alive. Sometime later, he decided to come to us for food. He has been a regular ever since. Much later, he even let me touch him!

Almost all injuries may be treated like this. The cases that could not be treated, especially where antibiotics could not be administered, were the cases that we lost. Sometimes, if you cannot force feed liquid antibiotic, you could try putting in Oxytetracycline Capsules in bits of fish. However, cats are very picky, and even when they are near death, it is not easy getting a stray cat to swallow a pill camouflaged thus.

In case of maggot infestation, there will be a rotting stench. Apparently, the maggots eat away the rotten flesh. After you have dusted the injury with Negasunt®, be sure to take them out one by one with pincers.

One final word: cats usually lick themselves all over to clean themselves. Their saliva is highly acidic and kills even Tetanus germs - at least that's what an aged Doctor told me, and I have no reason to not believe him. Do not despair if they lick the wound. It will, of course, take off the medication, but it will also help to sterilize the wound. They are equipped to handle injuries on their own. Sometimes, when things go bad, a little bit of helping hand is all that is required.

Please note: Ideally, you would want to use antibiotic injections for faster healing and at least subcutaneous drip to prevent dehydration. However, cases with strays are less than ideal. I did not take him to a doctor because even my pets are terrified of the journey: I did not want to traumatize him any more than he already was. As for asking doctors to come to see him - I have found that Pet Doctors are not equal to Animal Lovers. A lot of them are too scared of strays and want to hurry up and finish the examination. I did consult a doctor though, a very old and nice gentleman called Dr. Professor Mrinal K. Chatterjee, our family physician who passed away in 2010. He is the one who told me about Azithromycin's use to heal wounds. Prior to that, I only knew that it was effective for Upper Respiratory Tract Infection.