So we discovered an abcess on my older cat's head last night, which means she's going into the vet today.
I've never had to deal with an abcess before (due to my fiance's experience at shelters, he knew what it was) and am unsure of what they're goin to do in the vet. I'm a little worried since Christina can be a little ball of fury when strangers start messing with her (although we've never had trouble at the vet. we have had issues at the groomer's).
Heck, we're not even sure how she got the darn thing.

Has anyone had to deal with this before? Will they have to give her medication? Is it a big deal? I ask only because on occaison the boy can over-react.

Aww. A big :hug: to you both!

I've never dealt with an abcess on a feline before, but I have on rats. The ones I've taken care of sometimes had a problem with them returning/not healing and others had them cared for and never came back. I'm sure it's much easier to care for on cats than rats. I'm sorry I couldn't offer anything helpful but I wanted to send good wishes your way. :)

I've only ever delt with them on rats also, but they've never been a big deal on my girls. The vets always told me to flush them with a salt water solution, and they've always gone away pretty quickly after that, I've never even had to bring them in for an absess.

I have worked at vet clinics before, and trust me abcesses on cats are pretty common. Is the cat an outdoor one? Abcesses can occur when the cat gets into a fight with another one, and when dirty claws or teeth are involved, it's an instant infection. What they will do is drain it, then flush it, then if their is dead or infected skin, they will remove it then stitch her up, but they usually just have to flush it. She will probably have to endure one round of antibiotics, and she'll be fine. Don't worry, nearly everyday that I was working, at least one cat with an abcess would come in, and they all turned out fine. No worries.

I have worked at vet clinics before, and trust me abcesses on cats are pretty common. Is the cat an outdoor one? Abcesses can occur when the cat gets into a fight with another one, and when dirty claws or teeth are involved, it's an instant infection. What they will do is drain it, then flush it, then if their is dead or infected skin, they will remove it then stitch her up, but they usually just have to flush it. She will probably have to endure one round of antibiotics, and she'll be fine. Don't worry, nearly everyday that I was working, at least one cat with an abcess would come in, and they all turned out fine. No worries.

Thanks for the reassurance! I'll try not to worry so much.

It's strange. She's a completely indoor cat. Granted, there's another cat in the house, but they're kept separated at all times. We have two theories about how this happened in the first place:
1.) About a week ago, someone left a door open that should have been left closed and the two cats ended up in the same room. It's possible that Rascal ended up biting/scratching Christina (the one with the injury) before we got to them. It seems fairly unlikely since Rascal was looking startled, hurt and confused as to why this MANIAC was after him. He wasn't fighting back, he was just looking kind of terrified (which, admittedly, was sort of funny, since he's nearly double her weight). Added to this, both cats are declawed in the front, when they do get into the same room, they cause no damage when they swat at each other (the declawings were done by previous owners, any future cats we adopt will not have it done). Also, I'd like to think that I would have noticed an injury on my baby-girl before this, if it happened a week ago. I may occasionally be distracted, but I'm not inattentive.

2.) We live in an older house and are in the process of clearing away a lot of the stuff left by the landlady. Christina REALLY likes to bump her head into things to "mark" them. She can be fairly forceful about it. I could see her bumping into something sharp and getting cut. To me, this seem like a more likely scenerio, but I'm guessing I'm never going to know what really happened.

You probably wouldn't have noticed it when it first happened, they can start off as just a very small cut or puncture. Don't worry, just because you didn't notice doesn't mean you are unattentive at all, they can be VERY easy to miss.

Well, the vet absolutely adored Christina (new vet). The abcess on her head wasn't an abcess, but a cyst. They drained it and said that it may refill, and if it does, we'll have to bring her back in. But it's not something they're really concerned about.
They also checked her ears since they've been kind of itchy lately. She's got a bacterial infection in both ears. Whee.
So, I've gotta squirt medication into both ears twice a day and give her antibiotics twice a day (in liquid form).
How I'm going to do this with a cat who can't even stand being brushed for more than thirty seconds a day, I'm not sure. It would be easier if my sweetie weren't on a camping trip with the boys this weekend. I'll figure something out.
I am glad that I brought her in. I just wish medicating a cat was as easy as medicating a dog.

You can restrain kitty for treatment by wrapping her burrito-style in a towel with just her head sticking out.

You can restrain kitty for treatment by wrapping her burrito-style in a towel with just her head sticking out.

That's a good reminder. I'll have to try that next time. Although I've found that I can restrain her by sitting on the floor with her between my knees. She can't back up and escape and can't jump because I keep one hand on her neck. If I prepare everything ahead of time, it's all done in about 30 seconds and then she immediately gets some wet food.
She's a whole lot easier to deal with than the last cat I had to medicate. There's a lot less drama, and she's still happy to see me half an hour later.

MEM, if she's fairly easy to handle w/o toweling, maybe stick with the method--between the knees has always worked very well for me with squirmy but not genuinely fractious cats, too. Sometimes, cats especially it seems, the less restraint the better.