fluid in forehead?

[lost_kitty]

My cat banged her head pretty bad last week, no one noticed until her head and eyes started to swell up, the vet said she head a trauma and I should put neosporin on her open wound, on the back of her head. As her head kept swelling on I called the vet and they said to give her benadryl, now the swelling stopped after 1 day but her wound keeps bleeding and her fur started to crust and now it appears as she would have fluid (my boyfriend thinks it's blood) in her forehead, it is all squishy and soft and it scares me. Other then that she seems to get better, she wants to run around, started playing again and eats a lot too. However she sleeps a lot, but cats sleep a lot anyways, right? My boyfriend also says she appears to be disoriented and her eyes are dilated, I honestly wouldn't know. Can anyone explain to me what happens to her?

[Mrs_Savas]

OK, yes that's an abcess.  Just give her the antibiotics, keep her as clean as possible and she'll clear up fine.

It's the funniest thing - cats get these infections and abcesses that look terrible and would really hurt a person.  I know, I've had skin abcesses and they really hurt!  But cats act like it doesn't feel like much of anything, although if you poke it enough they might react.  Some of that is because animals react to pain differently than we do, they just process it differently.  

The collar, which is called an Elizabethan collar, is probably not necessary and will most likely make her jumpy and unhappy.  I would take it off and just watch to see that she doesn't scratch at it.  If she leaves it alone than it's ok.  One of my cats had an awful abcess on the side of his face about a year ago and he didn't scratch it.  They usually just ignore them.

It may close over and fill up and drain again.  This may happen a couple of times and it's perfectly normal.  Somtimes these abcesses form multiple drainage holes and that is normal too.

So, you're doing fine.  If nothing changes for the worse then try not to worry.  Skin infections and abcesses are very common with cats and kittens.  She'll be ok.

[lost_kitty]

so as i tried to clean her fur a little from the dried blood, the "bubble" opened up again and another clear-yellowish fluid came out, later that night, she was sitting on my lap and i tried to brush her, also close to the forehead wound, it opened up once again, and repeatedly i tried to soak up the fluid with a paper towl the whit-yellowish "pimple" looking thing, in her wound seem to stick to the paper towl and everytime i taped it on the wound it seem to come out a little bit more, my boyfriend said try to squeeze it, once again remember that my Baby acts totally normal, she eats her food and cat grass, jumps and plays around, anyhow, i decided to "pull" on it, and it came out, it looks like puss, but it is hard, wet but hard let is now this "hole" which again doesnt seem to bother her at all, as i write this i am looking at her how she plays with the cat grass and chases her tail, after i pulled out this puss looking hard i dont even know how to discribe it, i also pulled out a smaller bucker like yellowish puss looking idk, "stuff? that, if i put it between my hand actually is smushable, in that wound seems to be more puss fluid.

now any ideas and thoughts on that???

[lost_kitty]

1st of thanx for the response, so here is what happened, since my boyfriend works at a hospital he thinks he knows everything, the kitty is not disoriented and has not dialated pupils, she acts like a normal kitten, but her squshi forehead concerned me too, so i took her back, the same doc looked at her and said that the wound would heal well but got infected, she got antibiotics and i also asked about her forehead, he said it was still swelling, so however 2 days later, i looked at it closer, and it was like a little bubble, and it pooped, out came a whole lot of yelloish redish blood, i had something like that on my tooth once, then my boyfriend said its caused by the infection and would clear up with the antibiotics, since she is still acting normal and i ABSOLUTLY have no money, i hope my boyfriend is right. i also bought one of these collars where she cant scratch her head, just in case.

any thoughts to that?

[Mrs_Savas]

The fluid and swelling sound like an abcess to me but I am also very concerned about the possibility of her having dilated pupils and being disoriented.  Resulting from head trauma, this sounds neurological, could be caused by concussion and really could be a very serious sign.  

I would take her in to a vet immediately, perhaps a different vet for a second opinion.  Animal hospitals, if there is one in your area, are a good choice for cats suffering from trauma.  They tend to have large staffs that have seen a lot of this kind of thing.  I recommend animal hospitals to a lot of people, but even more so for trauma cases.  If nothing else, she will need antibiotics if she has an abcess and needs to see a vet for that.

I wish you all the best of luck.  Please come back if you have any questions or concerns.  

And let us know what happens, ok?