Another anal gland rupture? Gross picture warning... Animax ok for diabetic??

[Seth&Bell]

I woke up early this morning and noticed Bell licking her bottom. I then saw a ball (sized between a large pea and a marble) of whitish pus-like goop on her tail. There was some additional whitish pus coming from the ruptured gland with just a little bit of blood.

Some background:
Bell previously had an anal gland rupture (same gland as this one) mid-June. For that one, I noticed a large amount of swelling in her right anal gland, and when the vet tried to manually express the gland, it ruptured. That one looked 10x worse than this and had lot of bleeding when it happened. That rupture healed in a couple weeks, which I had to cone Bell for the duration. She had multiple shots of Convenia to fight infection, but that was ineffective. After this rupture had healed, she needed the gland to be manually expressed a few more times, where the vet noticed there was still an infection. So Bell was put on a 10-day cycle of Zydaclin, which ended on 8/4. She had a lot of diarrhea during that cycle, but with the help of probiotics has returned to mostly normal (if a bit softer) bowel movements.

I had a vet checkup on 8/9 (different vet than my usual) and she said everything looked great, but she didn't express the gland, which now I really wish she would have.

Here is a picture of her bottom today:

For comparison, here is her original rupture (sorry it is really gross):

I was considering taking her to the emergency vet today (my vet doesn't open until tomorrow), but the wound doesn't look bad to me and she is acting fine (maybe feeling better getting that ball of infection out). She's eating well, playing, and watching the birds out the window right now. So I'm hoping it is ok to wait until tomorrow. There doesn't seem to be any swelling in that area. She's on a very low dose of transdermal tramadol (which i've cut the recommended dose in half), to help with her arthritis back pain, so I upped that back to the normal dose just in case she is in any pain.

If I had to guess what happened, she had that ball of goopy pus blocking her anal gland duct which cause the rupture when she went the bathroom. Yesterday I was a bit discouraged about Bell's high numbers:
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...44-2-5-236-5-242-7-264-pmps-344-2-332.293209/
but I'm guessing these could be due to the infection.

I am worried how to deal with this long term. We definitely need to get the infection under control, but she's already been through multiple rounds of antibiotics. I've read that some cats need to have their anal glands surgically removed, but that can lead to incontinence and other complications. I really really hope I don't need to go that route. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Staci & Ivy]

I’m so sorry to hear about this. Poor Bell
I don’t know anything about this condition so I can’t offer anything to help but I wanted to wish you the best of luck.
It seems like you have a pretty good understanding of what’s going on. I hope your vet can help and get Bell back on track.
It makes sense that her bg was higher as a result of this situation.

I hope she feels much better

 

[Seth&Bell]

Thank you so much, Staci. The moral support you give everyone here is incredible.

I'm way more upset about it than she is :

I'm fairly certain at this point it is a rupture, but it seems to be a very clean one. She has been eating and playing and sleeping all day today. She has left it mostly alone, outside of some minor licking, so I haven't had to cone her, which I am stressed about... I can't even really see the wound at all unless i shine a flashlight on it. I cleaned it with a warm compress and saw hardly any blood or discharge, so I think that is good.

Going to talk to the vet first thing tomorrow and figure out a gameplan going forward. I really really hope we can put a lid on the infection. I fear the cure could also be the cause in a case like this: antibiotics gave her diarrhea, which doesn't give her the fiber to express her anal gland, which keeps the infection from getting out... I'm hoping that ball of gunk was the last of the infection that just couldn't get out the duct of her anal gland.

When we do get the infection under control, I'll need to be super careful about her BG levels in case she's been elevated this whole time due to infection.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I would ask the vet if there's a way to culture the infection and run a sensitivity. It may be that the antibiotic that was used isn't specific to the kind of bacteria. That's what a sensitivity test would tell you. It's typically what's done if a cat has a UTI. I don't know if it's possible with what you're seeing with the anal gland but it may be worth asking.

 

[Seth&Bell]

Oh I didn't realize that was possible. I will definitely ask them tomorrow. Thank you!

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

I feel so so bad for Bella. If you take Bella to the vet tomorrow please keep us updated. That was a good suggestion Sienne gave you if it's possible

 

[Seth&Bell]

Thank you so much, Diane! I will update this thread once I get ahold of the vet tomorrow.

 

[Dyana]

My cat had an abscess on her back leg last year and we thought it was healing and then it came back, so my vet sent out a culture AEROBIC & ANAEROBIC CULTURE (401).

 

[Seth&Bell]

My cat had an abscess on her back leg last year and we thought it was healing and then it came back, so my vet sent out a culture AEROBIC & ANAEROBIC CULTURE (401).

Thank you! Did that help choose the right antibiotic to target the infection?

 

[Seth&Bell]

I have a vet appointment scheduled for this afternoon for Bell. She did great last night and I couldn't even see the wound this morning. But I let my guard down and she reopened it

Still looks pretty good. I would say this is what the first rupture looked like after a week of healing. The stiff cone I have is really hard on Bell, so I've got a softer one coming today. In the meantime, I MacGyvered a temporary one out of some thin cardboard:

So far it is much much more comfortable for her. I'm hoping it is annoying enough to prevent her from getting to her backside (she struggles to reach that far to begin with). We'll see how long it takes her to figure out how to get off

I will update after the vet appt.

 

[Seth&Bell]

Putting the question at the top here, so people don't have to dig through a long post for it. Is Animax ok for a diabetic cat? I just realized it was a "topical steroid" after I already applied it to Bell . This wasn't the vet I've been working with on Bell's diabetes so I'm hoping she didn't look over that fact.. I know infections can raise BGs as well, so would it be worth it in this case? I'm guessing once the wound is scabbed over, this won't do a whole lot, and I'm expecting it to scab over soon, as long as I can keep Bell away from it. Maybe I would just monitor Bell's BGs to see if there is an abnormal rise, altho she's been bouncing around quite a bit here lately. Thanks for any input here.

Got Bell to the vet this afternoon. First thing the vet suggested was to take a culture and send it away to see what kind of bacteria is in there. Big thanks to Sienne on that suggestion!

I think Bell's gland was pretty empty so it was a big struggle getting the culture. Poor girl made sounds i never hear from her . She also bit me, which I fully deserve . The labs will take a week so the vet wanted to start Bell on something until then. She got a cream (Animax) to put on the abscess twice daily (see above question), Clavamox twice daily for a week, and Pro-Pectalin Anti-Diarrheal Gel to use in case the antibiotics give Bell diarrhea again.

I am quite a bit lighter in the wallet, but I am happy that the vet seemed aggressive on this and aligned with y'alls thoughts too.

 

[Dyana]

Thank you! Did that help choose the right antibiotic to target the infection?

Yes, and the culture was expensive. She was put on Clavimox for the time being and switched to Clindamycin after the test results came back.

I have terrible gross pictures of the abscess that I would only show to my vet (they were so horrible). When she saw the pictures, she thought she may have to amputate the leg, and Ginger was 19 at the time. Luckily she cleaned up well, and all healed well.

I do use Animax on the scratches Ginger sometimes gets on the back of her ears, but she is not diabetic.

 

[Seth&Bell]

Thanks Dyana! I'm so glad Ginger's abscess healed up at the time. I imagine that was a nightmare.

I put in a message to the vet about the Animax to confirm it was ok to continue to use. I did use it again this morning. Bell's number were a bit high (AMPS 286, +2 240), but that could be a whole number of factors. I did some digging into the FDMB archives and it seems like some folks have used it with diabetic cats, some of which did see an increase in BG. I'll leave this question open for today and then remove the "?" tag, just in case anyone else has experience. Her abscess already has partially scabbed over, so I can't imagine needing to use the cream for too much longer.