Pet Health: Wounds in Cats & Dogs

Cat wounds do not heal as easily as dog wounds. Maybe cats need nine lives because their wounds become abscessed so easily. In addition to being predisposed to developing abscesses, cat wounds are slower to heal than dog wounds.

There are two ways to describe healing wounds:

• wounds that are stitched up--these undergo what’s called “first intention” healing, and
• wounds that are left to heal on their own--these undergo “second-intention” healing.

Stitched wounds always heal faster than unstitched wounds because the cells do not have to multiply and fill in a large gap. However, with both stitched and unstitched wounds, cats heal more slowly than dogs.

One of the factors that causes cat wounds to heal more slowly is that wound cells contract and pull together differently in dogs and cats. With dogs, the skin cells at the center of the wound began contracting, but with cats, the skin cells at the edge of the wound begin contracting.

In addition to having wounds that are naturally slow to heal, cats often have infected wounds, especially if they are cat-bite wounds. Tiny sharp cat teeth penetrate deeply and deposit bacteria deep within a wound. With a puncture wound, the sides of the wound collapse so that bacteria have an ideal environment—dark and moist—in which to grow. As bacteria multiply under the skin, a fast-acting form of white blood cell (WBC), the neutrophil, rushes to eliminate them. Neutrophils release destructive enzymes that engulf and destroy bacteria. The enzymes also destroy many of the cat’s own healthy cells. This process creates an abscess.

Tomorrow, we’ll cover wound treatment to prevent abscess development.

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