HELP! My cat got spayed and I think somethings wrong!

[Corryn]

Hi all,
My 9 month old kitty, Lilo, was spayed on Friday.
She's been doing fine on the antibiotics and pain killers (although this morning when DH woke up, he stepped in a trail of diarrhea)
This morning, I noticed that she had a "pouch" below the area of her stitches. DH said that it was normal, that I'm just noticing it because there's no hair, but I thought it looked kind of strange.
Also, because she's a calico, she has a lot of black hair, and because her abdomen was shaved, I don't know where the black hair was. There is a much darker skin patch right around where the hematoma is, but I'm not sure if that's more blood further under the skin or if it's just from her black hair.

Then when we returned home this evening, I saw the hematoma. If you look at the photos, you'll see the site of her stitches are fine, but she has that pooling of blood under her skin and that has me worried.

She is acting strange, and meowwwing more than usual, but she is very active. She's not biting us like she was when we restricted her food before the surgery. In other words, she's not grouchy. I know when I'm on pain meds I act differently, and I still have some sort of pain, low throbbing pain, not the shooting pain. The vet told me to make sure she doesn't run around a lot, but how the heck can you hold back a kitty cat?!?!

I've been searching the web and I can't find anything. I'm hoping one of my DIS buddies might be able to let me know what they think.
Thanks

 

[MosMom]

I don't know but I would call the vet tomorrow and I would call tonight if your vet has an emergency number.

 

[Charade]

I second that. Call the vet! STAT!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

No harm in calling the vet and asking their opinion. Better safe than sorry.

 

[I Love Pluto]

I don't know but I would call the vet tomorrow and I would call tonight if your vet has an emergency number.

I agree. Hope your cat is OK.

 

[Corryn]

Thank you all for responding
I was planning on calling in the morning. She doesn't seem warm and like I said, she's pretty active. The vet opens at 8:00.
But if anyone else has seen something like this, can you let me know Thanks again

 

[mantaz]

I think I would call the emergency vet just to be safe. It may be normal but you will sleep better knowing for sure.

 

[RNMOM]

Gently touch the reddened spot and "palpate" (feel) around gently. Does it feel soft and smooth and flat like the rest of the abdominal area or do you feel a hard or firm swelling? If you do, take a ball point pen and circle around the lump you feel. This will allow you to tell if it is getting worse in an hour or so as the swelling would extend outside the inked in area.

If it is soft and smooth, call the vet in the am. If it is tight or firm and especially if she cries when you touch it or acts like it really hurts her, call the vet tonight.

It isn't unusual to have some bruising around the area of any surgery. It could be simply from the retraction of the opening.

Try keeping her resting in a favorite spot or on your lap or bed. I understand what you mean about keeping cats on "bedrest"! Impossible.

 

[Jpgirl]

DD is a vet tech and she said it's normal. Just a hematoma from the stitches. She said if it starts to protrude (ie filling with more blood) call the vet. She thought the area looked really good.
LOL-I had a hysterectomy last year and I wish my abdomen had looked that good.

 

[nhrenee]

Poor kitty. Hope everything is ok. I have to say the first picture looks like it would be great for LOL cats (icanhazcheezburger.com)

 

[Corryn]

Gently touch the reddened spot and "palpate" (feel) around gently. Does it feel soft and smooth and flat like the rest of the abdominal area or do you feel a hard or firm swelling? If you do, take a ball point pen and circle around the lump you feel. This will allow you to tell if it is getting worse in an hour or so as the swelling would extend outside the inked in area.

If it is soft and smooth, call the vet in the am. If it is tight or firm and especially if she cries when you touch it or acts like it really hurts her, call the vet tonight.

It isn't unusual to have some bruising around the area of any surgery. It could be simply from the retraction of the opening.

Try keeping her resting in a favorite spot or on your lap or bed. I understand what you mean about keeping cats on "bedrest"! Impossible.

RNMOM, I started nursing school in February (RN ) and just last Saturday during clinical my professor stated that she had done something similar to one of her patients, but she said she circled the blood on a gauze pad.....Thank you for that suggestion, I'm going to do that right now...

DD is a vet tech and she said it's normal. Just a hematoma from the stitches. She said if it starts to protrude (ie filling with more blood) call the vet. She thought the area looked really good..

Thanks so much for looking!

LOL-I had a hysterectomy last year and I wish my abdomen had looked that good.

I had two c-sections and my ovary removed......You're right, her belly looks a lot better than mine, too

Thank you all again for the good advice. I'm going to circle it now, just in case. DH wakes up at 2:00 a.m. to go to work. I'll leave a note with him asking to check it and let me know if it's bad...
I'm off to bed - Thanks again!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

When we got my puppy Gracie and had her spayed she also developed a hematoma....It looked worse than you cat.

She was just so active and playing with Butters (our other pup we got) which is what caused it. Brat.....