Cow's in-grown nail or something else?

Cow has been having this wound on his paw for sometime now. I took him to see the vet today and it is possibly an in-grown nail or something else which cannot be determined until he goes under sedation tomorrow. But it is infected already and he is currently on antibiotics.

The vet said the options are to cut open the wound, clean it up and push the nail back, or if it is badly infected, digit amputation might even be necessary. This means part of his toe might need to be amputated.

I hope it won't come to that, but the vet says if this nail is prone to being in-grown and might cause repeated infection, the digit amputation might be better in the long run. Otherwise, it might become a persistent problem.

The vets do not know how the nail became this way. And Cow has always had a high threshold for pain, so he did not seem to be disturbed at all by it. The vets said it is actually a very painful wound. Cow has been behaving and acting normally.

 Waiting for our turn at the clinic.

 Pressing the pus out, but not all of it.

 The nail is not supposed to come out from there; we don't know how it came to be like that.

 I will have to give him 2 antibiotics, twice a day, for 7 days, so please wish me luck.

Today's dosage was given with minimal struggle as he was caught unawares. Still, he spat it out twice. I used the "vertical carrier" technique to pill him - it's the only way that would work. The antibiotic tablets are big as this is the dog tablets. Cow's weight is 6.3kg, so the cat tablets are not strong enough for him.

The procedure is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I hope it will turn out well. Digit amputation sounds scary, especially to us. I'm consoling myself that the vet said it may be for the better lest he gets repeated infection on that paw. But the vets will open the wound up and see what needs to be done.

The last time Cow went to the vet was when part of his ear was bitten off in a fight with an alley cat (in the old house). The vet cleaned up the wound and said if it did not heal, part of his ear might have to be amputated. Luckily, it healed nicely and became a "V" notch, which is just as well as he is a neutered cat.

The "trouble" with Cow is that he has such a high threshold for pain, you wouldn't even know if he were in pain. When he was just a little over 1 year old, he had a huge wound on his back, the size of a 50 sen coin. He demonstrated no pain at all. He went under sedation and the wound was sutured, then he bit off the stitches (wormed his way out of his e-collar). The wound was re-sutured and he had trouble waking up from the sedation. He bit off the stitches a second time, and the wound was re-sutured a third time, but this time, under very, very careful sedation and special suturing. The vet remarked that Cow could really endure pain. Later on, he had an abscess on his paw which was real bad. It took three of us (my children and me) to hold him down each day to dip his paw into some warm liquid.

Cow...will always be Cow.