Elderly cat biting open severe wounds

Question
We own a cat that is now elderly. Several months ago, she bit open a wound on one of her hind legs. Every attempt to bandage the wound seems to fail as she will often rip the bandage off and bite the wound open again. Tonight she bit open a second such wound on her other hind leg which bled severely before we could stop the bleeding and bandage it as well as the other leg.

Is this intentional behavior? Could the cat be trying to harm itself like this? We've done our best to take care of these injuries but she simply refuses to let them heal and biting open a second wound seems very unusual.

Answer
Hi Todd,

You need to take her to the vet. It sounds like she has some other underlying problem going on. Excessive biting action such as that is not normal. Your vet will be able to treat the one leg wound. Your cat will most likely wear a collar to prevent her biting at the dressing. Elderly cats need a little bit more TLC. Anytime anything is out of the ordinary a trip to the vet is warranted. Here's a link to a good article.

http://www.2ndchance.info/oldcat.htm  

Good luck and take care.

Ciao, Karen