Kitty Drama

Recently my cat was injured in a fight with my roommate's cat.
He left with a puncture wound (the size of a pea) in his underarm and what appeared to be a small cut on the outside of the same arm.
I am determined not to go to the vet for it.

A friend of mine and I tried to stitch it up to no avail, but the puncture wound is healing nicely.
The small scratch on his outer arm is proving to be the problem now.  A couple days ago the skin around it filled with liquid and when hubby pushed on it, Vincent growled.  He then proceeded the lick the crap out of it and the next time I saw him he had a set of puncture marks on the outside of his arm and it had drained.
This means the wound is trying really hard to get infected.
So now, I'm doing warm/hot Epsom Salt compresses and keeping it super clean in hopes that I won't need to kill our pocketbook to help fix him up.  It seems to be working.

I am keeping a very close eye on it to make sure it doesn't get any worse.  If it gets worse he is certainly going to the vet, but I'm hoping he won't need to.  He's handling it very well when I torture him with soapy water and sticky bandages (which I'm pretty much wasting).  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I'm the one doing it and he's in his own territory.
I'm hoping to keep it that way.


So now you know how stubborn I am about any sort of medical system.  I'm determined to find another way, until there is not other way.
On the same note, I'm not insanely stubborn.  I'm capable of recognizing when I cannot possibly do anything else; when outside intervention is necessary.

I'm just of the opinion that outside help is less necessary than people perceive.