Comments on: How to Treat a Cat Bite

on 4/23/2008 I was just bitten today buy a Ferrel cat on my left index finger. it swelled up after 2 hrs. i went to the er received Anitbiotic drip and a tetnis shot. i was bitten in a joint. i was reffered to a hand specialist. Needless to say, the cat will be taken by Aminal Control tomorrow. For a 10 day hold. For the fear of raibees (EXCUSE THE SPELLING) . Oxicodone effecting typing one handed.. I will let yall know of the results.

on 4/23/2008 I was just bitten today buy a Ferrel cat on my left index finger. it swelled up after 2 hrs. i went to the er received Anitbiotic drip and a tetnis shot. i was bitten in a joint. i was reffered to a hand specialist. Needless to say, the cat will be taken by Aminal Control tomorrow. For a 10 day hold. For the fear of raibees (EXCUSE THE SPELLING) . Oxicodone effecting typing one handed.. I will let yall know of the results.

on 11/11/2007 cat bite- On march 19 2004 I was bitten in the thumb joint by a vaccinated domestic cat. Within 48 hours I was in surgery and was told my arm would propably have to be amputated. 16 weeks later of intervenous antibiotic 4 times a day I experienced excruciating, crippling, passing out pain. This was eventually diagnosed after seeing countless doctors in numerous cities to be reflex sympathetic dystrophy. After over two and a half years of a level 9 to 10 pain 24 hours a day it started to subside. In the mean time, since I could not function because of the pain I lost my buisness of 15 years that was doing about 2 million dollars a year. Today I still cannot handle cold on my hand without going into severe pain causing me to physically get ill. _______________________________ CAT BITES! THEY CAN ALTER YOUR LIFE! BEWARE! BECAREFUL! BE THANKFUL YOUR NOT ME.

on 9/22/2007 I got bitten by my cat on my left index finger middle joint. Saw my Dr. the same day and he put me on Augmenten for a week and gave me a tetnus shot. Did not even tell me to follow up, but I did a week later and put me on another week of meds, but I asked for a referral, and 9 days after the bite I saw a hand surgeon that admitted me to the hospital immediately to do surgery the next day. was in the hospital 3 days and went home with a pic line for IV Invanz for 20 days. The infection was so bad it ate a hole through my tendon and destroyed stuff inside. He put some internal stitches in and a week later I had the external stitched removed. I had to take 4 weeks off of work, $35,000 billed to my ins(thank god for that), and 2 1/2 months of therapy, my finger will never be the same, cannot straighten it and I won't be able to fully ever.If I waited any longer i could have lost my finger.

on 8/16/2007 I'm really surprised to read all this. My cat bites my partner and myself constantly (once or twice a week) and draws blood reasonably often, but the bites have never been much more than superficial, and have never needed any treatment.

on 7/23/2007 All cat bites are "HELL" go to your doctor asap, get surgery as soon as your doctor recommends. I sprnt ove #30,000.00 because I did not have insurane. Go to your doctor now.

on 3/27/2007 I was bitten by one of my cats this past Thursday, 3/22/07. I've had minor bites and scratches before, but this one was extremely severe. I had been bad over the past few months and had been feeding stray's outside. Not long ago one got inside and attacked my two indoor only cats. We immediately took them in for rabies shots. So, Thursday night, I was outside petting one of the strays. When I came back inside my male cat jumped up on my lap and sniffed my hand. I went to pet his head and BOOM! He laid into me! It was slow motion. I have two small puncture wounds on my palm, and on large on on the back of my thumb, right at the joint. I knew IMMEDIATELY I needed to go to the ER. I've NEVER been to the ER, I'm usually very stubborn and figure I can take care of things myself, but even as the attack was happening I KNEW it was bad. The big puncture wound to the back of my hand bled profusely. My husband and I were set to close on our first house the next morning! We were going to be moving. So much for lifting boxes. It was horrible. I had just gotten out of the shower too. It was around 9:45pm, my hair was wet, I was in comfy clothes. But I was filling up paper towels (all we had available since everything was packed up for the move!!!) faster than I could count. When we got to the ER the gave me a tetnus shot and I'm on Augmentin. My hand was very sore over the weekend because I still had to help out with the move, but appears to be getting better. I think maybe because it bled so much it kept bacteria from getting inside so much. It's been 5 days now and the swelling is down and I was finally able to move my thumb yesterday. I wash it with antibacterial soap and put neosporin on it constantly. I only kept it bandaged (with bandaids) for the first day since puncture wounds really need to breath. It really looks like it's getting better but some of these stories scare me. I'm glad I decided to go to the ER immediately. I'm not sure what to do with my cat. He's not usually aggressive with me, but he can be with other people. I know he was just smelling another cat in his territory and felt threatened, but my husband and I want to try to have kids soon and now I know that he could definitely maim (if not kill) a baby. Plus I'm sure he was stressed with the moving stuff as well. I just don't know...

on 1/21/2007 I was bitten on the hand on the 5th of december by my 9yr old cat. my hand began to hurt that night, and by the next day it was red and swollen and i could not straighten my hand. on the 6th, i went to see my GP who put me on a dose of antibiotics and gave me a penicillin shot. my hand was put in a sling. i went and saw him again the next day and was told to come back the next day to check on it. it was getting worse though. on the friday (8th), i saw him again, and he arranged for me to see a hand surgeon to have a consultation. that afternoon a surgeon saw it and immediatley told me i had to have surgery. i had a debridement that night and stayed in hospital until the 13th, and had another wash out on the 11th. i was on an IV treatment of antibiotics for this time. i was released from hospital on the 13th, and every day for the next week i was returning to hospital to have an IV treatment. on thursday the 21st i went in to see my surgeon and a physiotherapist and he squeezed my hand and pus came out of the surgery wound. he told me that i would again have surgery on my hand. that night my entire tendon on my middle finger was removed and a majority of my knuckle bone because of the infection of the pasteurollisis. i stayed in hospital for another 2 weeks until the 4th of january, having another debridement on the 23rd of december. while i was in hospital i was receiving a penicillin IV treatment and Flagel IV treatment. now that i am out of hospital i am recieving Benzyll Penicillin via an IV Infusion pump through a PICC line, and taking flagel orally. i have been on this for almost three weeks and hopefully get off the IV pump on wednesday the 24th, and i think staying on oral treatment for up to 6 months. my middle finger is now basically useless and cannot lift it straight and i have no knuckle. anyway i still have the cat after all this. hes a good boy.

on 1/10/2007 I have been severly bitten by a cat on three different occations. Let me tell you, I have never once let it "heal on its own". There is absolutely no way that it will not get infected..especially if they are deep puncture wounds. On the very last occasion I was bitten (last week, and may I add the worst of all three times) my hand was swollen within 15 minutes. Fortunately I work for a Dr. and was called in a script immediately. I am currently taking a 10 day antibiotic twice daily. If you happen to be allergic to the penicillin family, doxycycline (better known as vibramycin) works wonders! It has been one week since my little incident and I am healing wonderfully. My advice to someone whom is bitten by a feline-seek medical attention imediately. Same day treatment is crucial, and can save you some healing time.

on 12/12/2006 i got bite from my cat a week ago, on my left hand right on the middle knuckle. it's painful, i can barely move my two middle fingers an the joints are swollen along with my hand. doc has me on iv antibiotics and i go to the hospital once a day for it. yesterday the surgeon had to open it up an clean it out, now its a wait an see thing. from what i have been readin, i should be havin iv treatment twice a day, so i will be askin doc bout it tomorrow. also, from what ive read the healing process takes awhile, an christmas is around the corner
:( ohh well i just hope my hand gets better!! Tina

on 11/18/2006 I have been a Vet Tech for 15 years and have been very lucky to have not been bitten, that was up until Nov 4, 2006. I was restraining a cat and taking the necessary precautions even though the cat showed no signs of aggression. I loosened up my grip when i started getting a cramp when the cat came up with no warning and bit down on my index finger very hard. He wouldn't let go and bit down even harder as if he was eating a chicken bone. I still was holding him by the scruff and finally pulled him off. Immediatly i put my hand under water and began to scrub with wound cleanser. I did that for 10 minutes, put it on ice and went to the ER. There they gave me a tetnus shot and started me on Augmentin. The next day my hand was very swollen and very painful. By Monday morning it was clearly getting worse and i went to the doctor who sent me right to the hospital to be admitted and put on IV antibiotics. Tuesday the 7th the Orthopedists came in and announced i need surgery that day. At 5 pm i had surgery to clean it out. I stayed in the hospital till Friday the 10 th but didn't leave until they put a "PICC" line or central IV line in my inside upper arm. This allows me to give myself antibiotics (by IV) every 6 hours. I have to do this for a total of 25 days and see the Infectious Disease doctor and Ortho doc every week. I am out of work till this is over. It has been 2 weeks now and i still have numbness and pain in that finger. The infection was in the tendon and down into the joint. I was lucky though because it didn't get down to the bone or in the bloodstream. Cats carry alot of bacteria in their mouths and it is the same bacteria that rats carry which is in the same family as the plague. Especially if the cat is sick or is older. Which this cat was both so he had a lot of bacteria. Moral of the story... cat bits are serious and can even be deadly!

on 11/11/2006 A cat bit is very serious. I have had two small punctures. Each developed into redness, pain, swelling within hours. Because I didn't get IV antibiotics for the first bite I was in the hospital for three days with IV treatment for 2 weeks and loss of work time. I got to the doctor within 2 hours with the second bit and had to convince her to give me the IV as well as the oral medication. It took 36 hours for the infection to turn the corner and start to calm down. This is a very fast acting bacterium. Clean the wound immediately and get to the doctor ASAP and don't take no for an answer. I think my doctor went to look it up after initially refusing the IV and then came back with the order for the initial dose of IV antibiotics.

on 10/28/2006 Be Prepared - Last week I was holidaying in Turkey. My Documents included my "Jab" card. I was playing with a stray cat when he suddenly turned and bit me on the edge of my hand below my little finger. There was hardly any sign of the wound, but I knew the teeth had gone deep. I washed my hands under running water and applied an anti bacterial cream. I then checked my "Jab" card for my Tetanus record - OK. There was very little blood in spite of squeezing the wounds. I applied more anti bacterial cream before going to bed and tied a handkerchief around my hand. Next morning my hand was hot, red and swollen. I decided not to go to a local Doctor unless the redness started to streak past my wrist.(I was going home at the weekend anyway) As amateur therapy, I exercised my hand by squeezing a tennis ball. After three days the symptoms started to improve. I am now home - there is a small lump under one of the tooth bites, but the bone under the other bite is still tender. If this had happened at home - I would have read the articles on this website and sought medical advice. As it was, I was thankful that my innoculations were up-to-date.

on 9/5/2006 I was bitten by my cat at 6 AM (what a wake up call). My cat was sitting on my head board looking out the window when a cat in the area jumped up and hissed at him. He freaked out and jumped down to hide, but he had gotten his foot tangled in the blinds. He landed on me and my husband and I were bit numerous times trying to free him. My husband and I both washed off our wounds with soap and water and applied ointment on them. My husband healed with little problem, I on the other hand ended up swollen from the moment it happened till they admitted me to the hospital four days later. I received a booster shot and started a oral antibiotic. I had to report to my doctors every day after as they watched the bits (a total of thirty two puncture wounds).

When I left the hospital I was put on two more antibiotics and now I am going in to have a nerve test. The doctor who treated me swore that the numbness I was having in three fingers would go away after the swelling went down.

So if you ever get bit by a cat, get medical help , and if you feel that they are not knowledgeable with cat bits get a second opinion!

on 8/27/2006 I was bitten on the finger by a house cat while trying to break up a fight. This was a puncture wound and I cleaned it out with hydrogen peroxide and antibiotic ointment and covered it with a Band-Aid. I awoke the next morning and my finger had swollen to the point that I couldn't bend it. I went to the ER and was immediately treated with IV antibiotics. The doctor pointed out the red streaks going up the inside of my wrist, which is indicative of the infection going into the blood. I had no idea how serious this could have been.

I love cats, but am now very cautious when it comes to a little scratch or over-playful bite. Each time, I control the bleeding, clean the area with plenty of soap and water, pour hydrogen peroxide over the area several times, blot it dry, apply antibiotic ointment and a Band-Aid. Then go to a doctor!