The other night I was stretched out on the couch watching TV. Our two kitties, Sir Hubble Pinkerton and Dr. Hush Puppy were snoozing away, snuggled together under the afghan covering me. While I was trying to get more comfortable, my hand accidentally made contact with the sharp end of one of Dr. Hush Puppy’s canine teeth. While the impact itself lasted less than a second, the pain that followed was excruciating. It felt like I had been stabbed with an icepick. The wound kept bleeding almost as forcibly as Niagara Falls.
I generally don’t pay much attention to a cat scratch. I simply clean it, pour a little hydrogen peroxide on it and leave it alone. I have never had a serious cat scratch injury, so I think that just some minor attention is all that is necessary.
But cat bites are quite another story! Although technically Dr. Hush Puppy had not bitten me; since a cat’s mouth is loaded with extremely nasty bacteria that can cause serious – even life threatening injuries, being punctured by a tooth could have been just as dangerous.
Following the accidental puncture, I took ample precautions to make ensure that the wound wouldn’t become infected. Fortunately there were no major complications and it is healing well.
Dr. Karen Becker recently posted an excellent article on Healthy Pets that stresses the dangers inherent in cat bites. While they may not look serious, when bitten by a cat, the results can be devastating.
According to the article, a new study was recently performed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN concerning cat bites. While dog bites receive plenty of attention; cat bites can be just as perilous. Because their teeth are very sharp, when a cat bites a human the bacteria in the cat’s mouth are quickly “injected” into the person’s body. In fact, 30 percent of cat bite patients in the study required a hospital stay.
193 patients who went to the emergency room or went to a doctor for a cat bite on the hand or wrist between 2009 and 2011 were evaluated by the researchers. The most common sites for cat bites are on the wrist and hand, and these bites often become infected.
The majority of patients were female with an average age of 49. Approximately 33 percent of the patients were hospitalized for infection or other issues related to the cat bite. The average time for these patients to receive medical intervention was 27 hours.
Of the 193 patients who were in the study, 36 were admitted to the hospital immediately. 154 were treated with antibiotics and discharged. 3 patients received no treatment. The majority of the patients who were treated with antibiotics and released recovered uneventfully, but 21 of these patients eventually had to be hospitalized. Eight patients required additional surgery. The hospital stay for these patients averaged about three days.
Twenty-six of those patients who were immediately hospitalized underwent further procedures. Eight patients required more surgery.
Abscesses and loss of joint mobility were among the long- term complications from the bites that had become infected, and patients who were bitten directly on the joints or wrists were likely to have been hospitalized than those who were bitten in soft tissue.
In her article, Dr. Becker added that the authors of the study acknowledged that while the study was relatively small, the authors stressed that although a cat bite may appear to be innocuous, both patients and doctors should take them very seriously; especially if they appear inflamed or swollen around the bite area. It is worth mentioning, however, that the press got hold of this study and exaggerated and misconstrued it as reported by Michael.
Have you ever received a cat bite? What did you do to have it treated? Share your experiences in a comment.
Jo
- Photo credit: Flickr User CiCCiO.it
- Associated page: Cat and dog bite statistics
I have been bitten by our cat on numerous occasions. They were not serious and I did not have any complications from it. I am not a cat expert by any means, but I heard that when they bite you, that meant that they love you. Of course, he didn’t mean to hurt me in the first place. I just let them heal an never considered it to be a serious condition in the first place.
There was a cat name Jennifer (isn’t that funny) that we were boarding at vet I worked for years ago and she bit me on my hand, that skin between my thumb and index finger and it was a a perfect hole all the way through.I washed my hands and that was about it. I didn’t have a problem with it at all other than it hurt a little. LOL I think some people have reactions and some don’t. Working at the vet, it’s bound to happen, we had cat gear we could wear when handling them but I would never wear it because it made it difficult to handle the cat, so I exposed myself to it, I guess I am just lucky it never turned bad on me. 🙂
Great article, Jo.
Many, many bites, scratches, gashes for me.
By far, the worst is a bite. I’m all too familiar with the stinging and swelling.
I’ve never pursued treatment; but, I did go to a clinic once just to have a ring cut off my very swollen hand to help with the healing.
I, actually, sustain more injuries just trampling through the woods and brush than by cats. My last serious injury was when I bent over, a small twig pierced my eyeball, broke off, and I had the thing just protruding from my eye. I did feel the need to get that checked out.
This is what I hate about cat shows, why should cats have to put up with a stranger handling them just so their ‘owner’ can get prestige!
Those poor cats, stuck in show cages to be gawped at, I wouldn’t blame any of them at all who bit the judge.
True because I’ve never known a cat kill a person or another cat by biting them.
I was bitten by a cat just once…and he got me with all four fangs…just beneath my thumb on the top and bottom of my hand. Although I got up immediately and washed it, the next morning the area was swollen as big as a softball, so off to urgent care I went.
Cat bites I was told are the WORST, especially the puncture wounds as they almost immediately close back up with the germs ‘injected’ deep into the tissue…You just cannot get to them quickly enough to cleanse them. And as far as medication for any infection goes don’t let your doctor give you regular amoxicillin because it won’t touch the resulting infection. I followed up with my regular doctor the next day and he wanted to see me and the medication they gave me since the “doc in a box” said there were only two puncture wounds and I had to say..”NO. Look. Two on top? SEE? Top teeth. Then turned my hand over and showed him the other two. SEE? Bottom teeth!” “Oh.” Overnight the swelling had not subsided much but my doctor did confirm that they DID give me the correct medication (AUGMENTIN) which is the standard antibiotic for animal bites. Eventually the swelling went down but it took a good week. The fang marks on the top of my hand are still visible and if you look hard enough you can see the bottom ones.
The bite was totally my fault…he was a cat from down the street, Chesters daddy actually. All my cats are used to me petting them all the way down their body, but this one wasn’t and when I got to his tail…he nabbed me but good.