WARNING!!! CAT SCRATCHES/BITES

[Raven]

Will Pitt! Pay attention to this. A friend of mine likes to roughouse with his cat. Cat got pissed and gave him a good swat on the pad of his thumb. Weekend passed uneventfully. Sunday came and he woke up stiff all over. Monday came and his hand and arm blew up twice their size. Tuesday came and he had a high fever and red lines running from the scratch up his arm. He spent 2 days in the hospital with an IV to fight a deadly staph infection. He is fine now.

Don't provoke that kitty. The Docs told my friend that cat bites and scratches are twice as dangerous as dogs'.

[REP]

1. One of my little kitties sent me to get stitches; gave me cat scratch disease

Two different incidences, too. She's not super cuddly.

[Blue Diadem]

2. I spent several days in the hospital from a cat bite.

It was back in the 80's and the Dr. told me I was very lucky they'd recently developed some newer stronger antibiotics. He said prior to that I would have lost my hand and possibly part of my arm.

I was at my Dr. within 3 hrs, oral antibiotics didn't work, was hospitalized within 24 hours and we watched the redness and tremendous swelling travel up my arm for an additional day after admission. It made it almost to my elbow. Once I was released from the hospital I had to remain on IV antibiotics for 2 weeks.

[XemaSab]

3. This is why cats suck

:P

[amitten]

6. Yeah. Dog bites are way more awesome. n/t

[Raven]

7. They are way more awsome but much less toxic...if you survive the

initial bite, that is. :-)

[amitten]

10. It must be all the poo they eat. Very sanitary for one's blood. n/t

[Arugula Latte]

27. Especially when dogs rip half of someone's face off. n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. how many people do you suspect die from cat attacks vs dog attacks?

[XemaSab]

13. It was a semi-facetious remark

In my 30 years on earth, I have been bitten by strange dogs twice.

I have owned 7 dogs and 1 cat.

I have one small scar on my arm from a dog scratch that I am hoping will go away. I have about 5 scars from the cat on my face alone. x(

[Bertha Venation]

4. The solution: adopt a de-clawed cat!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=8616702&mesg_id=8616702

Can't help you with the bites, though.

[leftyclimber]

5. Cat bites are not to trifle with.

I got bitten in the arm a few years back with similar results to your friend's. My arm was not a whole lot smaller than my calf. (I had 27 individual punctures, so there was a LOT of infection going on.)

I was on superduper IV antibiotics for several weeks. My vet at the time took pictures of my grody giant infected arm with the red line running up it and hung it on the wall in the waiting room to warn people about the dangers of cat bites.

[DeepBlueC]

9. I just got a big gouge today

at the base of my thumb. I was trying to remove my cat just as he was about to have at the neighbor's cat (on our deck) and he was primed to respond so I got it. I washed it right away with disinfectant cleaner. I hope that does it.

[JitterbugPerfume]

11. cats require a good deal of understanding

to say the least .

Take my Lilith for instance---she is fucking NUTS but I still love her

[Mollis]

12. Oh, great. My cat attacked my arm on Monday.

It hasn't gotten weird or anything yet though. Maybe I'll get lucky...?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. If it was going to get infected youd have noticed by now.

I got an infected cat bite once and it swelled up and turned red by the following morning. Cat bites are nothing to mess with.

[Mollis]

17. Well...that is a relief...

I was getting worried....hearing stories like that. It's scary stuff. Especially since my cat always brings in and eats dead things. yuck

[nickinSTL]

14. my cat used to bite me on a regular basis

had him for 15 years, and he had...issues. I suspect he was abused as a kitten (before I got him) - and he had anger issues. If you didn't do what he wanted, he'd get angry, and just kinda snap...and bite anyone in the way.

He wasn't much into scratching, but we (me and my family) got bitten frequently. Never had any problems from it...don't even remember any of the bites getting infected.

Not to say it doesn't happen, and that you shouldn't be cautious, but it's not inevitable, and it seems a bit like fear-mongering (I'm sure that wasn't your intent, though)

[Raven]

21. Gosh! Not my intent at all! I had not even considered this problem until

I heard it from my friend today. I just thought it was worth posting especially since my kid goads his cat all the time and has the scars to prove it.

[nickinSTL]

32. Yeah, I didn't think that was your intent

just that while I know that such extreme reactions to cat scratches do happen, it's not overly common, at least in my experience, and I've been scratched by lots of cats (and bitten frequently by my own, as I said) with no problems whatsoever.

Basically, I'd say that it's good to be aware of the risk, but don't freak out just because you've been bitten or scratched by a cat.

[Lyric]

16. I get cat scratches all the time, playing with mine.

I've been lucky so far, and have never gotten an infection.

[rug]

18. Cat scratch fever.

It affects your mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2yt090aEu4

[Jamastiene]

19. There are 96 diseases you can get from cats...

not including rabies. These are just diseases you can get from scratches and bites.

I can now finally use the useless trivia my mother quoted to me as a child every time she nagged me to wash my filthy, grubby hands.

Jama's Mother yelled this 6,745 times to poor Jama when she was a kid:

"There are 96 diseases you can get from the cat litter box. It doesn't matter if you yourself did not play in the litter box. The cat carries those 96 diseases. You pet the cat and have all those diseases running around ALL OVER YOUR HANDS until you WASH those nasty filthy hands."

Yell this in the "NO WIRE HANGERS" volume and tone from Mommy Dearest and you'll have it about right.

My therapist said to expect my therapy to be a lifelong commitment. I imagine they'll have a therapist appointment lined up for me when I finally die and get to Hell. Yup, I'll still be doing therapy in Hell. It'll never end. I'm still in therapy. I may never be right.

[applegrove]

20. A window partially closed on my cat. I went to open it so the cat could get out and he bit me.

My finger blew up a bit and turned red. I went to the hospital thinking they would cut it open to release the puss but they didn't. They just gave me a prescription for antibiotics. It was really hurting so I did the operation myself. The puss was opague in pale pink. Instant relief. I cannot remember being in such pain due to a physical reason before. Moral of the story be careful of cat bites.

[LisaL]

22. My cat smacks me if he is mad at me.

So far so good. I haven't got sick.

[Lil Missy]

23. Is this the same cat who steals your credit cards?

:scared:

[Kat45]

24. Cat scratch fever. It's not just a Ted Nugent song.

It's real. I didn't even find out it was a real thing until recent years. I would have never thought twice about damage from cat scratches before.

[Flaxbee]

25. My big 20 lb-of-muscle tuxedo, Ivan, has told me he'll turn my face into

hamburger meat if I f*ck with him too much. I believe him. :D

Cat bites can cause permanent damage, and cat scratches, depending on what the cat has on his claws, are also dangerous. Best not to f*ck around with kitty too much.

[havocmom]

26. tell Will to put on oven mits before rough housing with the hairy bastard

Wayward daughter has special 'cat wrestling' oven mits for playtime. Saves a lot of pain!

[Arugula Latte]

28. Publc Service Announcement: Just put a little anti-bacterial cream on any scratch (e.g. Neosporin)

immediately after a kitty incident. Then you should be fine.

[Arkansas Granny]

35. That's what I do with any cat scratches that draw blood and I've never had

a bad reaction to cat scratches (knocks on wood). My Tootsie plays hell with my legs. If she jumps into my lap and slips even the least bit, her claws come out. She doesn't scratch intentionally, but it's very rare that I don't have a couple of superficial scratches on my legs.

[geardaddy]

29. Great now I have this guy's song in my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2yt090aEu4

:puke:

[jus_the_facts]

30. Wash wound...pour rubbing alcohol on wound... some peroxide next... then some Monkey Blood....

....and some Neosporin...on a band-aid if necessary!! Should keep ya ass outta the ER for chrissakes. :D

Monkey Blood...for those who're not familiar with the term...



:hi:

[riverdeep]

31. When I was a kid, I had a cat that I used to play fight with all the time.

I would put my hand up a few inches to his face, and let him attack me. He would lunge and bite and scratch and I always walked away with scratches over my hand and forearm, sometimes pretty deep. He moderated his bites but didn't seem to have much control over his talons going into me. Sometimes he would do that thing where he would get my whole forearm and pull with his front paws and pushed off with his hind paws. I got pretty much immune to the pain. A good time was had by all. He would also lunge at my feet sometimes when I would walk by, that actually hurt. It went on for a couple of years but then we both got tired of it. I never did any infections, fortunately. Pregnant women should also avoid changing the litterbox as well.

Pets can actually be good for a child because it helps to strengthen their immune system. Mine is pretty strong anyway.

[BreweryYardRat]

33. This is why you should wash injuries with rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide.

I've never had a cat scratch get more than a little red after a dose of antiseptic.

[DainBramaged]

34. Been tore up by my cats for nearly 40 years.......

As my doctor examined the gouges in my arm last week from my playing with my kitty, he got all concerned. Until I told him that I must have an immunity to cat 'staph' since Ive never contracted anything from a cat bite or scratch. I washed the scabs off the other day. My hands were tore up November and December to the point they asked me at work what was wrong.


This was wrong



.