Cat Scratch

maxy24

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so yesterday I decided to take my cats out on their harness for the first time. Well Willie loved it! He hopped around and rolled in the dirt, he just had a lot of fun. Later I took Neko out and he seemed more nervous. I touched him and he hissed.When he noticed it was me he started purring and got all lovey duvey and rubbed me. Well a few minutes later something spooked him and he started to run. He hit the end of the leash and began to panic flipping in all directions in the air and almost came out of the harness so I started to move towards him so he could move forward and stop pulling at the end of the leash. Well he started to run and so I ran and my foot steps scared him more so he ran faster. We ran half way across the yard and he decided I was trying to hunt him so he turned around, lept at me hissing and flailing his arms. I moved back so he only got my hands are arm. Then he started running again and finally turned ran up the wood pile and tried to squeeze through the bars of the deck. He hit his head then rocketed through. When he got to the end of the leash he started flipping out. He was spinning i the air and smashing himself up against the grill and the brick wall. The racks leaning on the wall fell on him. Mom came out when she heard the noise and I said mom can you call Neko. She did and at that point he wiggled out of the harness and ran to the door, into the screen, bounced off, mom opened the door and he ran inside.
Neko is never going outside again. He was fine with me when I went inside to see him.

I probably should have let go of the leash but he would have run like that for a long time, especially if the leash was dragging behind him and could never have forgiven myself if he got hit by a car since our street is pretty busy.

Now my question. When he scratched me he only barley got me. On my left hand there is a small like four centimeter scratch. On my right hands there is and even smaller, slightly deeper scratch between my hand and index finger knuckle (it's on the finger not the knuckle joining the hand and finger but the one half way up your finger). Then there is a small puncture right above the index knuckle, and a scratch about 2 inches on my arm.

Mom was all scared that he had "ripped me up" I went in, washed them with soap and hot water, put peroxide on and then neosporin. A bruise was forming around the puncture above my knuckle immediately and my finger swelled up. Dad said he must have popped a blood vessel. So I iced it to make the swelling go away and then Mom told me to soak my hands in warm soapy water. So I did that then reapplied the peroxide and neosporin. My finger hurt. I had spray bottle to spray my lizard and could not use it because it hurt too much. I shook my hand and that killed too. I went to bed and now I'm up and it hurts worse. I opened the clamp on the cats food,not using the index finger and pain still went into my finger. Now what worries me more is that I can't bend it all the way.

If you hold my hand in front of me, vertically with my finger tips pointing up and bend all my fingers all of them curl and the finger tips poke into the palm of my hand. The index finger goes until it is pointing down toward the ground but can not go all the way until it touches my hand. If I push really hard I can make it but it hurts a lot and feels like I am stretching an elastic further than it can go, it goes back to it's most comfortable place as soon as I relax my hand. Also my finger is not out stretched as far as the others when it's relaxed. Instead it is bent up a bit more. I can flatten it out easy but it kinda feels like I'm bunching up the skin on top of my knuckle.

I know the problem comes from the puncture since if I gently poke it pain shoots up my finger and the other cuts don't hurt at all. When I stretch out my finger and make it as flat as I can, on my left hand it kinda of dips down then curves up and the tip. With my right finger the cut one) it gets flat but does not go beyond that to the curve. The skin (the wrinkly skin on top of the knuckle) does not go in it sticks up more, like it's swollen, but the finger is not swollen it just seems like that skin it. When I flatten out my right and left index and push on top of the left knuckle I can feel the bone. On the right I can't. It could be I'm not pushing as hard because it hurts so much though.

Do you think it is just because of the popped blood vessel or do you think there is something wrong with my finger?
 

leli

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I think you have a bacterial infection. Cats have a lot of bacteria in their mouths and the puncture sounds more like a bite than a scratch. One infection caused by cat bites is Pastuerella, which has a rapid onset (within 24 hours or so) and causes swelling, redness and pain disproportionate to injury. That's what this sounds like to me. I think oral antibiotics are necessary, at a minimum. Go straight to the ER. Even if it's not an infection, there's something going on and you need to have it looked at. Definitely don't wait, as infections caused by bites can progress rapidly and become very very dangerous.
 
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