HELP! My cat just bit me

Hi all,

I'm sorry if this has been answered before but I'm really freaking out. My foster cat just bit me very hard on my hand. (It's a long story). She's up to date on her shots. I cleaned the wound very well with soap and peroxide and put on antibacterial ointment. Is there anything else I should do? Should I cover it up? I know that cat bites are highly prone to infection, should I be preemptive and get antibiotics? Thanks

I know it is scary. I had one of my cats bite me hard as well. Try to stay calm. Besides cleaning the area, the number one thing you need to make sure is that you are up to date on a tetanus shot. I was not and my finger got infected because of it. Had to go on antibiotics and get a shot. If you are up to date on that , then you should be fine.

Thanks, I checked my records and I had a tetanus shot in 2002 so I guess I'm ok. Should I be washing/draining the wound frequently to flush it out?

Small punctures woulds are hard to flush. And you won't get tetanus from a cat's mouth, the main infections you need to worry about are pasteurella and staph.

Did the wound bleed a lot? This sometimes helps, but won't necessarily prevent infection. Honestly your best bet is to just go to the doctor. Bite wounds are nothing to mess with.

Here are a couple sites you can look at that give step by step instructions of what to do if bitten:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2360_treat-cat-bite.html
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdo...bites/203.html

Hope you heal quickly!

If it gets more red or hot or you see red streaks from the bite wound, then get to your doctor. Did you make it bleed a little before you put bandages on?

It did bleed a little bit, not a lot. Unfortunately we are getting a HUGE snowstorm right now so it's really hard to get out to the doctor--plus I called a few emergency walk in clinics around but they are CLOSED due to the weather--I guess emergency only means if the weather is good

Well I did manage to make it over to the only "emergency" clinic open today--it was either a 2 hour wait there or the hospital ER which I was told had a 4 hour wait (but that's another topic...) Anyways he gave me some antibiotics so hopefully things will be ok.

What one did you get? If a stronger one - you may want to eat some yogurt to help prevent getting diarrhea.

My bite never had any red streaks... it just made my hand, wrist, and arm swell a lot. It did bleed too. In my brother in law's words " it looked like someone was murdered on the back porch"

Hope the antibiotics help.

Amoxicilllin--3x a day for 7 days. Thanks for the tip about yoghurt, I do eat it every day so hopefully it will keep things in check

strange_wings that must have been quite a bite! Did it get infected?

My hand is quite sore and it's bruised and a bit swollen around the bite area but touch wood I don't see any red streaks.

I think the cat knows she did something wrong because she was extra nice to me the rest of the day.

Yes, it did. The bite happened around 3pm, had medical treatment, and by 9 that night the swelling had already significantly set in.
I was lucky that the cat only managed to get two teeth into me - one on my palm and another near my wrist -still a scar from it + scars from the scratches. I can only imagine what would have happened had I just washed it and left it to heal on it's own. I was put on Augmentin x2 daily.


A several weeks ago my youngest step sister had a small bite on her finger, she washed it and put ointment on it. By the next morning it was very infected and she ended up admitted to the hospital for it. Luckily she didn't need to have any sort of surgery on her hand, the surgeon who looked at it said it was a close call.

Animal bites can be scary, even if they don't look like much.