Oh my Gosh! What a Scary Freak Accident!! (Long)

Last night just before bedtime, I was standing on a single-step stepstool checking to see if the potatoes for planting had started sprouting. The stepstool is one of those metal kind that folds up flat for storage. So, I'm standing on the stool, which is near the cat food storage containers. Hannah always follows me over there and she generally jumps up between my legs and hops on the tops of the food containers thinking she'd getting some crunchies. I don't know what happened, but she lost her footing and fell in the 6" gap between the step stool and the hutch. Then she starts SCREAMING!!! I look down and the little "toe" of her back left paw is stuck in the HINGE of the stool!

Every time I tried to reach toward her to get her paw unstuck, she'd try to bite me and scratch me. We were both scared to death. She's hissing, screaming, and crying and I'm yelling for Mark to come help me. I knew I was going to have to take whatever type of scratching or biting she was going to mete out because I HAD to get her to stop moving so we could get her toe unstuck. (She'd already managed to flip herself over and I was so scared she was going to break her foot.) When I reached for her, she clamped her teeth down on my left hand...HARD (!!!) and I scruffed her with my right hand and she stopped moving. Mark reached between my legs and was able to get the stool folded enough to get her toe out. She managed to limp out of the kitchen, quickly!

We checked her out and there was no open wound, bleeding, or massive swelling. She was limping on it last night, but didn't let that keep her from eating Tumbles' food. LOL This morning, she wasn't limping, but she also wasn't wanting to walk on it too much. She's bright eyed and alert, eating and using the box normally. I called the vet's office and they told us to keep an eye on her and if we notice it swelling, turning colors (bruising), or she starts limping too much to bring her in immediately and they'd do an x-ray and probably give her something for the inflammation and pain.

It scared Tumbleweed so much that he wouldn't go in the kitchen last night at all. Every noise startled him while we were finishing cleaning up the dishes and getting ready for bed. He was so nervous and concerned about Hannah. All I could do when it was over was cry!

I have 2 nice puncture wounds on the palm of my left hand. Last night I washed my hand well with antibacterial soap and warm water, then treated the wounds with hydrogen peroxide. I put Neosporin on all my wounds and bandaged it up. I brought epsom salt with me to work today so I can soak my hand while I'm eating. My hand is a little swollen, so I'm keeping a close watch on it.

To think what could've happened is so scary!

OMG that would freak me out!! I hope Hannah is okay, and take good care of that hand!! Healing vibes!

Yikes! That sounds awful for everyone!

The groomer at my vet's recommends filling a sink with water as hot as you can stand it, putting in a splash of clorox and then soaking until the water gets cool. I unfortunately had the opportunity to try that out after an accident happened when I was pet sitting at my neighbor's and I avoided any major problems and I had several bites and scratches on the underside of my wrist, so it made a believer out of me!

Feel better soon!

C

I had a major scratch from Nora a couple weeks ago b/c I was watching one of those videos on Facebook, where it is a little girl dancing and then all of a sudden a creepy face pops up and screams REALLY LOUD!! Nora was sitting on my lap and both that video and me screaming b/c of it (LOL) scared the piss out of her and in her attempt to get the hell out of my lap she scratched the top of my hand, in the web between my thumb and my fingers, across the top almost to my wrist. It was a big scratch that bled like crazy. It is just now healing up and I'm going to have quite the scar. I feel bad for her b/c she didn't know what was going on, but I thought it was really funny! haha

Poor Hannah - I hope her toe is okay! Are you UTD on your tetanus shot? Believe it or not, that's the first thing they gave me in the ER last year when I was bitten, and I'm supposed to go for a booster this week. If your hand gets hot or starts to really hurt, go to the ER. Cat bites are nothing to mess with - I ended up in a cast last year, and the wound had to be cut open and cleaned out repeatedly. I'd also immediately cleaned it, but it was deep and didn't bleed enough.

how´s Hannah?... ..poor girl...

Oh wow, what excitement in the kitchen! I'm glad you both came out of it pretty much ok. Just keep an eye on Hannah and your hand.

Oh WOW that's scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope Hannah continues to be OK, and that the steps you took will be all that's needed for those bite wounds.

Geez - really got my heart beating just reading about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know they'll have to report it, but you really should have went to your GP today and got started on some antibiotics. Cat bites usually get infected and if you have a lot of swelling it's already infected and you need to be on them now. Don't wait till it gets worse or you get a fever.

Never pour anything over or into (including running water) a puncture wound. This pushes debris back into the wound and increases the chance of it becoming infected.

I have a couple of cats that react that way, too. I grab the nearest cloth item to throw over them (have even used my own shirt to restrain Tomas before) rather than go in bare handed. One serious bite was enough.

Originally Posted by jcat

Poor Hannah - I hope her toe is okay! Are you UTD on your tetanus shot? Believe it or not, that's the first thing they gave me in the ER last year when I was bitten, and I'm supposed to go for a booster this week. If your hand gets hot or starts to really hurt, go to the ER. Cat bites are nothing to mess with - I ended up in a cast last year, and the wound had to be cut open and cleaned out repeatedly. I'd also immediately cleaned it, but it was deep and didn't bleed enough.

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I had a tetanus shot 2 years ago after I tried to slice off the tip of my finger out in the garden. So, yes, I'm up to date with that.

Hannah's doing okay, but I'm going to give her a good look here in a little bit when the husband gets back from the post office. He was out of the house for most of the day, so I'm not sure how active she's been.

My hand is doing okay so far. If it looks any worse tomorrow, I'll probably call the doctor.

OMG Hannah must have been so scared, that's why she bit you. She didn't understand what was happening, she didn't understand that you were helping her. You might have accidently hurt her, and that's why she bit you like that. I hope Hannah's paw is ok. I hope your hand is ok.

Do NOT put Neo on puncture wounds .. that also traps the bad stuff in there... soaking is good. I wouldn't mess around with a cat bite that bad.. I would go see the doctor ASAP.. it can go from a little swollen to GET TO THE ER in a very short period of time.

That can be so traumatic. I hope Hannah is doing well and your palm's healing well.

Glad nothing really bad happened

If you call the doc DO NOT tell him it was YOUR cat. Say it was a stray or something.

Hope you & her are ok!

Oh gosh, the most innocent things sure can bring on bedlam!

I hope your hand and Hannahs foot are ok.

Oh hun, how heartbreaking! I feel so bad for both Hannah AND you!

A friend from work recently had a similar experience when her cat got a claw stuck in her screen door. The cat freaked and bit/attacked her pretty goo, simply because she was terrified.

Dear lord, what a freaky incident! I hope Hannah's paw will be Ok and that your hand will be OK, too.

One reason I DON'T want to go to the doctor is because they'll report it and I'm afraid they'll take my Hannah from me. I couldn't stand for her to be taken from me, even for a short period of time. She had a 3-yr rabies shot in 2008, but I can't find on her paperwork where it shows it was a 3 year shot.

Call the vet and make sure you have a proper copy of it. Unless the vet used was incompetent they will have recorded the batch number and type of vac somewhere in the paper work as this needs to be recorded for the vac records to count at all, plus it also needs to be listed to keep track of possible problems with the vaccines used.

As suggested, lie and say a stray did it rather than seeking no medical treatment at all.