Bitten By A Stray Cat - Need Advice

I got bitten by a stray cat today and need some advice on what to do.  Sorry this is so long...

I noticed this young stray cat over 2 weeks ago when one night after midnight it was meowing outside my door.  I've been leaving food out for the cat ever since and it's been showing up to eat.  The cat is socialized.  I've petted and picked up the cat on three occasions and it sometimes comes running toward me meowing when I call it.  The cat seems friendly and healthy, but it looks like it might have been in a fight at some point.  A week ago, I noticed that one of it's eyes is injured and I noticed what looked like a couple of puncture marks on it's cheek below the injured eye.  Looks like the injury happened a while ago.

A local no-kill shelter agreed to take in the cat.  So, today, after petting it about 10 minutes, I picked up the cat and tried to put it in a carrier to take it to the shelter.  The cat resisted the carrier and bit me on my hand.  The bite is superficial.  Looks more like three 1 inch scratches, but it did draw blood.  Less than a minute after being bitten, I was inside washing the bite and kept the bite under running water for several minutes.  

I later went outside again and called the cat and it came running to me again and it ate some cat food.  We were both cautious around each other this time, though.

I'm nervous about the possibility of rabies.  I'd say the cat has been acting perfectly normal for the two weeks I've observed it and it acted normally today.  That it struggled and bit me because I picked it up and tried to put it into a carrier is understandable.  Can I be reassured by it's normal behavior?

I hope I still have the chance to trap the cat and take it to the shelter, but every night, I worry some that I won't see it the next day.  Now, I'm worried if I don't see it again I may need to get rabies shots.

What are the chances of rabies under the circumstances I described?  How can I catch this cat?  What if I don't see it again?  Any thoughts or advice on the situation would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Rabies is not likeable. But infection by more common bacteria is a real danger. So look up for infections, and if you notice any infection - quickly to the doc for antibiotic shots!

It may be wise if you contact your doc anyway! Asap.  That is anyway, the official recommendation.

Also tetanus is more probable than rabies... Esp if the bite did got deep in.

Are you sure it was just scratches, NOT deep penetration? is the hand aching like from a big force being on it for a moment?  If so, they are prob in deep too.  There is a tremendous force in the cats jaws if it is out for a real biting, and not just desperate to warn you off.

If you have difficult to take him and put into the carrier, use a human trap. The no kill shelter can surely lend one to you.  Or put this smelly, yummy food into the carrier...

Tx for caring!

Good luck!   *vibes*

That said calming about rabies risks - I think in some countries is the official recommendation for officials and vets, if a stray or ferale is biting, even with good reason, count this is potential rabies, and put the animal down...  

ps.  Welcome to the TCS site and our Forums!

It would definitely be best if you could trap him and keep him under observation.  If you don't, you will need to take precautions against rabies.  It's not as bad as it used to be.

HOWEVER, be advised that if you report the bite or tell your doctor what happened and he reports it, it is likely that Animal Control will trap the cat and euthanize it.  You need to balance the possibilities there, I guess.

mrblanche said:

It would definitely be best if you could trap him and keep him under observation.  If you don't, you will need to take precautions against rabies.  It's not as bad as it used to be.



HOWEVER, be advised that if you report the bite or tell your doctor what happened and he reports it, it is likely that Animal Control will trap the cat and euthanize it.  You need to balance the possibilities there, I guess.

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While it is true that he may be euthanized, SEEK MEDICAL TREATMENT IMMEDIATELY if you notice pain, redness or swelling in the bite area. I can't stress that enough. When I was bitten the first time, one of the reasons I didn't seek treatment was that I was afraid of what they would do to the cat. For that, I almost lost my hand, and did lose use of my pointer finger on my left hand. We all want to protect our friends but losing a hand is not worth it. I love cats and do everything I can to save them, losing a hand or functionality of any of my fingers is not something I am willing to do again. And you shouldn't either.

Use a humane trap to catch him and do not release him from the trap until he is safely at the rescue with people that are used to handling unpredictable cats.

Welcome to the site - I am glad you found us! OK - first off - IF the bite is not a puncture and more like a scrape - then it might not be so serious. You DO need to watch this bite and keep it very clean. I also was bit once - just like you are describing - more like a long scrape. I was just fine and needed no medical attention. IF you see it swelling, getting very red and painful, do not wait. Get some antibiotics and see the doctor. Since this cat is friendly and hanging around, I highly doubt this cat has rabies. Keep feeding him and at this point - do not pick him up. Only pet him. He needs to be neutered too and this will cause him to bite and lash out if you pick him up. It is his hormones taking over and he is over-stimulated by your advances.

For the cat - keep feeding this cat to keep him coming around. I would start feeding this cat inside of a crate with the door propped open. Then once he is comfortably going in and out of the crate to eat. Quietly and quickly shut the door when he is in there eating. That would be best. IF you do tell the humane society that he bit you - he might be euthanized - this is not a death sentence though. Most stray cats will scratch and bite when you try to put them in a crate like that. It really was not his fault and I hope that the humane society understands that. SO if your hand is healing well - do not worry and the NO-Kill shelter WILL understand why this kitty did this. He was just totally freaked out. Please keep us posted on this. :cross:

Thanks to everyone who responded.  After I was bitten on the hand two days ago, I immediately came inside and washed the bite with soap and water for several minutes.  It's healing quickly with no signs of infection.  

I haven't seen the cat since Saturday, but I've continued to leave food and water outside and it's being eaten.  I'm pretty sure the food is being eaten by the stray cat that bit me.

Today, I borrowed a cat trap and am thinking about setting it overnight (that's when the cat most often shows up).  If I trap the cat and take it to the no-kill shelter tomorrow, what should I tell them?  Should I tell them that I was bitten but I'm sure it was because the cat was frightened when I tried to put him into a carrier.  Otherwise, the cat has been very friendly.

The law around here is cats should be confined for 10 days after a bite.  Confinement can be in the owner's home, at a humane society, at a vet clinic, etc.  I can't confine the cat in my home because I already have two cats - one with a chronic illness. And, the stray cat hasn't been checked for diseases like feline leukemia.  Do you think the no-kill shelter will be willing to confine the cat?  By tomorrow, it will be 3 days since the bite, so it only needs to be confined for 7 more days.

I started out trying to help this cat and I sure hope everything turns out for the best for him.  Thanks again for the responses.  Still trying to figure out what to do now, so if you have any more advice, please share it with me.  Thanks!

Glad your bites are ok so far I was bitten by a feral once. I soaked my hands in epsom salts for several days and kept neosporin on them otherwise. Totally my own fault. I was trapping her to take her to get spayed and greatly underestimated how a feral cat would react about being trapped. I decided to try and move her from her wet (started raining after I put the trap out) and tuna covered trap. Bad idea... Mitten saw one little inch of space between the trap and carrier and dove for it. Me, being the intelligent person that I am...reached out and grabbed hold of her hind leg. Ah...I can laugh now I got about 20 deep punctures on both hands, one palm got infected but I healed up on my own since I didn't have insurance to get it looked at. When I let my vet know (We DID make it to get spayed!) he told me that's the kind of thing you go to the ER for. My vet quarantined Mitty for 10 days because he was required too, but at least that gave her a chance to heal from her spay. That was almost 3 years ago and Mitten has been an indoor kitty for 9 months now

If you take her to the shelter now, you'll have to tell them she bit you so they can keep her quarantined. They may choose to euthanize her instead---I don't know how no-kill they are. It's a risk. If you wait another 7 days before you take her in, you won't have to mention it. Basically, if an animal is still alive 10 days after it bit you, it was not shedding rabies at the time of the bite. You don't have to keep her confined in order to see if she's still alive in 10 days. . .but if she disappears before then you'll want to go in for rabies shots (even though it would be more likely that a car or a dog got her, not rabies).

I've thought about doing what you suggested -- just keep leaving food out over the next 7 days and hope he keeps returning here to eat every day.  But, that is a risk, too, because as you said he could get hurt in a fight with another animal or hit by a car and disappear.  The cat is male and looks to be 6 - 8 months old.  I've seen him rolling around on the ground on several occasions and spraying.  Don't male cats do that when they are "in the mood?"  There are a lot of homeless cats in my area.  I'm afraid he's out there getting the females pregnant.

If I found out they planned to euthanize the cat because it bit me, I would take the cat to a vet's clinic and pay them to board him for 7 days.  I'm sure he'll be unhappy.  But, in the long run, I think this cat will make a lovely house pet for someone.  So, I'm hoping it's pain now, happiness later.  

I just set the trap.  It's 1 am here.  I'm hoping before sunrise, he'll trip the trap.  I'll let you know what happens. Thanks again for your suggestions.

How kind of you to offer to board him at the vet!!! OR - you could just keep him inside your house - secluded in an area - in a large dog crate for a week before taking him to the humane society. I certainly DO hope you can get him trapped quickly. :cross: or try the crate method if you see him coming around everyday at the same time.

I am sure he is out there breeding - being unaltered. The quicker you can trap him the better :cross:

I know some people would disagree with me but if this was my stray I would not mention the bite to the shelter at all. For one there is really no reason to and secondly it could doom this cat completely unnecessarily. The chances that this cat has rabies is very, very slim. Rabies is an extremely rare disease in cats and if he did have rabies he would have shown signs of being very sick already. But if you do tell the shelter that the cat bit you they may not have a choice but to put him down or it could leave the shelter with the dilemma of not wanting to put him down but not be able to put him up for adoption. Many shelters have policies of not adopting out pets with a bite history and some areas even have laws regarding that. Usually these animals are available to be pulled by a rescue but if no rescue takes them they will either live out their lives in the shelter or be put down. All this stuff has nothing to do with the rabies risk but it's a liability issue. If they know that the animal could bite a person, regardless of why it happened, they won't take the risk of placing it with the public. Cat bites can easily become infected and can get extremely serious. If this cat was adopted and bit someone else and the new owners found out that the shelter knew that he had bit you the shelter could be sued and have to pay out a bunch of money that could be used to help animals. Shelters won't take that risk.

I once pulled a puppy from a shelter that was going to be put down for having bitten a child. He couldn't be adopted because of it and could only go to a rescue which required a lot of pleading with the shelter to begin with. The puppy was not dangerous at all. He had been tied up on a short chain and two neighborhood kids had gone up and started teasing the puppy by poking him with sticks and being generally mean to him. Eventually he lashed out and bit one of the boys. To me it's completely understandable why the puppy bit the boy. I would have done the same had someone treated me like that. But it didn't matter. A bite is a bite regardless of why it happened. It's completely understandable why this cat bit too and I think it would be a real shame if he was punished for it. He's not dangerous and isn't more at risk of biting than any other cat. Any cat can and will bite in the "right" situation. So if it was me I wouldn't say anything about it. There is no reason. If he was an aggressive crazy cat it may be irresponsible to hide that information but that's not the case. He was just freaked out and did what freaked out cats do.

Ziggy'smom said:

I know some people would disagree with me but if this was my stray I would not mention the bite to the shelter at all. For one there is really no reason to and secondly it could doom this cat completely unnecessarily. The chances that this cat has rabies is very, very slim. Rabies is an extremely rare disease in cats and if he did have rabies he would have shown signs of being very sick already. But if you do tell the shelter that the cat bit you they may not have a choice but to put him down or it could leave the shelter with the dilemma of not wanting to put him down but not be able to put him up for adoption. Many shelters have policies of not adopting out pets with a bite history and some areas even have laws regarding that. Usually these animals are available to be pulled by a rescue but if no rescue takes them they will either live out their lives in the shelter or be put down. All this stuff has nothing to do with the rabies risk but it's a liability issue. If they know that the animal could bite a person, regardless of why it happened, they won't take the risk of placing it with the public. Cat bites can easily become infected and can get extremely serious. If this cat was adopted and bit someone else and the new owners found out that the shelter knew that he had bit you the shelter could be sued and have to pay out a bunch of money that could be used to help animals. Shelters won't take that risk.
I once pulled a puppy from a shelter that was going to be put down for having bitten a child. He couldn't be adopted because of it and could only go to a rescue which required a lot of pleading with the shelter to begin with. The puppy was not dangerous at all. He had been tied up on a short chain and two neighborhood kids had gone up and started teasing the puppy by poking him with sticks and being generally mean to him. Eventually he lashed out and bit one of the boys. To me it's completely understandable why the puppy bit the boy. I would have done the same had someone treated me like that. But it didn't matter. A bite is a bite regardless of why it happened. It's completely understandable why this cat bit too and I think it would be a real shame if he was punished for it. He's not dangerous and isn't more at risk of biting than any other cat. Any cat can and will bite in the "right" situation. So if it was me I wouldn't say anything about it. There is no reason. If he was an aggressive crazy cat it may be irresponsible to hide that information but that's not the case. He was just freaked out and did what freaked out cats do.

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I DO agree with you on this - I would also not mention the bite especially since it does not seem to be a serious bite :cross:. It is best not to mention it if at all possible. Yes, any cat, feral or tame can bite when scared and fearful.

Feralvr said:

 Yes, any cat, feral or tame can bite when scared and fearful.

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It is a standard advice for rescuers, when catching ferale/semiferale/stray, to have thick gloves, thick clothes and protective googles (if a cat goes into a serious fight with a bigger enemy, they go for the eyes/face)..

The risk for bites or scratch when catched is big like said. Many just happen to bite, say if a hand is accessible.  Some do bite/claws just to get out, some go into a ferocious defensive aggressiveness.

After the catching, when released into their room with cat igloo, food, water, litter etc, and leaved there to calm down several hours, they understand nobody is really threating them ->- no problems any more.  Just the common shyness, and possibly sometimes some hissing and swatting if you come too near.  But no real aggresiveness, not even from that individual who was raging ferocious at catching moment.

Now, it is easier to be filosofically in Sweden, we dont have any rabies here, so it is "just" for the wounds to heal.   

In countries with the potenial threat of rabies, the situation is partly different.

In some situations every man and women must make her own decisions according to all the circumstances.   You Southerner had got lotsa of good and wise advices and witness tales

Good luck!    *vibes*

Just wanted to add my 2 cents, even though you probably don't need it now.

So glad the bite is healing - it seems like he was trying to be gentle with you. I say this because when I first found my little lady kitty (who btw, is only 6 pounds fully grown - she's TINY), she was not as nice. Another cat walking by scared her, and she bit me so hard her tiny tooth went THROUGH my pinky. No bite I've ever experienced has been this bad since. Not even close. And I have a BIG boy you can see in the pic. When they want to do harm, they do. When they just want to tell you they don't like something, they do it in the way you described. This kitty cares about how much he hurts you. That's a good sign.

Anyway, I had to go to the emergency room and had no choice but to tell them - the doctors could see what it was. Well, animal control called me the next day and wanted me to TURN HER OVER for euthanization!

Needless to say I refused to relinquish her, which they then threatened to come get her! Long story short, if you had rabies, you'd now very quickly. Most people would be dead within 3 days of getting it, more likely 24 hours, if left untreated. You'd also be vomiting, have a VERY high fever - you'd feel like you're dying. I told animal control I wasn't foaming at the mouth and to do their research, and no - no one had rabies! LOL

I seriously doubt this poor kitty has anything like that - more than anything, you get a small infection because of bacteria which a round of antibiotics can beat quickly. Even in my case that's all I needed.

Thanks for all the responses.  I'm just checking in to bring you up-to-date on what happened.  I did catch the cat in the trap.  The cat was very sweet meowing to me even while in the trap.  I took the cat to the shelter yesterday morning and did not mention the bite because 3 days after the bite the cat was behaving completely normally and I thought it was very unlikely that he had rabies.  I thought the cat would be in the shelter for a week, remain healthy and I'd be in the clear.

This morning, I went back to the shelter to check on the cat.  I was told the cat was euthanized yesterday because it tested positive for feline aids.  They said they could not put my stray cat in with the other cats because the other cats might get infected.  I asked if the cat would have died anytime soon from feline aids if I had not brought it in.  They said it would have seemed healthy for a while, but it would have infected other cats in the meantime and eventually died from the feline aids.  

Maybe the cat being euthanized saved some other cats from being infected.  I hope that's true.  But, right now it's very hard for me not to be very sad about the death of the cat and regret that I took it to the shelter.

When I spent time petting the cat on Saturday before I tried to put it into a carrier and got bitten, I noticed what looked like puncture marks which the cat probably received from being bitten by another animal.  The puncture marks were below it's eye that was severely injured.  I'm not sure that the staff at the shelter noticed the puncture marks. I think the injuries the cat had were probably the result of being in a fight. It could have been a fight with another cat or dog, or it could have been a skunk - they are very numerous around here. Rabid skunks are the primary means by which cats get rabies.

Now, the cat is dead. It cannot be observed for 10 days. Today, they told me at the shelter  that the cat was very sweet and it was a shame it had to be put down. So, three days after my bite, the cat was behaving perfectly normally. But, still, I don't think I can ignore the rabies risk since the cat cannot be observed for 10 days to make sure it didn't have a latent infection.  So, now, I'm probably going to have to have rabies shots.

I wish this had turned out better for me and the cat.  During the three weeks I fed the stray cat, I became attached to him and am so sad his life was cut so short.  I'm a bit afraid of the rabies shots, but they'll save me if I was exposed and give me peace of mind.  I hope that others of you have much better luck with your stray/feral experiences.

No way...

Im really sorry to hear about this outcome. Mice and men, no?

If you had told them about this bite, they would keep the cat alive at least for the remaining week to let you get clear...

This become the worst scenario...

Yes, save what can be saved from the disaster. Take your precautions. It will also give you peace of mind in the future, you will surely continue with the holy work of a rescuer.

Good luck!   *vibes*

I'm heartbroken about the cat. I wish I had taken him to a vet for testing and paid to have his eye fixed.  I thought this shelter would take good care of him.  I was wrong and this sweet cat paid with his life.

Today, I've read stories about cats with feline HIV who lived long, healthy lives.  Misconceptions about feline HIV abound at shelters and even among vets. There are feline HIV rescue organizations such as this one: http://www.squidoo.com/fiv-cat-rescue. 

This cat would have done well as an indoor cat in a one cat household. He had such a sweet personality, I think I could have found someone to take him. He seemed completely healthy and was gaining weight from the food I was leaving out for him.

I will never again turn a cat or dog over to a shelter.  They should inform people who leave animals there that the animal won't live to see tomorrow if they determine it's health is below their standards. I have so little experience with shelters, I really didn't know there was such a high risk of euthanasia at a "no-kill" shelter.

I would give anything if I could go back and handle things differently.  I can't and I'll somehow have to come to terms with what happened. But, it's very hard.

Oh hun.... I am so sorry, sweetie.... Please do not be hard on yourself. please. You did the right thing and had no idea of this outcome. I know your heart is hurting right now, but you have a very good heart and your heart was in the right place. When we rescue strays, we have to be prepared for some unexpected and sad outcomes that are out of our control. It just comes with what we do. We can't save them all, sadly so. We are hear for you and please keep posting to let us know how you are doing :heart3:

I am so sorry. You did the best that you could. I took care of a feral cat for over 2 years. He lived in an abandoned house that had been in a fire. The neighbors told me about him. I noticed what I thought was a small wound and had him trapped. I was going to bring him inside since the house was eventually going to be demolished.

When I got home from work, there was a message to call the shelter clinic. They felt the wound was too severe and euthanized him. He would have to have it scrubbed every day and have antibiotics given also. They went ahead and made the decision because he was a feral, and they felt he would not be able to be handled. I was devastated. He didn't matter to anyone in the world, but he did to me. I worried about him when it was cold, even though he was safe in the house.

Shortly afterward, an opportunity came to me to help some other feral cats. I was nervous and stressed to take it on, but I did it for Chester. I am sure another opportunity will come your way also.

There are rewards and also heartaches with strays and ferals.