got bit by a stray kitten we adopted

Hi all, 

Im hoping for a quick response.  About five weeks ago we found a stray kitten in our bushes and my son took him in.  He did not have the money to take him to the vet and I told him that he needed to get him checked.  Well I was feeding him some cat snacks and when he took it from my hand he bit my finger trying to eat  the snack out of my hand,  I quickly got up and went to wash it and blood was coming out.  

I am scared of the rabies thing. it happened an hour ago and I cleaned it poured tons of poroxide on it and slathered antibactirial cream.  I have a doctors appointment in an hour.  I am scared so I guess my question is, if the kitten has been living with us for three weeks playing jumping and acting all cute and happy, should I be concerned?  Please any advise would be appreciated.  I can tell you all are cat people and I want to be too. 

I would indeed be worried, not so much about rabies per se , but by all  the various bacteria in the cat's saliva.

I don't know how deep the wound is, and how profusely you allowed it to bleed.

If you immediately let it really bleed for a couple of minutes,the bacteria are very likely to have been washed out with the blood.

This is why superficial wounds and scrapes are so dangerous. They hardly bleed, so the bacteria stay in the wound.

A deep puncture wound has its own dangers, though. If the wound goes through to the periiosteum, a deep infection may occur without immediate symptoms. The perfusion of the periosteum is not very good, so bacteria are more likely to get a foothold there, even if you do let it bleed.... A friend of mine, who works in a cat rescue, nearly lost his finger to an infection of the bone due to a deep cat bite.

So I would contact a doctor and ask for advice. If your tetanus vaccination isn't up to date, you'd better get a booster, just to be on the safe side.

Any cat scratch needs to be watched fairly carefully.  If there is no redness or swelling, I would say you are probably OK.  However, the tetanus booster is a good idea.

The friend I was writing about, the one with the deep cat bite, did get an infection, which was treated with antibiotics. The inflammation disappeared, and everyone thought that was all tehre was to it. But the infection simmered on in the periosteum, and gradually, he got a soreness deep in the finger,which turned out to be the infection eating into the bone.

He was hospitalized, they operated on the finger and cut away the affected bit of bone,and put him on an AB drip.

In the end, they had to remove another bit of bone and fixed the joint. He can no longer bend his index finger, but the alternative was amputation.

So keep a close eye on it, and if it starts hurting or swelling, let them check for an infection of the bone or periosteum, if the wound is that deep...

Thank
I am at the doctors. It was a small puncture. I squeezed it a blood started coming out. Drops on a napkin. I kept running water on it and let it bleed for seconds. I just freaked out because she has not been to vet, thats tomorrow. I hope it all turns out thanks for the quixk response.

Hope you are doing better! Yeah - bites can get infected quickly. I have Colloidal Silver http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloidal_silver on hand for many different purposes. It really is an excellent disinfectant. You can buy some on-line through Amazon. Keep us posted