Stories of how you got scars from your cats?

Hey- I thought it'd be interesting to see how many of you have scars from your cats and how?

I'll start. I have many small scars from my cats but only one required an ER visit and stitches....

Last May I had quit my old job and was taking a few days off before starting my current job which meant I had no insurance during that time.

One night, I was reclining on the couch and waved a feather wand for Pepper to play with.  I waved the wand in front of my face (I wasn't thinking!!) and Pepper wriggled, crouched then leapt.. I thought she'd jump over my head but she miscalculated and her back legs ended up clawing at my right eyelid.

She literally created a deep wound in my eyelid and it bled profously. By the time I ran to the bathroom with my hand cupped over my eye, my blood was all over my pajamas and the floor.

I ended up going to the ER that night and got 6 stitches and a tetanus shot.  Since I had no insurance, I ended up paying over $600 for 6 stitches, care received and so forth....

I have a picture from that night (after my eyelid was stitched up) but I think it's too graphic for this forum?)

Now think about it- I had to start my new job 1-2 days after that so it was very embarrassing for me to go to work, introduce myself and meet people while my eyelid was all swollen, blue/black and had stitches in it!!!

Now I have a scar across my eyelid. Luckily it's not very noticable. You'll only notice it if you look at my eye closely.

Now it's your turn to tell your story!

I have a scar about 1-2 inches long on my left forearm. I adopted a dog from a shelter and Scotty was freaked out over having a strange dog in the house. So I picked him up and was going to put him over the dog gate so he would be able to look at the dog from the other side, but he panicked and jumped out of my arms, scratching me with his back claws, which of course are duller and thicker than front claws, leaving a more jagged cut that left a scar. I think that's the only scar I have from a cat.

This is probably the worst I have ever heard of a cat inflicting on a loving owner. Apart from the fact that you really asked for this one and I am happy to hear that you didn't suffer a worse injury (you could have lost an eye) you obviously forgot that cats have little scimitars hidden in their soft paws. I have my share of scars on my arms and wrists and hands. My Persian cat has no claws in front (no, I did not do that) so she uses her teeth instead when I comb her and there is a tangle or worse. I have puncture wound scars from those. Those tiny fangs HURT! Another cat at one time jumped on the arm of the chair, sort of missed and so scrambled up to keep from falling back down. Unfortunately she only managed to get hold of my arm, dug in her claws and then slid down anyway, in the pocess putting two long slashes into my arm. The scars are still there and will not go away. I probably should have gone to the ER but I just washed the arm and put a bunch of bandaids on the slashes, pulling the sides of the wounds together. Those are probably the worst scars I have caused by cats. I am not looking forward to more but I'm sure there will more eventually.  

Jamie sent me to the ER twice after biting me in the right hand while all hyper about the Christmas tree. The first time was the worst, because the wounds were infected within hours and required surgery, a cast on my arm, and reopening multiple times by a surgeon to clean them out. The second time wasn't too bad, because I was at the ER within half an hour and no infection set in.

I have a couple of small scars from two of my cats. Only one required seeing the doctor for.

One is a 2 inxh scar on my arm the Luckly didn't need to see the doctor as it was a minor cut that was easily treated with ccleaning and OTC meds.

The 2nd was a scratch on my eyelid from attempting to bath Lil' Jag after she rolled in some bbq ashes. It required me seeing the eye doctor the same day. He cleaned it off real good and only had one stitch. The eye was fine (thank goodness for glasses). She now sees the groomer for her baths......... (She's a Persian cross btw).

Got scar on palm from redirected aggresion when cat I owned for week or so got whiff of unneutered male cat. Few scratches from baths.  Bite from some cat I got out from under a porch(couple was moving right time right place to help).  Never went to ER.  oh same cat who scratched palm also bit my leg as I passed out once and apparently kicked him on way down...feel so bad as he was abused.  Do ok for most part considering I have a lot and deal with ferals here and there. 

I got my first scar about a month and a half ago.  I had put some drain cleaner down the bathtub drain so I was closing the door.  Patches was at my feet and his tail got caught in the hinge side of the door, only the second time I heard him hiss and I have had him 10 1/2 years.  Before I realized what I had done he had bitten me on the top of one toe.  It didn't get infected, I think because it bled a lot.  I was sweating that because Patches doesn't get vaccinated anymore because of health issues.  In this state anyway all animal bites have to be reported.

I've had a few scratches the 2 worse ones were from my rescue cat maple beautiful girl she is but so not submissive I tried bathing her in the sink one time didn't go well her front claw got the top of my hand and hooked in quite hurt and was hard to unhook her claw from my hand left a sorta needle mark with bruise and maple again once she escaped outside jumped into a neighbours yard and I'm sorta calling slash chasing her because of dogs in neighbouring units and main road well when I got her she showed me what she thought of not being able to have complete freedom and dug her claws in my chest I love my girl aswell as my other girl but they don't like baths and maple doesn't like getting captured after escaping

I have had other injuries from cats, but I can't find any scars. . .and usually I scar easily. Once when I was a kid, my kitten was in heat (the vet had a waiting list so we couldn't get her in right away) and we were catsitting a friend's 2 neutered males. I thought seeing a male, even neutered, would make her feel better so I took her to their house. And, well, their older male didn't think much of that idea :lol3:. He totally shredded my legs. Actually I think he was de-clawed so they all must have been bites (lots of them!). But I don't see any scars from it.

The only scars I have are from the first time I tried to bathe both Yuki and Amaya as kittens- they did not hesitate in sinking their razor sharp kitten teeth into my hand! 

  Oh my.......some of these stories sound horrible! I have never experienced a serious attack or situation with a cat, or any animal, where I needed stitches, i have been skin broken bitten or scratched  by cats several times throughout my life. First time I was 18, a stray neighborhood kitty got a little to excited when I showed him/her attention. My family freaked out, I got tetanus shot, they wanted to find cat to test for rabies. I was more worried about kitty! It wasn't a vicious attack, it was a OMG, your giving me love and this excites me..... warning. If that makes any sense

    My right hand basically has Maia's signature all over it in kitty scratch .  I have been bitten pretty good or had claws dug into me deep enough to leave a puncture and nice bruise over the years by my beloved kitties, but nothing worthy of stitches or that I would even concern myself about a scar.

    And I hope to keep it this way!

Lots of little scratches especially since Aya is a nipper. But the worst injuries I got from cats were while I was working at the veterinary clinic as a receptionist. the first one sent me to the Dr. for antibiotics and had to fill out workman's comp papers. I was rounding up one of the hospital cats, not the most friendly one and as I picke dher up to carry her to her cage at closing time she chomped down on my index finger. the small white scar is hidden in the crease of my first knuckle, but boy was that a deep puncture wound and it got infected almost instantly. In 4 hrs my finger puffed up like a balloon and by the time I saw the Dr. the next day it was like a swollen sausage.

The second time, I got badly clawed by a patient cat. I happened to be walking by in the back hall next to an exam room as the Dr. was passing off this black cat to a tech to do a work-up when the cat (who has warnings all over the file about being unfriendly) went Jekyl/Hyde freak out, jumped out of the techs grasp landed in a sink and jumped on my knee and shredded it! Yep, I wore skirts to work with black tights. Those tights were goners as well as getting my knee shredded.

If you ever get the impression that your Vet likes seeing cats less than dogs, here's why... dogs being social animals are very predicatably aggressive. They give good signs they are going to loose it before they do nd measures can be taken. they also respond better to social pressures put on them by their "human pack ". Cats, unless you know them very well suddenly decide "that's it I've had enough, I'm hurt, scared, annoyed -whatever..." and flip out. I know because I've been there and I now have one of those cats with the warning at the top of the file "Aggressive, bites!"

l've never been bitten, thankfully. l've had scratches from play (l know, l know  ) and l had the pad of one of my fingers sliced open by a cat who l was teasing under the bottom of a door 

The only scar l have was from childhood when a neighbour's cat was attacking our cat. l scruffed the neighbour's cat who whipped around and stuck one claw deep into the meaty part between thumb and index finger. The scar is still white even though l didn't get it stitched, or even treated.

I had a vet once that scarred very easily. Her forearms looked like she had tangled with barbwire, but they were all cat scratches she had suffered in the past.

I did have Lucy bite me on the thumb when I was trying to pill her. My thumb looked like a big grape tomato an hour later. Then DH and I had a discussion over the next two hours on how bad it was (DH said it couldn't be infected that quickly). Fortunately, I knew of jcat 's injury and told him to take me to the ER. The rest of the evening was spent hooked up to an antibiotic IV. The next day was dealing with all of the pus oozing out of it. I can't see a scar, but can feel it in the tip of the thumb.

Interesting stories!! Thank you all for sharing.

Glad to know that I wasn't the only one who had to visit ER for a cat scratch. *rolling eyes* Hopefully that was the first and last time for me in the ER related to cat scratches.