Scratched by a Stray Cat

[Gelly]

Hi,

My husband and I have been feeding feral cats for a few months now and we recently noticed a young cat about a year old who didn't seem as scared or skittish as the other cats. We have been TNR'ing the cats and we caught this young cat yesterday, and we are hoping that we can adopt her if it turns out that she has no owner and she is not feral. At any rate, we transferred her to a bigger cage and when I was putting food in the cage, she lashed out and scratched me on my thumb. It felt deep and bled a little, but it is a small area of skin. I washed it immediately and put antibiotic cream on it. Now I am concerned for my health. I have been reading about cat diseases and am a little worried. Does anyone have any experience of being scratched by a stray/feral cat and what did you do about it?

Also, does the fact that she lashed out mean that she is feral? Up to that point, she was very calm and wasn't aggressive at all. I just checked on her a short time ago, and she is sitting at the front of the cage, very quietly staring out. She didn't move when I approached her, although when I moved my hand towards the cage door (to fix the towel which is partially covering that area) I saw her paw move upwards as if she was getting ready to strike. I definitely feel aggressiveness from her now, probably because I was the one who trapped her. I have also noticed that she is shaking a little, and I didn't see that when I first trapped her.

Our local animal shelter only does neutering/vaccinations for strays on Tuesdays, so our options are to wait until then (five days) or pay to get her neutered and vaccinated at our locat vet which is costly. However, we have two cats of our own and, even though we are keeping this cat downstairs away from our other animals, I am still concerned about their wellbeing. I would appreciate any advice, thanks.

 

[susanm9006]

Thank you for taking this cat in! Scratches don’t usually cause infection as often as a bite does so just keep an eye on it and if you start to see redness or swelling, see your doctor. And any cat, regardless of how tame or not they might be, will lash out and scratch or bite if they are feeling trapped or frightened. It may take time, especially her vet visit and spay before she relaxes enough for her true personality to appear.

 

[Caspers Human]

The good thing is that you treated your wound right away! Good for you!
(Good for you to be taking care of your neighborhood cats, too! )

As with any cut, scratch or minor injury, wash it with soap and water, put some antiseptic on it then put a bandage on it with antibiotic ointment. The sooner you do this, the better.

Chances are that you'll be fine. Just keep an eye on it until it heals. Look for signs of infection and all the usual suspects.
If it doesn't start to heal up in a couple-few days or if it gets worse instead of better, call the doctor right away.

Although there are a few diseases that can be passed from cats to humans through a scratch or bite, they are actually pretty rare.

If you take normal precautions, I don't think you've got anything to worry about.

But, if anything goes wrong, call your doctor... just to be safe.

 

[fionasmom]

Thank you for helping this cat. I only work with and own strays and ferals. It is completely possible for a feral to be sociable and it sounds as if this girl has that potential. She is frightened because of the trapping; of course, you are doing the absolute right thing to get her TNRed, so don't feel bad about having done this.

My Jamie, who was rescued as a month old kitten abandoned by a feral mom, is difficult to crate. I would not necessarily judge a cat by their dislike of crates and cages. TCS is full of threads and comments about personal pet cats who are incredibly difficult to get to the vet because of this issue.

There is already good advice about the scratch. Normally, a bite would have been worse because the bacteria from the cat's teeth and mouth enter so easily with those tiny sharp teeth. If anything looks amiss, definitely get to the doctor, but I think that you will be okay with tending to the wound.

 

[maggie101]

I rescued a black kitten. Right after I posted her on nextdoor I got a response. She was adopted the next day. When I brought her in she played with me the next day. When the people came to pick her up the kitten scratched me because I was trying to put her in a carrier. Luckily they still wanted her.i convinced them that she was just scared. The kitten was sleeping with them the next day

 

[Gelly]

Thank you to everyone for the replies, I appreciate it. Our young stray is still very scared and lashes out when we open her cage. She is so scared right now and there is nothing we can do, as we have a few days to wait until we can get her to the shelter to be neutered and vaccinated. The good news is that she is eating and using the litter box in her crate, and she sits at the front, looking out when we are not around. We are preparing the small spare room for her to stay in when we get her back from the shelter, and she will be free to roam around in there until she gets used to us.

As for my thumb, it hurts a little but there is no swelling, so I think it's going to be okay, but I am keeping an eye on it.

Thanks again for the replies. I am learning a lot from this website.

 

[di and bob]

Bites are much more apt to be serious. I have been bit very deeply many times and then never see the cat again. Now THAT is scary. Of course, I have been taking care of cats for over 50 years and bound to get bit/scratched at times. I had ONE time getting scratched very deeply in the arm, by my own cat by the way, who I was holding and the neighbor came up behind us with their huge dog, and by the next day my whole arm was swollen and red. I still didn't go in and everything is fine.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Hi,

My husband and I have been feeding feral cats for a few months now and we recently noticed a young cat about a year old who didn't seem as scared or skittish as the other cats. We have been TNR'ing the cats and we caught this young cat yesterday, and we are hoping that we can adopt her if it turns out that she has no owner and she is not feral. At any rate, we transferred her to a bigger cage and when I was putting food in the cage, she lashed out and scratched me on my thumb. It felt deep and bled a little, but it is a small area of skin. I washed it immediately and put antibiotic cream on it. Now I am concerned for my health. I have been reading about cat diseases and am a little worried. Does anyone have any experience of being scratched by a stray/feral cat and what did you do about it?

Also, does the fact that she lashed out mean that she is feral? Up to that point, she was very calm and wasn't aggressive at all. I just checked on her a short time ago, and she is sitting at the front of the cage, very quietly staring out. She didn't move when I approached her, although when I moved my hand towards the cage door (to fix the towel which is partially covering that area) I saw her paw move upwards as if she was getting ready to strike. I definitely feel aggressiveness from her now, probably because I was the one who trapped her. I have also noticed that she is shaking a little, and I didn't see that when I first trapped her.

Our local animal shelter only does neutering/vaccinations for strays on Tuesdays, so our options are to wait until then (five days) or pay to get her neutered and vaccinated at our locat vet which is costly. However, we have two cats of our own and, even though we are keeping this cat downstairs away from our other animals, I am still concerned about their wellbeing. I would appreciate any advice, thanks.

Hello G Gelly and family, and welcome to TCS! THANK YOU for caring and for putting your caring into positive action for cats! You have gotten a lot of very good replies and I can't really add to them except to welcome you and say that my *Prayers* and best wishes go up, and out, for you and for the cats you are caring for. Definitely keep the scratch clean; hydrogen peroxide is very good at foaming out any germs that might be in a wound, followed by triple antibiotic cream or gel, and a bandage. Unless there is redness and/or swelling, you should be just fine. As others have said, it is really very rare for people to catch anything from cats, who are the cleanest animals besides marine animals. Bites are always worse than scratches, from any source, as mouths, including human mouths, are full of germs. You can wear heavy gardening gloves, welding gloves, or other very heavy gloves when feeding or dealing with any cat who does not yet trust you. There are "play mitts" sold in "pet" supply venues that serve the same purpose. They are very thick and often faux fur. I have one of these for playing with my girl, who was born feral. It is wonderful! I don't need to use it any more (she's 17 now!) but it's great for any time when there might be claws out.

 

[maggie101]

Thank you to everyone for the replies, I appreciate it. Our young stray is still very scared and lashes out when we open her cage. She is so scared right now and there is nothing we can do, as we have a few days to wait until we can get her to the shelter to be neutered and vaccinated. The good news is that she is eating and using the litter box in her crate, and she sits at the front, looking out when we are not around. We are preparing the small spare room for her to stay in when we get her back from the shelter, and she will be free to roam around in there until she gets used to us.

As for my thumb, it hurts a little but there is no swelling, so I think it's going to be okay, but I am keeping an eye on it.

Thanks again for the replies. I am learning a lot from this website.

Maybe I'm just lucky that my cat is so well behaved. When I rescued her she was in an included rectangular bed. Everytime she would put her claws out I would say no. Now she no longer does it

 

[Meowmee]

Hi,

My husband and I have been feeding feral cats for a few months now and we recently noticed a young cat about a year old who didn't seem as scared or skittish as the other cats. We have been TNR'ing the cats and we caught this young cat yesterday, and we are hoping that we can adopt her if it turns out that she has no owner and she is not feral. At any rate, we transferred her to a bigger cage and when I was putting food in the cage, she lashed out and scratched me on my thumb. It felt deep and bled a little, but it is a small area of skin. I washed it immediately and put antibiotic cream on it. Now I am concerned for my health. I have been reading about cat diseases and am a little worried. Does anyone have any experience of being scratched by a stray/feral cat and what did you do about it?

Also, does the fact that she lashed out mean that she is feral? Up to that point, she was very calm and wasn't aggressive at all. I just checked on her a short time ago, and she is sitting at the front of the cage, very quietly staring out. She didn't move when I approached her, although when I moved my hand towards the cage door (to fix the towel which is partially covering that area) I saw her paw move upwards as if she was getting ready to strike. I definitely feel aggressiveness from her now, probably because I was the one who trapped her. I have also noticed that she is shaking a little, and I didn't see that when I first trapped her.

Our local animal shelter only does neutering/vaccinations for strays on Tuesdays, so our options are to wait until then (five days) or pay to get her neutered and vaccinated at our locat vet which is costly. However, we have two cats of our own and, even though we are keeping this cat downstairs away from our other animals, I am still concerned about their wellbeing. I would appreciate any advice, thanks.

Yes I have experience. My merlin bit me while he was outside before I took him in he had already been TNR and had been vaccinated once for rabies but the vaccine was expired only just. I quarantined him for 14 days to make sure he did not have rabies and the time I read a lot online about rabies extensively and decided to wait and not seek a rabies pep for myself. Because I am a high risk I had to go to a doctor it was OK because he said no cats in our area have rabies. This is not entirely true because I found there were 2 cases in the past few years but none of them transmitted it to anyone. But the idiots at the front desk made me fill out a form with the county health board I wrote on the form that he was vaccinated and no one contacted me. It was very worried that they would come and take all of my outdoor colony away. Etc. even though they had all been TNR and vaccinated once.

You are in a good situation because you have this cat inside so my advice would be if you are high risk try to get an antibiotic- you can just tell the doctor that you scratched yourself on metal or something if you don’t want to tell them about the cat or you can say it was a random stray cat or something. They will probably give you an antibiotic and a tetanus shot. You can just observe kitty. In order for rabies to be transmitted via saliva she would have to be within 3 to 6 days of becoming symptomatic and she would be dead soon after that so you will know in 14 days for sure.

There was a very good chance you will be OK. If the scratch is on your hand there is a higher risk you could get a systemic infection so I do recommend taking an antibiotic. But many people have had the same situation and have done nothing except to treat the wound with cleansing an antibiotic ointment and they have been OK.

As far as the cat becoming tame or being feral. You can tame her in spotr the fact that she scratched you- it does not mean she can never be tamed can not be an indoor cat. Most likely she did this out of fear. You can’t push the cat’s boundaries you have to slowly tame them either by caging inside or keeping them in a small room etc.

Merlin is now a big love bug. I trained him not to bite anymore he was never really doing it aggressively anyway I’m not really sure why he even bit me he was trying to stop me from walking away from him and he was already touchable outside but he did show signs of aggression when I first TNRd him and released him.

I just took in another cat who has been outside for two years, Xena. He was very scared and aggressive when I first trapped him and I had to put him on gabapentin for a while but now he’s a total love buggy, lets me touch him, groom him etc. and he’s very sweet although he is still pretty skittish. I make sure that I never push his boundaries and I don’t push to do anything that scares him. Let the cat lead the way.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Good information, Meowmee ! However, I would STRONGLY suggest not mentioning cats in conjunction with scratch or bite. It may put the cat or even the cats in the entire area at great risk. G Gelly One of my (indoor, adopted, greatly loved) cats scratched me once and I made the mistake of mentioning it to his vet, who was very upset that I did not have him quarantined. So I learned a big lesson from that. NEVER MENTION THE CAT.

 

[Meowmee]

I forgot to mention that if your cat or dog is vaxed and up to date etc. or even not up to date but vaxed fairly recently for rabies def do not mention it to dvm etc. if they just happened to scratch you or snapped at you randomly etc. If they are indoors only and have not escaped and a bat etc. has not been in your home, the chances of them having had an exposure is pretty much nil.

Because even vaxed cats and dogs are required to be quarantined if they bite and a bad dvm can cause problems requiring that you board them at a high cost, reporting you etc. if the vaccine is not utd. It’s worse for dogs usually.

I agree with that and if you seek treatment tell doc that a random animal caused it and ran away or that you cut yourself on metal outside etc. if you need an antibiotic, you should also get a tetanus shot.

I have only read of one case of transmission of rabies by cat scratch. It was one of only seven people worldwide who have survived rabies after the virus cause neurological symptoms at which point fatality is nearly 100% sadly.

Rabies is one of the few viruses that can be treated after exposure and before the neuro symptoms begin because it has a slow incubation and has to travel to the neuro system. Depending on where the bite/exposure is it can take longer for that to happen.

It’s recommended to immediately flush any bite or scratch wound with sterile saline for at least 20 minutes to flush out the wound and help stop any transmission. And then to seek RPEP if you seriously think you have had a real exposure as soon as possible, within 48 hours is best.

But even people who have had RPEP after that time when they had a confirmed exposure to rabies from a bat or something like that have survived when they received it later. rpep includes rabies antibody-immunoglobulin injections to the wound and a series of vaccine shots.It isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be.

People like dvm, etc. get the vaccine as a preventative, but they still need rpep if exposed. The vaccine is very expensive and is not covered by insurance unless you have had a confirmed exposure usually. I was thinking of getting it myself after M bit me and since I do rescue but I decided not to do it at this point in time anyway.

 

[Maria Bayote]

Thank you for rescuing this cat. Another Kitty hero! Yay!

Just yesterday I had been scratched by this street kitty I have also been feeding for quite some time. He is familiar with me and even spends an hour or two inside the house just playing with my indoor cats' toys. Yesterday when I carried him to the door he scratched me all of a sudden on the hand, leaving 2 long bloody lines. I washed immediately too, put some alcohol. I have my fair share of scratches every now and then with the outdoor colony. The first time I panicked too, but TCS guys assured me.

 

[Gelly]

Thank you to everyone for your replies. The wound seems to have healed up after cleaning and applying antibiotic several times so I think I should be okay. Thank you all for relaying your own experiences, and I'm glad to hear that everyone is okay

The kitty is still in the crate (medium size dog crate) and while she sits calmly at the front of the cage, she lashes out with her right paw the minute we try and open it. She barely backs away and rushes forward when we make a move towards her. This has made it very difficult for us to give her food and water and impossible to change her bedding. She has messed her area, knocking over her food and water dishes several times as well as pooping and peeing, causing a bad smell.

This evening I ended up using a long dessert spoon to drop wet food through the bars into her food dish. She wasn't happy about that, but she let me do it without issue. On the plus side, when I sit a few feet away from the cage and talk to her, she calms down and, on a few occasions, she even dropped off to sleep. She has also 'talked' to me a few times as well and watches me like a hawk when I move around the room.

We are very concerned about the long wait until Tuesday to get her neutered and vaccinated so we called around to local vets on Friday and Saturday to try and get it done as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we were advised by all that they have a waiting list, and our best bet is to wait until Tuesday, as previously planned, to have the shelter do it. That means several more days of her being stuck in the crate, stressing while we try and feed her. It is not the best situation right now.

In the meantime, we have to figure out a way to clean her cage and change her dishes without getting our hands torn to pieces. That is going to be today's challenge. If anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[Meowmee]

Thank you to everyone for your replies. The wound seems to have healed up after cleaning and applying antibiotic several times so I think I should be okay. Thank you all for relaying your own experiences, and I'm glad to hear that everyone is okay

The kitty is still in the crate (medium size dog crate) and while she sits calmly at the front of the cage, she lashes out with her right paw the minute we try and open it. She barely backs away and rushes forward when we make a move towards her. This has made it very difficult for us to give her food and water and impossible to change her bedding. She has messed her area, knocking over her food and water dishes several times as well as pooping and peeing, causing a bad smell.

This evening I ended up using a long dessert spoon to drop wet food through the bars into her food dish. She wasn't happy about that, but she let me do it without issue. On the plus side, when I sit a few feet away from the cage and talk to her, she calms down and, on a few occasions, she even dropped off to sleep. She has also 'talked' to me a few times as well and watches me like a hawk when I move around the room.

We are very concerned about the long wait until Tuesday to get her neutered and vaccinated so we called around to local vets on Friday and Saturday to try and get it done as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we were advised by all that they have a waiting list, and our best bet is to wait until Tuesday, as previously planned, to have the shelter do it. That means several more days of her being stuck in the crate, stressing while we try and feed her. It is not the best situation right now.

In the meantime, we have to figure out a way to clean her cage and change her dishes without getting our hands torn to pieces. That is going to be today's challenge. If anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

I use a drop trap which is much easier, you can heard the kitty into the carrier portion to clean and just lift up the cage to put food and water in etc. And also for the litter pan- it is hard on my back though. If you can get her into a carrier while you clean the cage and then back that might work. Get some gloves and wear a jacket to protect yourself.

 

[fionasmom]

Check out animal handling glove, raptor gloves, or very strong rose pruning gloves...the kind that go up to your elbow. You can even put another lightweight pair of gloves under them for extra protection. I have found rose pruning gloves to be easier to move my hand; the other two can be stiffer and run larger. Amazon will probably have all of the above and you can see what might work for you. I am very big on wearing gloves around any cat who might not be friendly, including my own when we have to do something unpleasant.

Jackson Galaxy uses a very long spoon to offer food to aggressive cats, so using a dessert spoon is a good idea.

When I was bitten by a stray cat I fed daily, and since have rescued, I did go to the ER at my doctor's insistence because it was an actual bite. I was sure that the cat was healthy and there is no vector for rabies in stray cats in LA county...which the doctor verified. I told them that the cat was a stray who had run off and left it in their hands if they wanted to give me the rabies vaccine, which they did not.