Cat Bite, extreme pain, swelling, numbess

my cat bitten me on side off my hand just top off my small finger it started to bleed i got tablets from doctor and i had tecus injection 5years ago my hand is sowllow and painful am i safe

I found out a couple months ago that it takes about 48 hours for the oral antibiotics to start working and reduce the swelling. A couple things I was NOT told at the ER (but my doctor told me the next day) was to use warm compress 3 or 4 times a day which helps break up the infection. Also use cold compress 3 or 4 times to reduce the swelling and take over the counter Alieve. Wrap your hand in a Ace-type bandage to help the blood drain out of your hand.

I found the cold help a lot with the pain and the ace wrap got the swelling down withing 2 or 3 hours.

Cat bites are much more likely to infect you than dog bites. Cat saliva in an open wound can actually give you parasites that can cause these symptoms. I would get that checked out at a hospital, and suggest the parasite idea to them.

So happy I found this!  Long story, but the short part is I was rescuing my cat from a dog trying to mangle it, and of course the cat nailed me.  Many times.  I'm on doxycyline, have been using arnica montana, have been using heat and ice, the whole bit, but I was wondering how long it was going to take for the one really major wound to start responding.  Hearing that so many people have dealt with this and knowing what  to expect is such a great relief!

I'm that rare case where a cat bite required surgery. $14,000 and 2 days on IV antibiotics later, I'm here to advise that you should not take cat bites to the hand casually. Infection can spread very quickly, particularly if it gets in your tendon sheath. Get yourself on antibiotics as quickly as possible! My symptoms were: spreading redness and swelling, intense pain, and numbness in the finger tip of the affected finger. If you have any of those symptoms, get yourself to a doctor or, if necessary, an ER.

Had cats all my life, had scratches, bites, you name it - no problem. All sorts of other animal bites and stings too. But today I got a bite right through my thumbnail during a stray rescue. Now I wish I'd gone to the walk-in centre for antibiotics straight away instead of after work. Thumb is now twice the size of the other and the pain is extraordinary - like constantly stubbing your toe, coming in waves up the arm. So, Mr 'hypochondriac' - you are an id**t who has gotten lucky so far, or at least not a 'proper' cat bite. read and learn. I wish I had.

i to have been bitten by my cat , i was giving her , her normal weekly petting w. her brush to take of excess amounts of fur that sheds everywhere around my house , and she bit me  ! on my middle finger , i really dont know how deep ( im not a doctor ) but it bled alot at first , i washed it off in water , and pampered it w. peroxide, ointment , bandaged it up and took some pain killers . i am not in severe pain to the point i want to go insane but i do want to know if i should go to the doc monday morning or wait out sunday and see from there if anything changes , the cut to me is deep it is a puncture , but not to the point were bone is present , just harmed flesh , scrape , dry blood , and the tissue under the skin . my finger is a bit warm i have noticed , since in ny its cold and all my other fingers are cold , the one bitten seems to be warm , ive read maybe due to healing and blood flow .. im a bit worried =(

Now granted, I was bitten many times on both hands during my incident - I was trying to get a rescue dog to drop a cat, and the cat was taking no prisoners. And I'm no stranger to pain, but by that night I was in a great deal of pain, and my hands were swelling badly. There was a lot of redness at 3-4 of the bite sites, and I started taking it very seriously. Given how fast the bites can go bad, and how bad they can get when they do, I'd get to a doc and get on antibiotics, even if it's just as a preventative. Knowing what I do now about cat bites, if there is *any* swelling, heat or redness, get yourself to a doc.

hey buddy it hurth like crazy a cat bite you did not get infected by your cat bite wait you will cry like a babby to wen you get infected been 6 month now still hurt and will loose mi finger they will have to take it off so think about it dud

This happened to me nine days ago. The excruciating pain was instant because the fang sunk into my tendon and I couldn't move my hand. My hand cramped up. The streaking started within 20 minutes of the bite, the swelling within 17 hours. I knew I had to get to hospital immdiately because of the risk of infection but I couldn't get there on a Sunday or get back. So I had to wait until the next morning. My doctor sent me home on Moxoclav 875/125 one twice a day, arm in a sling to reduce the swelling and told me if the swelling hadn't gone down in a week to come back and they'd put me on IV antibiotics. I was due to have a total thyroidectomy three days after the bite and I knew there was no time to lose. The next day I had to travel a long distance to the hospital for my surgery; by the time I got there the redness was stravelling up my arm. I knew it was cellulitis. My sister, who is a nurse, told me to go to Emergency immediately. They took bloods, did an x-ray to check on foreign body (both came back normal) and put me on an aggressive treatment of IV antibiotics, the first one given in the ED via a drip. The bruising was extensive and I had to put my arm in a sling to reduce the swelling. The cannula stayed in for the three days as an outpatient and was removed only when the dotor was satisified the infection was improving. My white sell count came back satisfactory. Treatement for cat bite is IV anitbiotics, without exception because of the risk of septicaemia and total regimen of 14 days on antibiotics. Also, hand exercises because I still could not make a fist. I am on Day 8 of antibiotic treatment; the swelling has almost gone, the redness has gone, the yellow bruising is almost gone but I still have stiffness in the right forefinger so there is tendon damage. Still have considerable pain and still have to wear a sling occasionally to rest my hand and keep the swelling down. I was told to try and not us my hand too much to reduce the infection spreading faster with circulation. If the swelling or the redness comes back I have been told to go straight back to hospital. Just thought I'd share this because it appears there is some misinformation out there. I was covered for tetanus in the last three years or so, you are covered for seven. I have a three week window to get better or my surgery will again be cancelled (it was not cancelled because of this, all patients had their operaions cancelled the day before as well). So this is a really big deal...wash out immediately with warm water and disinfectant and get straight to hospital. The first hospital I went to was negligent and did not do all the tests the next hospital did. IV antibiotics straight away. You NEVER muck around with cat bite.

This was a good post but i wish you had signed in rather than as a guest. Then you would get a notification if anyone had questions or comments.

An update to my earlier post about getting bitten through the thumbnail - NHS put me on Augmentin (amoxicillin and clavulanate) which is apparently the absolute drug of choice for cat bites. After 3 days of feeling like my thumb was being slammed in a door and the whole hand unusable and looking like a blown up rubber glove, it started to go down. Nauseous, dizzy and bed ridden. It took 2 weeks for it to go completely. Now I'm fine - the nail has almost grown out, but you can see black streaks in it showing where the infection had grown (you couldn't see anything but a puncture at the time. Which makes me glad I didn't wait any longer. Get this as soon as you're bitten, don't wait.

I was recently bit by my cat. I was going to give him a bath because he was dirty and stinky but that wasn't the brightest thing to do. He ended up biting my index finger right on the side of the middle knuckle and another puncture wound above my knuckle he also scratched in his struggle to get away from the water. It swelled up immeadiatley and probably some of the most intense throbbing pain I've had. I immeadiatley cleaned the wounds with hot water and soap and soaked my fingers in hot water and Epsom salts. The swelling went down a little bit but the pain was still intense with redness around the wound area. I ended up going to the clinic this morning and all they did was laugh and say that's not very bright gave me a tetanus shot and gave me a rx for some Vicodin for the pain. They didn't even tell me to come back if things get worse. They just told me to keep the outside of the wounds clean and it should heal in time with proper cleaning. I know this isn't much help but cat bites should be taken seriously depending on the cat and where you were bit. In my opinion I'd go see a doctor after being bit

I was bit by our cat 5 days ago and it can be very serious.  I was very worried.  The pasteurella multocida bacteria can lead to a whole host of other problems.  Chances are that the bacteria will spread and you will need antibiotics. I will tell you what I did and it worked for me ... but I'm not advising you to risk your health ... I was going to go to the clinic but I couldn't find my health card ... so I improvised ... Saturday Apr 13 - Was bit by cat at approx. 18:30.  The wound bled a bit.  I used hydrogen peroxide about 5 minutes later after I stopped the bleeding.  By 19:30 I noticed swelling and pain.  By 21:50 more swelling.  I read an article to use a pen and outline the inflammation area to monitor for spreading.  You are also supposed to keep the injured appendage elevated as the swelling is edema and causes damage to the tissues.  By elevating it, it helps to keep the swelling down.  I started to eat raw ginger as I know that this it has antibacterial properties.  I put a lot of cinnamon on toast and drank fresh lemons in water.  By Sunday morning, the swelling was down a bit but the infection had spread.  Whenever I lowered by hand, I could feel the pain and swelling would commence.  I developed a sinus headache and had nasal congestion.   I kept eating ginger and resting my arm so that it wouldn't swell but I couldn't do dishes, carry items in my left hand, and I started to get worried.  The fact that the infection wasn't spreading too quickly and I didn't have a fever, I decided to wait one more day.  I kept eating ginger, cinnamon and drinking lemons and I bought Betadine and started using that on the bite mark.  By Monday, it spread further but the swelling still wasn't as bad as some people I've seen in images on google.  I was worried.  The redness covered most of the top part of my left hand.  I looked for my health card because I gave up on trying to fix it myself.  I couldn't find my card - wasn't where it should be.  I decided to go to the grocery store and buy garlic at approx. 20:30.  I ate two cloves and took 6000 IU of vitamin D and some vitamin C before I went to bed .. as well as my ginger and cinnamon.  By the next Tuesday morning, the swelling seemed to have gone down a bit .. hard to tell. Come to think of it, I had less pain on Tuesday as well.  I washed a few The redness didn't seem to be spreading anymore.  I ate 3 more cloves in the morning and another 1 in the afternoon.  I took another 6000 IU of Vitamin D and more vitamin C.  I washed a few dishes which made the scab by my thumb soft and I could see that it was elevated.  I decided to take the scab off because I wanted to know if there was pus under there - I read this in another article.  There was ... gross.  I pushed the swollen part between my left index finger and my thumb and the wound would seep puss.  It hurt to do this but I wanted to get this stuff out.  There are two arguements to this.  Some will say leave it alone and the body will get rid of it and others push it out.  I wanted to get as much out as possible.  There was a lot in there.  It seems that all the swelling wasn't just blood pooling ... it was pus.  Back to the betadine - keep coating the sore.  By Wednesday morning, I had finished the whole bulb of garlic and started on a new one.  But the swelling had gone down dramatically and the redness became patchy and less visible.  The only part that remained red is the immediate vicinity of the bite wound.  I know that the garlic is working because I was able to do dishes on Wednesday.  It is now Thursday and It is almost all gone.  The bite area gets a little itchy at times but the stiffness is almost completely gone.  I'm not going to stop with the garlic because I feel it should take my body the 10 days to get my immune system up to snuff to ensure this bacteria is under control. I was lucky ... but this is serious stuff ... please see the medical information from the following links ...

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 and refer to pathogenicity/toxicity to review the complications associated with progression of the infection.

This is serious stuff and you may not be able to take garlic in the amount I did.  I don't have any other conditions other than asthma so it was worth it to me to give it a try.

Notes: I've read that when you are bit by an animal, you should make the wound bleed to push out the bacteria .. suck it out as you would venom from a snake.  Then use hydrogen peroxide / alcohol to disinfect.  I don't know if this works but it couldn't hurt.  I know it's too late for you at this point .. but going forward ... it's not a bad thing to remember.

Regarding garlic ... remember that it thins the blood and may prevent clotting.  It is not advisable if you are already taking anticoagulants, especially in the substantial amounts taken to get the bacteria under control.  Going forward, I will reduce the amount of garlic to 2 or 3 cloves a day.  It may work with less, but I haven't been able to find anything that will tell me how much to take or for how long.  I'm using raw garlic .. cutting it up and adding it to food to reduce the burning sensation in my mouth when eating it.  I'm sure it's seeping out ... but I'm at home for now.  I just figure it's better than being admitted to the hospital.  You are probably working so it may be easier just to take antibiotics so that you don't "offend" anyone with the prominent aroma.  I don't know if odourless garlic capsules would work ... I couldn't risk it as I know I had a serious infection and I was determined to stomp it out before it went the other way around.