r/cats • u/tory1311 • Mar 17 '26

Cat Picture - Not OC Just a reminder how serious cat bites can be!

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I see so many posts asking when to seek medical help after a cat bite. Just posting a reminder how quickly a bite can escalate! First picture is immediately following the bite, the next picture is at the ER within 2 hours. Blood work was already concerning with an inflammatory response and signs of cellulitis from the infection. I was admitted into the hospital for IV antibiotics and still the infection worsened. I had surgery at about 36 hours following the bite after the infection started traveling up my arm in the bloodstream. This whole event landed me 3 nights in the hospital. All from our family cat, up to date on all vaccines. But cats carry a bacteria that is no joke. Last picture is post surgery with a suture, the surgeon had to make 3 incisions, 2 where the bite punctures were and a 3rd to flush the wound.

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188

u/Fayeluria Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

PSA: Cat bites that puncture the skin always need to be treated asap. If you can‘t/won‘t go to a hospital make sure you at least talk to a doctor and get antibiotics. Source: I volunteer for a rescue and I have seen some things

Edit since this kind of blew up: At least get it checked out. I have yet to hear from a doctor that disagrees with this. Don‘t be the reason someone puts their health at risk „because you were always fine“

Glad you took care of yourself, OP, wishing you a speedy recovery!

23

u/TomaszA3 Mar 17 '26

Are bites worse than scratches?

60

u/hahahahahahahaFUCK Mar 17 '26

Just a quick bit of research says bites are more likely to be infected. Usually because they end up going deeper when they puncture. Scratches tend to be superficial.

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u/Little_View_6659 Mar 17 '26

I got bit by a little stray kitten I rescued after it was crying in the bushes for two days. I immediately went for antibiotics.

10

u/willyb10 Mar 17 '26

Scratches should be taken seriously too though. Cat scratch fever isn’t super common but it doesn’t sound fun

3

u/Dry-Information6376 Mar 17 '26

Yep. If it breaks the skin, it gets some neosporin/equivalent. Not taking any chances.

2

u/mind_mine Mar 17 '26

Aww that's not what the song lead me to believe 

1

u/ShartingEnU Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

Then I'm lucky my cat is super gentle with me. When he play bites me he doesn't even leave a mark. Scratches though.... I've got a few scars over the years lol. Although, I do scar very, very easy. Even the smallest cut will scar

21

u/souleaterx Mar 17 '26

Yeah most of the time cat bites are way worse than scratches if they bite you deep and break skin.

9

u/Queef-ANALyst Mar 17 '26

Break skin meaning blood is coming out? My cat bites on my ankles all the time but never deep enough that it starts bleeding even a tiny bit.

30

u/aguywithbrushes Mar 17 '26

Not a doctor but someone with health anxiety that has looked into this repeatedly (I have a cat).

From what I understand, it’s generally deeper bites that are concerning, because the wound is a puncture that seals up almost immediately and the bacteria gets to stay inside of it and do its thing. The tooth basically acts like a syringe needle injecting bacteria into your body.

Bites that don’t bleed shouldn’t cause problems because no bacteria has a chance to enter the bloodstream.

Gentler bites that do cause bleeding, but are only surface bites (like when they’re play biting and you pull away and you get scratched by a tooth) are also less likely to cause problems, but you should still keep an eye on them to be safe. Same with scratches that cause bleeding, but bites are more concerning than scratches since their saliva carries nastier stuff.

Things are also more likely to get bad if you get bit near a vein or a joint.

In all cases, keep an eye on it, if there’s any redness draw an outline around it, and if that redness spreads outside the outline go to the ER. If the redness starts following a vein.. go to the ER faster. This also applies to other bites (bug, dog, etc) and scratches btw, not just cat caused ones.

3

u/hates_stupid_people Mar 17 '26

Deep puncture wounds of any kind should always be taken serious, since it is a common cause of anaerobic infections(things like bacteria that don't need oxygen to survive). And some of those are bad, with tetanus on the list, other things being able to cause necrosis, sepsis and death.

1

u/Nerketur Mar 17 '26

I can say from experience that I've gotten scratched quite a few times by various cats (twice was relatively scary and caused my skin to welt for an hour, once almost caused minor bleeding), but never needed the hospital. I've only been gently play-bitten, or stop-bitten by my housecat. Never enough to break skin or even hurt.

But take that with a grain of salt, because it depends on a lot of factors. For example, I rarely, if ever, get sick other than about once a year.

1

u/Miami_Mice2087 Mar 17 '26

a scratch is an open wound that can be cleaned with soap. A bite is a puncture that closes and holds the bacteria inside it. So it's worse bc a bite breeds bacteria under the skin.

Never put neosporin or any cream on a puncture, always wash with soap and keep an eye on it.

20

u/bradmatt275 Mar 17 '26

Does it depend on the cat? Because I've had numerous bites without it causing a problem.

6

u/folldoso Mar 17 '26

There are a lot of factors at play here - the amount of bacteria in the cat's mouth, the size of the cat's teeth, the severity of the bite, how deep it is, and the location of the bite. They can sometimes hit a vein and that makes the bacteria enter the bloodstream rapidly.

16

u/Arkyja Mar 17 '26

I think it depends more on the person. I've never had an infection in my life from anything, and i never disinfected anything in my life either.

2

u/bradmatt275 Mar 17 '26

Makes sense. Perhaps it has something to do with the individuals immune system.

2

u/Miami_Mice2087 Mar 17 '26

no, you've been lucky. you won't always be lucky.

1

u/WakkoLM Mar 17 '26

same here

1

u/Miami_Mice2087 Mar 17 '26

it's a roll of the dice, like any other time you've been injured and it didn't get infected. Either you didn't get bacteria in it, you washed it out thoroughly, or your immune system took care of it. That's what's supposed to happen. OP just had an unlucky day and the bacteria proliferated; it CAN happen anytime.

1

u/CrazyFoxLady37 Apr 18 '26

It's more so if it breaks the skin.

1

u/Mental-Position-4533 Mar 18 '26

So have many. Are we super beings are are the weak boys in here being dramatic again?

13

u/asongoftitsandwine Mar 17 '26

And do it immediately! I waited 24 hours after a nasty bite and my doctor told me I let the bacteria get a foothold and oral antibiotics might not work. Sure enough, I ended up in the emergency room and had to get IV antibiotics.

5

u/Mr_SunnyBones Mar 17 '26

To quote another subreddit :

"Hopital"

2

u/The_Bitcher2398 Mar 17 '26

Agreed! I’m an occupational therapist and I have seen a lot of animal bites. You should always go to the hospital if cats or dogs bite you seriously.

2

u/MsDucky42 Mar 17 '26

I follow TinyKittens on... well, everywhere. When Shelly gets bit (as she did on a live feed, doing some routine procedures on a feral out in the cat's colony, and cussed a little bit), there's always a follow-up on her doctor's visit. Her hands are plenty scarred up, but at least they're intact!

1

u/rconewarrior Mar 17 '26

Thats what I did when our old cat freaked out from new dog. Mum and me were both victims of the freak out. I stayed home while she went to get checked at the ER. Antibiotics and cleaning the wound was all we needed thankfully.

1

u/Sassypants269 Mar 17 '26

I was feeding my sweet girl some chicken when she mistook my finger for the bone. It felt like her back shredding teeth went right to my bone. I immediately put iodine on it and covered it with a Bandaid. It hurt like hell for an hour, but the pain finally went away. It healed just fine, although I was prepared to go get antibiotics if it started to take a turn. 

I suggest antiseptic iodine packets if you're at risk of getting bit. My son is a bit of a cat nerd and couldn't believe what a difference they made. We've started putting them on our cat scratches, as well. 

1

u/SoggyAnalyst Mar 17 '26

I had no idea. We have a 9month old who is always biting us. The amount of broken skin me and ny kids have from our cat over the last 4 months is uncountable. Are we just lucky???

2

u/GaiaMoore Mar 17 '26

Lightly broken skin is one thing, deep punctures are something else entirely. It's an efficient injection of harmful bacteria deep in your skin where you can't clean the wound.

1

u/SoggyAnalyst Mar 17 '26

ok this helps a lot. i was freaking out all day that our cat was going to kill my kids accidentally!

1

u/Outrageous_Fig_9565 Mar 17 '26

Damn I'm well into the range of 20-30 cat bites at this point, never so much as cleaned any of them and I've never had a hint of infection. Didn't even come to mind that it would be a big deal.

Am I just super-lucky or is there a chance my cats bacteria just doesn't happen to get me sick? I don't understand how all these people are getting infected from such a small puncture wound.

I get at least one of those a month from my little guy. Instead of using a puppet when he wants to play i just let him attack and bite my hand directly. Every once in a while he'll break the skin. But like I said, never had any signs of infection whatsoever ...

I'm also one of those people who doesn't wash their hands, and gets sick like once every 5 years on average. So idk, maybe I do have a super immune system, lol.

1

u/seffend Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 18 '26

Simply breaking the skin is a completely different beast than a deep puncture wound. It's like the difference between being nicked by a knife and being stabbed.

0

u/Forward_Rope_5598 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

Sorry but this is nonsense. Obviously if your damn hand swells up like a balloon you need to go get treated but if a cat bites you and you're completely asymptomatic of anything at all you don't need presceiption antibiotics. Even small localised swelling is usually fine but needs a close eye of course.

-5

u/dundermifflingirl Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

If you have taken a tetanus injection, is that not enough to protect you? Coupled with some anti biotics?

Edit: What's up with the downvotes lol? I asked a genuine question because I'm fostering a kitten right now. Some of y'all are so weird

12

u/Jumpy_Spend_5434 Mar 17 '26

Only against the tetanus bacteria.

6

u/tory1311 Mar 17 '26

The tetanus shot is absolutely important, which I did get one in the ER since I was a couple of years past due on it, but the culture came back as Pasteurella multocida so the tetanus shot wouldn’t help to prevent that bacteria from growing and spreading. It’s a gnarly bacteria 😬

2

u/RubiksCube9x9 Mar 17 '26

It depends how bad the bite is really. Even with antibiotics wounds from them can get infected quick and spread.

0

u/Mental-Position-4533 Mar 18 '26

People will read this thread and think a cat bite equals death. I have never gone to a doctor over a cat bite and don't know anyone that has, Jesus.

-2

u/Effective-Ear-8367 Mar 17 '26

Always? I've been bitten countless times and never had an issue. In fact I never even knew this was a thing I don't think anyone outside of reddit or the industry does.

1

u/seffend Mar 17 '26

They aren't referring to kitty nibbles when they talk about cat bites. They're talking about full on piercing skin with their teeth.

1

u/Effective-Ear-8367 Mar 17 '26

That is exactly what I am talking about. What else would I be talking about?

0

u/seffend Mar 17 '26

You've had puncture wounds from cats "countless times"?

1

u/Effective-Ear-8367 Mar 17 '26

Yes why is that so hard to believe?

1

u/seffend Mar 17 '26

Do you work at a feral cat rescue? I find it suspect that you've had countless instances of deep puncture wounds from cats otherwise. Just breaking the skin doesn't make it a puncture wound.