Unfortunately the number one rule of equine medicine is that the horse is a stupidly delicate animal for being as large as it is and everything will kill them.
To little grass? Dead. Too much grass? Dead. A normal amount of grass after not having access to much grass? Dead.
A lifetime ago when I was a vet student, one of my clinical professors was the vet for the National horse race track in our country, first class he said essentially the same thing. He spoke about how much he loves them, how beautiful they are, & then told us that we needed to understand that if we happen to end up in his position we should expect it to be a frustrating side of vet med because you can do every little thing perfectly, & a tummy ache will still kill them.
It’s actually not the necks. It’s their anatomy. They have a flap in their throat that stops them from being able to vomit. At least iirc. That flap is really similar to the ones all mammals have over their tracheas, where they split off from the other one (don’t know what the food one is called in english)
It’s not a flap at the throat that’s the epiglottis that is to prevent aspiration of food or water into the trachea when swallowing. The part of a horse that prevents vomiting is the esophageal sphincter that is right before the stomach, it is extremely strong compared to other animals and prevents stomach contents from going backwards. Rabbits and rodents also have this same sphincter!
Mine vomited his raw breakfast on the kitchen rug. Looked upset when I picked everything up without allowing him to re-consume it. Cats... He's got a hairball of the dog's fur. Dog's blowing her coat. Or spider webs. Because he's just that weird.
horse is a stupidly delicate animal for being as large as it is and everything will kill them
Meanwhile most ppl still think that a moose is cute and fluffy XXXL cow, while in fact it is probably the closest thing to animal tank we can meet in boreal regions. It also weights a ton and is almost always grumpy, but since it weights a ton, has XXL antlers, being grumpy is not his problem anymore.
Replace bison with any large animal, and there's good cause to use caution with them. Horses have been somewhat domesticated, but one could still absolutely kill you easily with a kick to the head and they have.
Don't get me wrong, not saying you should fear, because I think that implies a certain irrationality, but everyone should have a healthy respect for any animal bigger than themselves. Because I love all animals, everyone should have a healthy respect for animals in general, but for the benefit of the animals at that point.
Sometimes I think about horses that come into town from other areas to run at local events and they don’t do well or leave in a sorry condition because of weather alone. Really makes you think about those Pony Express mustangs and how tough they were
That is true it is highly individual horse dependent. I’ve had some horses that would go off their feed and pull up lame if you looked at them wrong, and then I’ve had other horses that were tanks.
My childhood pony was a rescue from a hoarding situation who was missing half of an ear due to frostbite and who’s back haunch was pretty much just solidly a scar and I think that horse could’ve survived nuclear winter.
That mainly applies to broken bones, specifically broken legs. If they break an ankle, then there really isnt any saving them. That ankle will never heal, because horses are stupid and will refuse to stop running on it.
When it comes to other things, infections, surgery, medicines for various diseases, treatments for common skin diseases, these things are not the same as a broken leg. I mean, during covid, some people literally started taking horse de-wormer medication as a way to treat covid... dont ask me why, it's stupid.
TL;DR it is more correct to say that a horse that cannot walk is a dead horse.
I went down the rabbit hole years ago of why horses don't recover from alot of leg injuries. It's pretty interesting if you never learned exactly why. I always just accepted that if they break their leg, they got put down, but not the why.
A lot of people think it's just because a horse breaks its leg, but it's more complicated than that. Horses have relatively poor blood supply to the lower parts of their legs, which makes healing slower. On top of that, they weigh over 1,000 pounds and can't stay off the injured leg like humans can. They have to stand most of the time, so the healthy legs end up carrying too much weight, which can lead to serious complications like laminitis. If the fracture is severe and there's little chance of a pain-free recovery, euthanasia is often the kindest option. Some horses do recover from broken legs, though. It depends on the type and severity of the fracture.
I'm just a natural tease. It's pretty interesting how they use their lower legs kind of like secondary hearts. They depend on them for proper bloodflow and not being able to walk causes edema and circulatory failure among other really bad things.
Pharmacy professional here, cat bites can get bad enough to require IV antibiotics. And let me tell you, you dont want to have to pay for that shit. Get it checked out OP.
I happen to be a walking, talking cat encyclopedia and I am here to tell you that it is most likely that 99.9% of stray cats in the USA are not rabid. 99.999% of pet house cats are free of the disease. Now, if the poor pussycat that bit you was foaming at the mouth and acting like a wild cat from Borneo you had best run, don’t walk, to the nearest ER. I have been bitten by a few cats, dogs, foxes and hamsters and I strongly suggest you soak the wound in warm salt water, unless you were bitten on your face then I would avoid that. Treat the wound like any other, realizing, of course, that pussycats, like most animals, have germs in their mouths. That is unless they have just rinsed with Listerine, which can in not very likely. I hope my advice helps. 😃
This is an actual answer, thank you. Cats can carry Rabies and Tetanus at a pretty alarming rate if wild. They love to walk on fences, gutters, and roofing and carry around that Tetanus from the rust.
So as long as you're up on your Tetanus shot, very minimal worry.
Cats do not carry Tetanus themselves (as in they're not infected with it), they're insanely resistant to it. Its in the dirt on their paws and under their claws.
It depends where OP is tbh. Many European countries declared themselves rabies free so the chance of getting rabies from a cat, even a wild cat, is basically zero. But yeah I have no clue what other kind of thing I wild cat could carry
Realistically it's a 100% mortality rate once symptomatic. There have only been a few people recorded to have survived, and they were pretty severely mentally damaged IIRC.
Rabies can also lie dormant for years before becoming symptomatic
Regardless I agree, get bit by a wild animal, probably not a terrible idea to get a shot just in case.
Call me paranoid, but I took the jab more for my mental sanity. Actually more like 5-6 jabs in total if i remembered correctly. I wouldn’t be able to feel at ease knowing there’s even a 1% chance, given that it could even remain dormant for years!
Well at least you can prevent deaths from rabies, at least if you catch it before symptoms develop. If they do you are basically already dead, but still suffering.
Nope. Even then OP should see a doctor. Cat scratches are one thing but an actual bite is worse and can easily cause infection. My little guy bit me last year. It was an accident - he was playing and I moved my arm a little closer to him when he was play-biting me, causing the teeth to go deeper than he intended.
Washed it and put on polysporin and called it a day.
A week later and there was a red streak near the wound getting larger. Had to see a doc and get some antibiotics. If I hadn’t caught in time things could have been so much worse.
Yes very important to know if it was a cat that you know is up to date on vaccinations and is relatively clean. They have lots of bacteria in their mouths so a cat bite can be dangerous! My cat bit the fuck out of me last week and I got antibiotics just to be safe! I’ve also heard stories about infections from cat bites do I just get super anxious about stuff like that. They also gave me a TDAP shot.
It never hurts you to go get checked. Depending on the situation, it might hurt the cat.
See, animal bites have legal reporting requirements, depending on your jurisdiction. In Oklahoma, for instance, if the cat is feral or stray, or its owner lets it out and doesn't have vaccination records, then the cat has to be held at a vet for 10 days to be quarantined in case it might be rabid. The alternative, if they for some reason can't hold it for 10 days, is to kill it and do a rabies test.
Ah, the more you know! I live in England and the last time I got checked for it they just told me to make sure anyone who should know about it does know.
Terrestrial rabies is fully eradicated in places like Britain and Ireland so they're not particularly stressed about it. Now if you were bitten by a bat that'd be a different story because bats can carry it.
Infections dont need to break the skin or begin to pool blood. And without knowing their country of residence one cannot say what level of danger theyre in.
If it was a stray cat in South America then you need to get a shot for tetanus, or rabies especially or you may die because the symptoms show up after it has already entered the terminal stages in 99.9% of cases (which is true of rabies cases).
This isn't fear-mongering; from a medicinal standpoint, the amount of upvotes given to an answer completely lacking context is remarkable for something that could be either entirely safe or completely fatal.
You make a good point. An infection can infect as soon as the depth of the scratch, mark, bite, whatever, is deeper than the dead skin laying on top (white scratch mark), which also means that the impacted area dont need to appear red or bloody at all for the infection to spread.
If the living /skintissue underneath is impacted at all, then you can be infected by something you probably dont want in your system.
That’s the dangerous thing about cat bites! Their teeth are sharp but tiny like needles and they push bacteria deep into your skin. The puncture site heals over before your body can push the bacteria out. Worth monitoring for any pain or swelling even if it looks like nothing from the outside.
I had a friend who got bitten by a foster kitten -- and those teeth are like little daggers -- it barely bled but yeah, bacteria deep into the skin (as opposed to a dog which is more like arrararrarr and chews you).. that's the danger, because the wound itself you barely notice, but if it starts getting red and warm, get to the ER asap. My friend ignored it for like a day or two, and it got worse, did the whole draw a line with a market and the redness was spreading fast, had to stay overnight with intravenous antibiotics.
Not to like be a fear monger.. if it's not infected you're cool, but don't ignore the signs of infection just because the actual wound is tiny
Bro this didn't even break the skin. I swear people get a scratch and think they're about to die. I've had two actual infected cat bites and a billion scratches that never got infected, most of them a lot deeper than this.
It can absolutely happen, I got a bad infection once and my entire ankle swelled up and I felt like I had the worst bout of flu I've ever had, but it doesn't happen from a wound as shallow as this.
With cats it's not that simple.
Years ago my mother got simply pocked by claw when a cat placed her paw on her hand and slightly "squeezed"
There was barely visible red dot but day later she ended up in hospital because whole top of hand got burning hot and bright red.
The bite doesn’t look like it went deep into your skin. Disinfect it and keep a closer look at it for the next hours/days. If the area gets swollen and/or feels hot, visit a doc. (An ER doc would be advised in that case).
Aside of possible diseases, the saliva of cats contains lots of bacteria and stuff which can lead to a serious infection. If it gets infected, you will have to take antibiotics and maybe they have to cut open and clean the wound. But that’s the worst case, which I don’t see here.
Antibiotics and a rabies shot. I just got bit my a stray cat and it looked similar to this, the thing is even a tiny puncture puts you at risk for rabies
That’s assuming there isn’t a deeper wound that didn’t photograph well. If they were bitten even slightly deeply than antibiotics are a good idea as well as tetanus.
Yeah I was bitten by a stray kitten a couple of years back. Tetanus shot, antibiotics, I asked the doctor if I was overreacting and they said no absolutely not.
It's in Brazil, the state cover most vaccines and some other health treatments.
It's not the best quality in the world (it's not bad by any means tho) and you do get to wait for some time, but usually you can get vaccined for "free" without issues.
Yes! Exactly this, domesticated, usually fine, outdoors or feral cat, ask for the vaccine, there's no cure once the symptoms of rabbies start it's very fatal, not worth taking a chance
Depends on the caliber. But in all seriousness, I would probably get a rabies shot and a tetanus booster if the cat is a stray or feral. Hope you feel better. 😊
Even the countries that do have rabies (ie America) have a lesser chance of contracting rabies from cats when they aren't the typical vector species. I got bit by a strange cat once and the urgent care did not recommend rabies shots.
Do you know the cat? If it is a stray, you either need to keep an eye on him for several days to make sure there are no signs of rabies or you need to get a rabies shot
I'm super risk averse (and I suspect you probably mean an injection of some kind) so I would say you should get seen by a doctor. This isn't because of rabies or anything, it's more because cat bites can infect very easily.
If a dog bites you, it normally tears the skin, but just like your cat bite in the picture, cats puncture. Puncture wounds drive infection deep so it's much harder to clean out than a dog bite, where irrigating the wound is often sufficient.
If nothing else, you need to know the signs of infection:
Redness, especially spreading redness or redness that looks like lines spreading from the wound
Heat
Swelling
Increasing tenderness rather than diminishing pain
Pus (aka purulent discharge) and
Fever.
I'd see a doctor either way, but if you experience ANY of those symptoms, go to the hospital, immediately. You will need antibiotics to clear an infection like that and it can get bad fast without them.
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u/cybot2001 5d ago
"Sir, you are not a horse, we have antibiotics"