What do yo do when you are bitten or scratched by your own cat and it draws blood?

This often happens whilst playing, especially when they are kittens, I usually wipe the blood away and use an antiseptic cream.

When did you last get a tetanus injection?

I'm ok on that one - I just wanted to know how pet owners react when scratched or bitten by their own cats.

You really shouldn't be playing that roughly with your cats.

I'm fairly certain that the horror stories you read about infected cat bites and scratches are 1 in 100000000 anecdotes though.

I seldom get scratched or bitten as I can read their body language. I wash the bite or scratch, dry it and then put some Savlon on it.

I agree with that we used to play gently and they would respond by being fairly gentle cats. Same with puppies and dogs treat them gently they treat us gently.

I wasn't.

I have just completed the whole story as to why i asked the question and just as I was about to post it - lost my internet connection - aaaaaarrrrrrrrghhh! Not sure if I have the will to do it all again.

But suffice to say, if I have ever suffered a bite or scratch from my cats over the years, i just put Savlon on it and forget about it, and wondered what other people did.

Best to keep hands out of reach when playing, you don't want them to grow up seeing hands as 'prey' to be attacked. Use toys as targets for their play.

Like any cut from a less than clean source, cleaning it with a disinfectant (eg TCP) and putting savlon on is usually adequate but obviously if it starts looking like its infected see a chemist/doctor.

However, if you start getting urges to put on leather clothing and masks and start purring, best thing is to call DC comics for advice

This wasn't the situation.

You get a bag, a brick and have a trip to the nearest body of water.

That's one of the last diseases you need to worry about from a cat bite!! It's nasty infections like Pasteurella multocida that you need to worry about from cats, even if a tooth just breaks the skin.

"Complications included nerve involvement, abscesses and loss of joint mobility."
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/0...cat-bite/?_r=0


My vets always send their staff to A&E with a list of injections to give, if a cat tooth breaks their skin. Infections to humans from cat bites are common and can get serious very quickly.

There are plenty of warnings on the www about the dangers of cat tooth breaking the skin of humans.

“I have seen some really bad infections [from cat bites] that have required multiple operations,” said Carlsen. “I had one patient, a farmer, whose tendons were destroyed on the back of his hand by the infection. He couldn’t straighten his fingers out. We had to reconstruct the tendons.”
https://www.minnpost.com/second-opin...yo-study-finds


"cat bites often require medical care. Bites on the hand are also of particular concern because there is a higher risk of infection."
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/w...d-animal-bites

I wouldn't be too worried about scratches but if the cat's tooth is breaking the skin then that is cause for concern. A Vet Nurse friend of mine was bitten by a cat a few months ago and had to immediately go to hospital for antibiotics. Was off work for the rest of the week too

When my cat was a kitten, he seemed to focus on me when it came to practising claw use, I had legs like a junkie for the first six months. If it was a deep one, I just washed it and used an antiseptic cream. The scars have almost faded now and I didn't get any diseases. I have never been bitten though so I don't know what I'd do in that situation.

TCP... I swear by that stuff. Is there anything it doesn't clean!? My wife cannot stand the smell of the stuff.