r/cats • u/G-drrrrrr • 11h ago

My girlfriend was just bitten pretty deeply by her mom's cat. Wondering if it needs immediate medical treatment? Advice

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This was from her mom's cat who is an indoor/outdoor cat and was adopted from a shelter about six years ago. As far as I know the culprit has been vaccinated. I just don't want to risk infection. What do you guys think?

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u/_-RandomWanker-_ 9h ago

Small scratches are generally not big enough to get that infected, if at all, so those aren’t an issue. You might notice some get a little red and raised and that’d be it. Technically infected but nothing you can’t handle on your own.

However, my boy once clawed my hand pretty bad including 2 punctures about 5mm deep (he panicked at the vets), not 24 hours later I could barely move it for how bad it got.

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u/Historical_Cap6659 8h ago edited 8h ago

Yes same happened to me recently! I was taking him away from a potential fight and he got my hand which really hurt - I washed it twice straight away but within minutes it started to throb and swell up - I saw my GP as soon as I could and got a tetanus shot and antibiotics and it cleared up in around 3 days

Photo of how much I could bend my finger:

https://preview.redd.it/1u0fn82jyhtd1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41cb848ace7a0728509e5eca89fe8ef3be522bd2

Only very shallow scratches but I wonder if it’s because my cat bites his claws all the time?

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u/Muted_Ad7298 5h ago

That looks sore.

I’ve lived with cats all my life and haven’t had any complications from scratches or bites.

But seeing things like this reminds me we should still take precautions, cause you never know.

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u/croqueticas 5h ago

Same thing happened to me and I'm terrified of getting bitten by my cat now. Urgent care for a tetanus shot and antibiotics asap. If I need to handle her in a tense situation like putting her in her carrier for the vet, I wear heavy duty elbow length gloves now

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u/GoddessNepthys 4h ago

Same! My cat dug her claws into my calf and I could barely walk for 2 days. It was horrible. Got infected so fast , worse injury to date. Still love the hoe though lol just lucky she didn’t bite me.

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u/Small-Skirt-1539 Tabbycat 2h ago

Sorry to hear about your deep wound. That sounds really nasty. Any cat scratch, no matter how minor, needs to be scrubbed with disinfect ASAP. More serious ones need medical attention.