Had cats all of my life, never had a serious bite before. My semi-feral kitty let me know in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t going in the cat carrier yesterday, and bit me on the hand. By evening, my hand was swollen and painful, but I didn’t want to go to the ER on a Saturday PM - just too much excitement, if you know what I mean. Hoped it would be better in the AM but wasn’t - so did go to the ER and had IV antibiotics and a prescription for penicillin. My hand is still red, swollen and painful. Anyone had any experience with this? How long did it take to heal?
make sure it stays super clean all the time. Take your penicillin as ordered and take advil to help with the pain and swelling. If it doesnt get any better in the next 2 days, go to your dr about it. You could even soak it in some warm salt water to help as well. Keeping it clean and managing the pain are the two most important things!! The length of heal time depends on your immune system, how yo take your antibiotics, etc.
good luck!!
One of our also semi-wild young cats got me on the ring finger when a dog scared him - had to have my wedding rings cut off by the next day for lack of foresight in removing them after it happened. In addition to the antibiotics I soaked my hand in warm epsom salts solution as often as I could which helped the infection to drain from the bite puncture marks.
I would say that things were pretty normal within a week, but I would finish those antibiotics faithfully.
Go to your doctor for a followup anyhow.
Those cat injuries can be very nasty. Not to mention secondary stuff…
COTH’s own Aurum got a very badly infected hand from - not sure if it was a scratch or a bite…she was doctoring it for a long time. Touch and go for a while.:eek:
Take care and make SURE you take the penecillin as directed!
make sure your tetnus jab is up to date
Cat bites are really nasty, sorry you had to get bitten 
Keep it really clean and I agree with Mizzou about the epsom salt. Make sure to completely finish you antibiotics. Good luck and I hope you heal soon!
NEVER mess around with any cat bite that breaks the skin. My vet is always warning me about how infectious they are. Go right away to your dr and get antibiotics. I know someone who ended up in the hospital for a week on intravenous drugs because her infection went systemic.
If you don’t improve within a couple days, go back to your doc immediately. You may need IV therapy.
I always soak in Epsom Salt water with a good squirt of Nolvasan in it. Works wonders for cat bites.
I hope this kitty was vaccinated for rabies. Feral cats are one of the top Rabies vectors in the country. Please make sure if you don’t know, that you get a set of post rabies vaccinations. they don’t hurt, i’ve had them.
Cat bites can be really really serious. Like septic serious.
Moreso than other kinds of punctures.
Even with a fully UTD on vaccines cat, this was considered a very serious injury when I worked at a clinic and staff were sent immediately to a doc in the box type place for treatment.
Hope you’re okay.
I got bitten by my cat about a year ago. Nasty bite, right on one of the small veins in the fleshy pad under my thumb. That was an interesting gusher 
Anyway, they put me on a HEAVY duty dose of antibotics, and I also got a tetanus shot. It probably took a day or two for the swelling and redness to go down a fair amount, and over a week for it to completely disappear. I still have a red mark where it happened-its amazing how sharp and deep those little kitty teeth go!
If its still looking swollen today (since I see its been a couple days now) definitely follow up with your doctor.
Yes, 48 hours after starting the IV and oral antibiotics, the swelling and redness should have started to reduce visibly. If not, GO BACK TO THE ER for more IV. Otherwise, it takes a week to 10 days to feel and look normal again.
I’ve had many cat bite punctures over the years an only once ended up septic- that was last September. I think the germs are getting stronger.
Thanks. It seems a little better today, but not vast improvement. If it doesn’t look better by tomorrow will go back to the ER. I was given a tetanus shot on my visit there.
So I worked in a law firm as a clerk when I was in school, and part of my job was to pour through plaintiff’s medical records, looking for smoking, etc. (you know something to try to blame cancer on other than asbestos exposure). Anyway, I started at the end and worked my way back, because that’s how your records go.
This one guy had the worst troubles (not cancer related) I’ve ever seen in anyone’s records. Hardcore IV antibiotics, organ failures, etc. REALLY bad stuff. Couldn’t believe it when I got back in time far enough to see what caused it all–a mild bite from his cat.
I agree with the others, cat bites are bad news!
