[fr] Morsure de chat. Pas mon chat: chat du voisin que j'ai acculé (chez moi, pour le leur ramener) même après qu'il m'ait prévenu à grands coups de griffe qu'il était trop paniqué pour venir tranquillement. Moralité: les chats ont de longues dents pointues et ne se les lavent pas.
Thanks to everybody for their sympathy and wishes of speedy recovery!
Not much typing. Cat bite. Details later. Nice cat. Not Bagha. Silly Steph.
Friday Update:
Infected. Another appointment tonight. I hope they don’t leave me in this huge splint too long. Can’t do anything!
Friday night update:
Left arm: infected cat bite. They have long sharp canines and don’t like being cornered in a strange place by a strange person. Splint that forbids any use of my hand — will stick around for at least another 2-3 days.
Right arm: catheter. I had 3 doses of antibiotic through IV over the last 24 hours, and am headed for at least that many over the week-end. There are only so many veins in the arm you can stick needles in.
Now, we hope the long canine didn’t go deep enough to infect the bone — or I’m looking at 4-6 weeks of treatment.
Fingers crossed, everybody, please.
Video Update: the story and more details.
How it happened:
The consequences:
Sunday morning update: I can haz fingers!
Still got the catheter, though it hurts less now the tap is on the outside of my forearm.
Great improvement: fingers on my left hand! I can type somewhat! Things are taking a good turn. Thumb joint still very painful, so I’m a little worried it could be inflamed/infected — but gosh, does it feel good to have part of my hand back.
Sunday evening news: good!
Monday update: shower!
From now onwards, things are on the right track. I can remove my splint if I like, infection seems gone, but it’s still inflamed. So, I can type and do most of what one expects to do with two hands, just a bit slower and more painfully.
Get well soon. And use the time off to relax a bit 🙂
Et tu souris tout de même 😉
Arff pas pratique ça… vivement les dictaphones pour les blogs…. 😉
wow, that looks bad. get well soon!
Sans rire, si tu as besoin de lait ou autre chose n’hesite pas à le dire…
PS: On t’a déjà dis que tu as un peu le look de Jean-Claude van Damme dans Kickboxer? J’ai du mal à croire que ce chat pesait moins de 10 kilos…
oh no!
get well soon!
Ca me rapelle une “blague”‘ comment donner un médoc à un chat.
Bon courage, ça doit être exaspérant… et douloureux !
Toute ma sympathie, j’ai fait 48h d’hôpital entre Noël et Nouvel An pour les mêmes raisons : chatte blessée, rentre en miaulant, moi … “Oh ma pauvre petite, viens donc que je te prenne dans mes bras …” et en moins d’une seconde 4 dents pointues dans mon index droit dont une dent dans le tendon ! infection, main qui gonfle … orthopédiste qui s’inquiète et plâtre plus antibio IV pendant 48h!!! Il m’a fallu 6 semaines pour retrouver une bonne mobilité! Moralité : les chats sont des animaux très propres … sauf leurs dents !!! Bon courage !!!
Wow.. There is a message to us all.
Kudos for getting to the hospital so quickly.. Who knows what would have have happened if you had treated it yourself.
Hoping for a full and speedy recovery.
Good Luck,
Christian.
Hi Christian! Honestly, it bled a lot and hurt like hell, so it was pretty obvious to me that this was ER material. If I’d waited, my hand would have swollen up even more (the thumb had doubled in size by the time I saw the doctor about an hour after the bite) and the infection would have spread up the arm. By getting IV antibiotics immediately (and the following days) we avoided that (ultimately, that kind of spreading infection leads to blood poisoning).
The doc told me that the bacteria in cats’ mouths that causes this infection is particularly speedy in making things swell up a lot.
When I was a kid, I had a bad cat scratch on my other wrist, and I waited the night before going to the ER. By then there was a red line of infection running up my forearm. Spent 2 weeks with my right hand in a splint because of that. Guess that drilled into me that animal bites/scratches, when deep, are a serious matter.
I’ve been bitten/attacked by my own cats several times, of which only one got massively infected – the rest did nothing to me. The infected instance was so badly infected that my fingers could not flex. Draining the pus was the only thing that helped, and I got a tetanus shot just because of the immobility. I guess I’ve been very lucky compared to you.
If you had 5-6 wounds from just one bite, those back ones got you, which are meant for cutting/cracking bones, and they are the biggest carriers of bacteria (plaque buildup houses it nicely.) Less exposure to oxygen, cleaning, etc.
Good luck and speedy recovery!
I’ve just been through the same ordeal, or as close as one can come to anothers experience and your photos remind me of what my hand, thumb and arm looked like just 2 days ago. I hope you have fully recovered…I had no idea beforehand (no pun intended) what would result if I tried to help my lovely cat when she had a grand mal seizure. My heart was in the right place but my thumb wasn’t. I’m slowly recovering after 8 antibiotic intervenous treatments and 16/24 oral antibiotic treatments (two different ones). It’s been almost one month since the incident that I experienced. I hope you feel better soon if you’re still recovering. I wish you the best and I too have had a few comments made to me, surprised that I still have my cat. I love her and it wasn’t her fault her mum was a dumb hero, ha ha!
Even though I’m not fully recovered yet, this experience, I’m thrilled to have the I.V splint, med.bag & computer out of my arm. Ahh…freedom! I hope the same for you soon if not already!
Thank-you so much for posting your experience. I was looking online for a while this evening to find more information about cat bites and patients progress and ended up feeling less alone because of you!
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Thanks for the comment, Vanessa! It’s been around 9 months now and I have fully, fully recovered. The scars are barely visible.
One thing I had to do once the wounds had closed correctly was massage the scars and actully pull on them (it was quite painful, I can tell you that) by pinching them between two fingers, to help minimise the amount of scar tissue, particularly for the wound that was on a tendon. My osteopath told me to do that, and I’m really glad she did, because now that scar which actually looked pretty nasty and swollen is almost invisible.
So, as soon as you can and the infection is completely over with, massage your scars! You can also get cream which helps with the process. It will prevent you from having big nasty scars.
I just got a nasty (deep) cat bite(s) this morning. Within an hour it started swelling. Now it’s evening and after reading what you put, I’m ready to head to the emergency room. I’m pretty sure it’s infected since the swelling has gotten so bad I can’t even move the finger anymore (right index) and the punctures now seem to be oozing. I broke one back open while cleaning it with peroxide and there seemed to be a good amount of puss… YUCK! Also the pain seems to be spreading to the hand and up to the elbow already. Surely hope mine doesn’t turn out as bad as yours. I was planning on waiting until morning…. but thanks to your story, I’m going now!
Waiting until evening is already way longer than I waited! I went to the ER immediately, which is what you should do for any cat bite. I hope you’ll be ok — if the infection spreads to the bone you’re in for 4-6 weeks of nasty treatment. Keep us posted!
Just got back from the e-room. Got a splint just like you. The infection spreads quick! Got a nice shot in the butt and a tetanus shot. Thank god they gave me pain killers… it hurts! Thanks for sharing your story, you saved me from waiting longer!