Let’s start this week with a little haiku, the Japanese poetry that is composed of three lines with five, seven and five syllables, respectively.
Cat bites owner’s thumb.
Thumb soon swells, gets red and hurts.
Antibiotics.
Last week my cat lodged a large urolith (stone) in his urethra, stopped peeing and neared death’s doorstep. Thanks to the good folks where I work at Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, (because of course this happened on a Friday night), they pulled him back from the brink.
On first draw with a catheter, they collected 200 mls of urine. A human puts out an average of about 1,400 mls per day and goes seven times. That works out to about the same amount as you would normally go each time. Needless to say, my cat was hurting.
Once home, the old man had to rest, eat a new diet formulated to dissolve his type of stone, and take some oral medication. So, we had to — dum, dum, da, dum — PILL THE CAT!
No sweat. I’ve done this before and he’s a little cranky but a nice old guy. The first few pills went down easy with no sweat. Then I think he got his vigor back enough that he laid in wait for me when my wife held him and brought his head up. Trying to get the capsule just a little farther down his throat, he nailed my right thumb.
The uppers came through the nail and the lowers made two small puncture wounds on the fleshy part near the tip. Trouble.
Cat bites are serious matters. Fundamentally, cats’ teeth are like dirty little needles. They tend to make a slightly deep wound that is small in diameter, so it closes up fast and seals the bad germs in. They almost always result in an infected wound.
Your near only hope for not visiting your doctor is to first make sure the cat that bites you is vaccinated for rabies. If not, go to your doctor yesterday.
If the cat is vaccinated, wash the wound well. I used some leftover pre-surgical soap. Try to encourage the wound to open and bleed, thus flushing as much bad stuff out as possible. Then dry and dress it, but be prepared to soak again tomorrow and do the same.
The wound will swell. It will be red and hot. And it will hurt more than the bite itself. After 36 hours of the good old college try, it was time to hit Pullman’s ReadyCare. I was seen right away at the end of the day. The good doctor knew me from previous escapades, and knew I knew what I was likely infected with was a mixture of organisms, but of most concern, Pasteurella multocida, the most common bacteria found in cat bite infections.
Google that bacteria and check out the images of infections of this type that people ignore. Dr. Helen Carlson prescribed Augmentin (Amoxicillin Clavulanate), and my thumb is near normal again a week later.
Being a competent doc, Dr. Carlson also looked up any new considerations for cat bites. Sure enough, for many such bites, it is imperative to take a radiograph (X-ray). Why? To make sure there is not part of a broken or a whole tooth in the wound. She trusted me enough that we skipped that.
Also, one needs to make sure your tetanus vaccination is up to date with almost all puncture wounds.
About a third of all cat bites to humans end up in hospitalization. Take them seriously.
Charlie Powell is the public information officer for the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, which provides this column as a community service.
