Two weeks ago, while putting one of my cats into his carrier, he accidentally scratched me on my outer thigh, near the knee. The next day it started to itch. ***Really ***itch. ***Insanely ***itch. The area became red and swollen. I made a point of gently scratching around the wound, rather than directly on it, to allow it to heal. Now, two weeks later, the little scab has fallen off, and it looks fairly healed. No more swelling, still a little redness, and still some itching, but not as intense as before.
I’ve been occasionally scratched by cats before, but never by this particular cat. And I’ve never had this type of reaction. And no, I haven’t had a fever or lymph node swelling or other “cat scratch fever” symptoms. So why this reaction, just this one time?
Hmm. I thought that cat scratches itched because of all the bacteria under their claws from litter box scratching, etc. Maybe it was the, ah, particularly sensitive area of flesh that was scratched instead of the cat?
Itching is often caused by a histamine release. Histamine is produced during inflammation. Inflammation is often caused by bacterial infection.
Cats carry tons of bacteria on their claws. Probably the most famous is cat scratch fever, but there are many, many others, and they probably aren’t very friendly to people.
It’s a good idea any time you get scratched by a cat to wash the wound with soap and hot water and put some antibiotic ointment on it.
I’d just like to toss in here that cat bites are even worse (I’m seeing that about 80% of cat bites get infected) - you really want to clean a cat bite very well, and use some antibiotic cream or soap.
Apologies for bumping this zombie; I tried to send a PM to panache45 but the option is disabled (for me, at least).
I was curious to know if you ever did develop symptoms of cat scratch disease. I have some itchy blisters on my wrist where one of our new cats scratched me a couple of days ago, which I know is an early symptom of the disease, but I’m wondering if it’s definitely going to happen, or I might get lucky.
So, if you remember and don’t mind sharing… did you end up getting sick?
Many years ago (late-'80s or early-'90s) I found a lump in my armpit that was an inflamed lymph node. I had to have it surgically removed. When it came back from Pathology I was told it was caused by cat scratch disease.
Actually, the itching gradually abated, and no other symptoms occurred. At no time did I have blisters. And that was the last time I was ever scratched by either of my cats.
The majority of the time, people who contract Bartonella just get flu-like symptoms and then are fine. Healthy immune system required and all that. As anecdotal advice, I wouldn’t worry about it. I know exactly one person who’s had it in my 14 years of working and living with cats 24/7. There is a test for cats, you could have your vet test for it (call and ask if they do first, many don’t have a setup with the one lab that does the testing, but it’s easy to do and not that expensive).
The injury to the skin was like that of an abrasion, or burn, the response of histamine production is suitable because thats a suitable way to flush bacteria out … Whereas with a deep cut, its better to not produce histamine so as to stop blood flow - your skin somehow knows if the cut is deep enough to trigger blood flow or not… if its a bloody cut, then the blood will flush the bacteria out, so no need for histamines.
Yes, for any wound caused by animals, or human teeth, seek medical attention if the wound turns pussy, or you have symptoms of spreading infections, secondary sites, red streaks away from the wound (cellulitis) or fever or painful lymph nodes and so on, or if the wound isn’t healing after a week (it can take a week for the blistering to reduce … longer if you get the wound wet ? it depends on the depth…) … No need for surgery if you know its probably a pet related infection like Bartonella henselae or other Bartonella and similar. You actually want to keep your lymph nodes.