Whoa!
OK, not so dramatic, but I was hospitalised for several days a couple of years back after my cat went bananas at the Vet’s at sunk a claw into my hand leading to infection of what I think the doctor called the “tendon space”. (?)
Twelve hours later my hand was swollen to hell and I was getting IV antibiotics, with a doctor saying comforting things about how they wanted to “catch it before it reached the wrist and we lost the whole hand”. :eek:
I can well understand how if one puts off seeking medical help, thinking that “it’s just a cat scratch/bite… it’ll get better”, (or if help wasn’t available) then things could get very ugly.
I was once bitten by a cat and ended up in the hospital with an arm turning all sorts of funky colours. Can you say “Cat Scratch Fever”? Oh yeah. Gotta act fast. You can lose a limb, or hell, you can die from this kind of crap…
I am pretty sure that that is only true with major qualifications. Viruses tend to be rather specific about which hosts they are able to infect. Smallpox is certainly not transmissible to or from most pets (although you might get it into a cow with a little effort). Dogs can’t catch the common cold. Humans can’t catch canine distemper. Dogs and cats can’t get influenza…
Some primates can get HIV, but IFAIK, no other animals. Cats get a similar disease (FIV) which is not communicable to humans. If animals could get HIV, I am sure they would already be being used as test animals in research for vaccines, cures, etc.
