Our Cat Bite Story
My husband and I thought about growing our family by adding some adorable four-legged friends to our home. There was a litter of 4 kittens who were rescued and needed a home. I had been praying about getting a new cat after 2 of my babies passed away. They were both so precious and were very old. They got so very sick within days of each other with two totally different terminal illnesses. We said goodbye to both of our sweet angels on the same traumatic day. This was the beginning of our journey with our new furry friends and our cat bite story.
Meeting the Kittens
My husband and I went to meet the kittens to see if we’d be able to give one of them a good home. I had already immediately connected with one just from seeing the pictures. We met all 4 kittens. Two of them were super shy, scared and hiding. The other two were super friendly and playful. We held and loved on all of them to help socialize them. They were feral and found under a shed. I knew we wouldn’t take an alpha because we already have one kitty girl at home. We knew she would do best if she could remain the alpha.
Day 2 with the Kittens
We came back a second day to visit the cats when the owner of the rescue was due to come by. We wanted to spend more time with them. The previous night I had a dream where I had two of the kittens playing together in my home. Two fur babies were not part of the plan. It was the first kitty I felt connected to and his very frightened brother I dreamt of thereafter. Here are all four of them together in a picture. We decided on taking the kitten on the top right and bottom left together. My thought was that the little scared fur baby would do best in a home without children and where he had his brother with him.
Fur Babies
Time to Come to Their New Home
The kittens came home with us a couple days later and were able to be moved into a new large family room with lots of space to eat, sleep, and play together. We were told that we needed to make sure that we kept holding them to continue their socialization. One of our new fur babies was already so friendly and loved getting affection. However, his brother was not so keen on being petted let alone even coming out from hiding under our large sectional couch. After several days of not seeing him for more than a few seconds at a time, we decided to go on a mission to grab him. We knew he was just a scared fur baby and needed love. This is when things went terribly wrong.
How My Husband Got Bit
My dear husband was determined to be patient in trying to get our new furbaby out from his hiding spots and unfortunately we didn’t think about putting on a gloves to protect himself. This same fur baby had fallen asleep in both of our arms just days before and was so comfortable. My hubby went on his stomach and tried to speak softly to the kitty and grab him out. We had no idea that my husband would sustain 6 cat bites on two hands. I heard my husband scream multiple times and he came out with blood dripping down his hands and onto the floor. My husband is a strong man who has sustained injuries in his life that honestly I can’t believe he handled so well. I was traumatized from hearing those screams.
What To Do if You Sustain a Bite
IMPORTANT: Some people get very sick within hours and these bites should really be taken care of immediately. You should be seen by a medical professional because of the possibility of infection. I’ve read many stories of people who went to bed and woke up with an entire hand, forearm or upper arm swollen which means the wound was infected and spreading. Some headed to the ER, were given antibiotics to take at home and ended up back at the ER needing intravenous antibiotics and surgery. Others were hospitalized for several weeks with blood infections also known as sepsis. The process listed below was how we handled it knowing full well we would head to the ER if we saw any signs of inflammation or infection. Do Not Avoid the ER as these Bites are Serious!
What most people may not know is that cat and dog bites can be extremely dangerous and in some cases deadly. Infection may spread without medical care. Even if you properly clean the wounds, cats have very sharp teeth that pierce and go deep into your skin. Cats mouths are naturally filled with lots of bacteria which ends up under your skin. These wounds heal over the top quickly which often traps this bacteria under the skin and can turn into a horrible infection within hours for some.
We squeezed out as much blood from the wounds as we could which is what professionals say to do to flush out bacteria while the wounds are open. Then we washed with antibacterial soap for several minutes. We then put on antibacterial ointment and bandaids. I wasn’t feeling comfortable with what we had done, so then we took the bandages off and added drops of colloidal silver into each wound. I love colloidal silver and wanted to kill any bacteria that may still be in and on the wounds. We then put on more ointment and bandages and kept a super close eye on this wounds for the next few hours.
The Day After the Bite
My husband said everything looked pretty good and he headed off to work with the colloidal silver and more bandages so he could clean his wounds again at work. Later that day, one of his 6 wounds was slightly swollen and another was slightly red around it. By this time my hubby had read about how serious bites can be and he went to the ER to be seen. They gave him antibiotics to take and told him to come back if things got worse. He took them for several days, continued cleaning his wounds with my favorite colloidal silver bar soap, and everything healed up well. Please know that we try not to take antibiotics whenever there are other options, however this is not a time when I would avoid them.
What We Learned After this Fiasco
After speaking to an amazing woman who has tremendous experience rescuing and trapping feral cats, we learned something else we can do should we ever sustain a bite again. She was bitten so many times that she lost count.
- Use this Epsom Salt to soak the wound in after cleaning the wounds which helps draw out bacteria
- Always use super thick winter gloves or Kevlar gloves when trying to trap or even pet feral cats who are scared
Parting Words
Deciding not to let this deter us from the patience that is needed to help our fur babies transition to our home was a great decision. They are now playing together in the open, eating with us around and every day gets better. Our scared fur baby has not tried to bite again so far. However, we will be better prepared should we need to bring him to the vet in the upcoming days.
Window Lounging
Have you ever been bitten by a cat or dog? What did you do to take care of your wound?
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