Small cat bite on hand leads to surgery. Please Read

[EWAYota]

Last Wednesday we had our Thanksgiving dinner over at my mothers. Small group including my 89 year old Grandfather. After dinner we let the cats out so that they wouldn't be a pain while we ate. One of our cats, Cinder, who's 14, has this habit of lightly biting you while you pet her. It's sort of a "love bite". It's not hard at all, just a little thing she does. She'll do it when you come it from the day, little bite then lay on your lap, etc. Nothing major.

Well, Gramps was giving her a little love, she did her little bite thing and then laid on his lap. With him being his age, it broke the skin pretty easily and drew a little blood. We cleaned it up and informed him to keep cleaning it for a few days. A little mistake on our parts, no one bothered to check and make sure that he kept up on the cleaning.

I got a call this morning from my Mom informing me that Grandpa needed to go get his hand checked out because it had swollen up. Doctor sent him to a hand specialist, they scheduled a surgery tomorrow to drain the hand.

Its little things like this that can lead to serious situations at someone at this age. So, if you have someone in your family or know of anyone who has reached the age that even the smallest cut or cold can lead to something major, please, take the time to follow up and make sure they're keeping up with what needs to be done to keep things in check.

[Seanz0rz]

any time i get scratched or bitten by any of the animals, i immediately soak it in alcohol. it hurts but, worth not losing a hand over. ill usually do that till it heals up.

hope he is ok, infections are bad for anyone, but esp more dangerous the older you get. best wishes!

[Bob98SR5]

holy schmoly! our cat gives us little love bites when we rough house with them, but they almost never break skin. what did they say caused it? i.e. is it cat saliva?

[randver]

you should never superglue a bite. if you do not get all the gems out and you superglue it you are trapping them under the skin. great way to make sure you get an infection.

[EWAYota]

Bob, I'm not entirely sure what was the actual cause, but I'm guessing saliva. As far as the skin breaking with such a small bite, just my grandfathers age being the factor on that one. I've had her give me little bites for 14 years, never drawing blood.

Just to reiterate, we did clean the bite when it happened, but suggested cleaning it a few more times over the course of a few days. With him being 89 and living alone, he didn't do it.

I'll be heading over tonight to check on him and cook him dinner. I asked my Mom how the draining went and how much fluid they were able to drain, all she would say was "They said the got a large amount of fluid out". I was kind of curious to know just how much had been drawn to that area. They've got his hand all wrapped up, about 2-3 pounds of wrap and gauze, enough to throw his balance off a bit.

[Texas Jim]

Is your Grand Father a diabetic? That simple infection can be very serious if he is? I always have claw marks on my legs from my two kitties. I wear shorts around the house all the time, and even though they are declawed (front only, I adopted them that way.)

I always put peroxide on them and then wash them out, Last week my male cat tried to jump from one chair to mine and he left three skid marks right on the front side of my shin. Of course he fell off, too far of jump. Man that made me want to piddle down my leg!!!

I do know about their love bites. the key to making sure they don't puncture your skin is to not pull back. Cats teeth as well as other animals are shaped inward to keep what they bite on inside their mouth.

I hope that you Grand Father heals up good and is doing better!!! TJ

[Bob98SR5]

Definitely an astringant, I even use SuperGlue, when our boy cat gets overly playful, and even sometimes a small dose of asparin.

i just want to make sure here that you are saying that astringents, superglue and aspirin is for *humans*. any of these, esp aspirin, will kill a cat. our cat ate a stray tylenol (we think) as a kitten and almost gave up the kitty ghost

[EWAYota]

Is your Grand Father a diabetic?

Nope, thank goodness.

He's doing pretty good. They've got him in a sling, and the hand is still draining a bit. They'll stitch it up early next week I believe. I guess they had to cut through a tendon in his hand, so his biggest fear right now is loosing some dexterity in his fingers. He's 89, but he can out type most of the people I know, including computer tech's and the like. We picked up a small musical keyboard for him to play around with. That way he can work his fingers as much as he can, and at least bug the hell out of his cats while he does it