Poor dd (2y)- cat attack

[swellmomma]

First off, let me say I hate not having the internet at home. I have been dieing to post this story since it happened on Friday and the library is not open until Tuesday. ANYWAY- Friday night dd 2.5 and the little girl I watch were playing on the front yard with one of my kittens. A cat from down the street charged up the lawn and started attacking dd. She got scratches on her back, neck and chin. SHe has DEEP puncture wounds fromt eh bites on the outer adn inner part of her upper left arm. Of course Murphy's law prevailed, I had a flat tire and an empty tank of gas, and the closest clinic was teh ER 20 minutes away. SO That night I scrubbed her wounds with soap, then covered with polysporin and bandaids. The next am when my folks brought the 3 older kids back home, my dad fixed the tire and gave me gas money. I got her to the ER. SHe is now on 10 days of antibiotics, and they gave me surgical sponge things to scrub her woudns with as they were already showing signs of infection. SHe had not previously been immunized due to severe reaction and of course the fear was that her infection was tetanus. Thankfully the health unit(where we get shots done), had been doing research for me (getting her reaction information from teh cdc, talking to her ped, talking to the medical officer for this region etc) because there is a measles outbreak int eh province and I wanted to know about the MMR vaccine. Everything pointed to her being able to try getting vaccines again. Good thing.

 

Yesterday we drove through a major storm (roads washed out, golfball sized hail, trees coming down) int eh next town over(funny it was sunny at my house) to get her the tetanus vaccine. SHe needed both the one she would have gotten at a 4 month old, AND had to get the tetanus TIG (immunoglobulin) shots. THe TIG one was such a big needle in her thigh, I felt so bad for her.

 

The cat has been reported (I knew who the owners were) and is under quarantine for 10 days to watch for signs of rabies just in case we have to start that treatment too. I don't think the cat has it, this is a precaution.

 

Thankfully dd is not showing any signs of reaction to the vax's, her infections are clearing up from the antibiotics and she is not showing any fear to my cats. Everytime I see her cuts/punctures I just want to cry for her, but she is such a resilient kid she isn't letting it phase her at all.

[newlifemom]

Yikes Brandy! :grouphug: to and your dd. Miss you.

[swellmomma]

Yikes Brandy! :grouphug: to and your dd. Miss you.

 

 

I will be back more often by fall. I promised the kids I will find a way to budget in teh internet at home before September. While teh lack of distractions at home is good, I hate being cut off from the online world kwim

[beccad777]

That's horrible! I have heard that cat bites are the worst for infection! I am so glad you were able to get her to the ER!

[i.love.lucy]

My dh was horribly attacked by our own cat when he was holding him outside and a dog chrged up. Cat freaked and lit into dh. He also got somewhat infected wounds and had a tetanus shot. I have never, ever seen someones hands swell like that. Probably due to him already being allergic to cats.

 

I'm so sorry for your poor baby! Hope she heals fast!!:grouphug:

[DianeW88]

Yep, cat wounds can be nasty. It is unlikely that the cat has rabies however. And in fact, you would know within five days, but as a precaution, the standard for quarantining an animal is 10 days. The only rabies vax we've ever done on kids in the peds practice I worked in was for exposure to bats. For cat wounds, we did tetanus shots, cleaned the wounds and gave antibiotics if the the injuries were on the face, hands or feet. She should be doing much better soon.

 

As a side note, a possible infection from cat bites that probably wouldn't show up for awhile is cat-scratch fever (fever, swollen lymph nodes, loss of apetite, listlessness and headache....usually very mild in kids often with swollen lymph nodes being the only sign), which usually is spread by younger cats, kittens in particular. She may not show symptoms for 3 weeks or so, but if you notice swollen lymph nodes, check with your doc and remind him of the cat attack. It resolves on its own, although the lymph nodes will probably stay swollen for months and your ped may want to do a blood test to confirm that's what it is. NOT saying that your dd will get this by any means.....just giving you a heads up in case you notice symptoms like this a month from now.....they're more than likely from the cat scratches.

 

Hope she feels better soon. Puncture wounds hurt!

 

Diane W.

married for 22 years

homeschooling 3 kiddos for 16 years

[Jean in Newcastle]

:grouphug: for your little one.

[TravelingChris]

Unfortunately, cat bites often cause infections, and deep ones since they have long teeth. How do I know? My dd startled our 15 lb big cat (he isn't fat, just much bigger than most cats) by taking a school paper out from under him while he was sleeping. He jumped up and bit her on the face. Only time he has ever done that and he is 9 years old. I think he was having some predatory type of dream and her moving him caused the attack. We didn't take her in immediately and by the next morning, it was clear we should have. She had to have antibiotics for ten days too.

 

Hope she heals well.

[unsinkable]

:grouphug:

 

Wow! I am glad she is on the mend. I hope your social worker doesn't get wind of this.

[Perry]

:grouphug:

 

Cat bites are very prone to infection, and can cause all sorts of problems. Tetanus cases are often a result of animal bites, so it's important to get the tetanus shot, and I'm glad you did that.

 

But--

 

Tetanus doesn't cause skin infections. The tetanus bacteria produces a neurotoxin that damages neurons and causes muscle spasms. It takes days to weeks (rarely months) to show up, with symptoms beginning on average 8 days after exposure. So while it's really important that she got the tetanus shot, you don't need to worry that the signs of infection at the site of the bites were caused by tetanus.

[MomsintheGarden]

Yikes! My sil was in the hospital for a couple of days from a cat scratch gone bad. I hope your little one is feeling better soon.

 

GardenMom

[lailasmum]

My dd has been attacked twice by our neighbours cat, luckily it was a claws only attack both times so was quick to heal. The same cat attacked our elderly neighbour last year and bit her leg, it took her a long time to recover. This cat has a brain tumour that makes him very vicious, the entire neighbourhood gives him a wide berth now and you can hear cries up and down the road of people letting each other know the cat is about.

 

I did get attacked by my childhood pet cat once, We had a dog for a short while, one day it bit the cat and the cat bit me in a kind of ricochet effect. Bit deeply into my hand, it bled heavily and it did get a bit infected. For some reason my parents didn't take me to get any medical help but luckily it healed ok and stopped bleeding. I have several scars on my hand like a cat dental imprint.

 

I do love cats though.

[Desert Rat]

When I worked in an animal shelter, I always said I respected cats over dogs. Dogs have teeth and muscle. Cats have teeth, freaky acrobatic agility and 20 claws meant for shredding.

I hope your little one heals quickly, Brandy.

[swellmomma]

She is doing much better today. THe antibiotics seem to be doing their job and the punctures look much better, scabbed normally now, not the nasty redness around and oozing etc. She keeps talking about her shots and the medicine taking away the dirty cat germs, but is otherwise fine about the whole thing.

[RanchGirl]

If the cat is randomly attacking children, shouldn't it be quarantined *forever*?