There are some famous animal bites we all fear. Shark, snake, and dog bites are ones to look out for, but a cat bite can’t be that bad, can it?
Apparently, according to Micah Hayes for Northwest Florida, they can be. Her cat, Mr. Sammie, accidentally gave her a bite while panicked, and it resulted in a rather horrific infection. According to the WHO, they’re not as uncommon as you may think, and result in around 66,000 ER visits a year in the US alone.
“A lot of people don’t realize how bad a cat bite can get and how quickly that can happen,” she told Newsweek. Their little teeth are vehicles for infection. “Cats carry Pasteurella bacteria and staph, and both are really nasty,” she revealed.
Mr. Sammies’ Sharp Cat Bite Caused Serious Infection
Micah Hayes wasn’t expecting to be bitten by her cat, who was usually a rather calm little fellow. “I had a guest over with a dog she was fostering,” she explained. “The dog had been after my cat, so I was carrying him to the front door to let him out. The dog charged at him, and my cat panicked.”
“He had been around dogs before and was fine, so I really didn’t expect him to freak out like that,” she said. But the cat panicked, causing it to bite down on the joint of her thumb. “He bit my thumb right in the joint,” she said. “My surgeon actually confirmed his tooth went in the joint.”
She thought that maybe she would be okay, so she waited a few days. However, the cat bite quickly became infected. “It started changing from a simple bite mark to a blustery-looking mess within 24 hours,” Hayes said. “My mom convinced me to go to a doctor the same day. I wound up going to the ER the following day as it looked even worse.”
The bite had become septic and led to an infection in the bone that took years to stop hurting. She had to undergo many surgeries and invasive cuts to clean out the reinfected wound. “It took four months after it happened and then a couple of years for it not to hurt all the time,” she recalled.
“The skin was really sensitive for about two years. I was on an IV of antibiotics three times a day for those four months, and was unable to work during that time. I had to do another month of IV antibiotics a year later as the infection came back.”
She required multiple surgeries for the cat bite that simply wouldn’t heal. “The first surgery was to clean the wound out. I had one more surgery to go in and clean it again, and they put an antibiotic powder directly in the joint since the infection wasn’t clearing up.”
After the first surgery, she was tempted to have the thumb amputated just to get out of the pain she was in. However, she persevered. She has reduced strength in her affected hand due to the cat bite. However, her relationship with Mr. Sammie is still strong.