Infection

[bobquasit]

Two days ago I was holding our cat, Sarah. Sebastian asked me to pass her to him, so I did - but not carefully enough. She pierced him in the shoulder with one of her hind claws. It was a small deep piercing rather than a scratch.

He screamed. The clawed spot instantly turned black and looked bruised. Teri took him into the bathroom, wiped the spot down with a baby wipe, put antibacterial ointment on the scratch, and put a Spongebob Squarepants band-aid on it.

Last night she took off the band-aid. The entire area where the band-aid had been stuck was bright red and splotchy. The injury itself was clearly infected; he had a perfectly round spot about the size of a dime that had turned darkish and swollen.

After a bit of arguing (Teri sometimes seems to think that I don't know what I'm talking about) I used some hydrogen peroxide on the infection. A small scab had formed, but after several applications the scab dissolved, and the peroxide foamed up quite a bit. Sebastian was very scared, but relieved that the peroxide didn't really hurt. I kept applying peroxide until it stopped foaming.

As far as I could tell, the peroxide had affected the center of the infection; a spot in the center about the size of a large pencil eraser had visibly improved. The swelling basically disappeared. But there's still a circle around the perimeter that's dark and infected. My guess is that the peroxide couldn't penetrate that far under the skin from the central entry point.

We're going to check it again tonight. If it's not visibly better, we'll call his doctor; he may need antibiotics. I'm hoping we can avoid the necessity of having it lanced, since that would scare him very much. But unless it's swollen again, I don't think lancing will be necessary.

As for the band-aid, I checked the packaging. Sure enough, it was a latex bandage. I don't know that Sebastian is allergic to latex, but it seemed a reasonable possibility. So I put on antibacterial ointment, got a sheer latex-free band-aid (without Spongebob, but that's life), and put it on perpendicular to the orientation of the original band-aid. If he has a reaction to this one, he'll end up with a red plus-sign on his shoulder.

Comments

[oldwolf.livejournal.com]

Another thing you can do is put another bandaid on the other side so he'd be balanced. ;-) And also to check to actually see if it is a latex allergy.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

It's actually quite normal for a cat scratch to turn red like that. Although alcohol might hurt a little, it's better than peroxide to use on a wound. Besides killing the infection, peroxide also damages the tissue around the wound and it will take longer to heal.
Plain old soap and water and anti-biotic ointment or cream is the best bet for something like that.

I hope it doesn't put him off holding the cat in the future.

It may not be the latex in the bandaid but rather the adhesive. I know I am not allergic to latex, but bandaid adhesive makes my skin all red as well.

[audacian.livejournal.com]

Cat scratches will do that - no need to worry. Just keep an eye on his lymph nodes, especially if the cat has had fleas recently as they can transmit bartonella to humans. But odds are you cleaned it just fine. :)

[graceysbane.livejournal.com]

I've always used peroxide on cuts, as it is a very effective method of killing bacteria. As for the redness around it, you can try warm moist compresses to draw whatever it is to the surface. Cat scratches have all sorts of nasty reactions, but he should be fine.

As for the splotches where the bandaid was, dollars to donuts it's the adhesive. I have the same allergy to the adhesive with no effect from latex. Right now you should remove the bandaid and let air get to the wound site to help facilitate healing.

Just $.02 from the EMT gallery

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Is tea-tree oil readily available in your part of the world? That's considered to be the ultimate anti-infection ointment where we are...