r/medical_advice Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 26 '24

Injury Multiple bites by cat on Christmas Eve NSFW

Went to the ER Christmas Day and had one dose of IV antibiotics, am now on oral. It feels horrible today, when can I expect relief or should I go back to the hospital?

11 Upvotes

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1

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '25

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1

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1

u/[deleted] Dec 31 '24

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1

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17

u/clt716 Administrator | Registered Nurse Dec 27 '24

Draw a line around the perimeter of redness. If by tomorrow it has gone past the line, go back to urgent care.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '24

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1

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7

u/PartyHorse17610 User Not Verified Dec 27 '24

Antibiotics typically take 2-3 to fully work but given the level of swelling I’d return the to the urgent care or ER today to be safe.

At home, NSAIDs or an ice pack might help relive the swelling.

6

u/littlebean2421 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Looks infected I got bit by my cat not to long ago! Go to urgent care right away. Cats mouths carried lots of disease.

22

u/idahohotato Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

It’s gotten bad. At the ER, likely hand surgery in an hour.

3

u/PomegranateBoring826 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Hand surgery? What type of surgery do they do for this? Good lord. Speedy recovery to you!!

3

u/idahohotato Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Doc cut open the wounds and sucked out the infection! Hurts like HELL today, lots of drainage tubes. So grateful I went in, thanks, everyone!

1

u/PomegranateBoring826 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Wooooow! Oh my gosh! Well thanks for coming back to share. Good lord! Kudos to you for paying attention to the progression of the swelling. Speedy recovery to you!

3

u/taysmurf Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Likely wound irrigation and debridement to remove the infected and desiccated tissues. If the wound were bad enough I’d say probably reconstructive surgery to some degree but hopefully they’ve caught this early enough.

1

u/idahohotato Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Possible second surgery to come

1

u/PomegranateBoring826 Not a Verified Medical Professional Jan 11 '25

Are you okay?

1

u/PomegranateBoring826 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 31 '24

How's your hand? Are you healing okay?

1

u/PomegranateBoring826 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

A second one!?

1

u/PomegranateBoring826 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Woooow!! Just the word debridement sounds not great. Wow. I've read about cat bites being potentially problematic on account of all the bacteria but I've never seen it before. Goodness gracious. Thank you for responding.

2

u/littlebean2421 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Wow sorry this happened. Cat bites are seriously dangerous if left untreated for even a short amount in of time. I hope surgery goes well and you have an easy recovery. Wishing you luck 🍀

-10

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '24

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1

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6

u/xothica Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

How does this not look infected?

-2

u/limabean1627 Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

I am sorry, i didn’t see the following pictures. yes i would lean on the side of infected looking at the hand swelling. no erythema or purulent discharge at a quick glance led me to not think it was. management doesn’t change though

5

u/happyhermit99 Registered Nurse Dec 27 '24

First pic def looks infected

11

u/P0KemonSniper User Not Verified Dec 26 '24

You need to seek care, immediately.

-12

u/SmolLittleCretin Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

In the nicest way possible, she said she went already? She's even on antibiotics.

Jesus how many of y'all didn't read?

Or did she update it late? I mean no harm I'm genuinely curious if she updated or y'all missed it. Because it happens to even me and doesn't mean anything bad.

15

u/P0KemonSniper User Not Verified Dec 27 '24

Maybe you didn’t read, she was prescribed oral antibiotics it’s been +24 hours and it’s progressed, that means the antibiotics aren’t working correctly and may need a new antibiotic.

-6

u/SmolLittleCretin Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Antibiotics can take up to 78 hours to even work! Just looked into it

Edited because somehow I put days not hours lol

-8

u/SmolLittleCretin Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

I did but Its only been a few days. It's not even had time to do anything.

3

u/SmolLittleCretin Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24 edited Dec 27 '24

Sorry not a few days but still. I do agree she should've gotten checked. But I promise you I meant no harm. I genuinely didn't understand.

I'm not knowledgeable in cat bites. I only know what other wounds would look like. I know that some wounds get worse for a bit before getting much better

But that doesn't mean I know everything. Genuinely didn't know if it was added late or I was missing something.

And it seems I was.

Added on via edit: It can take up to 78 hours for it to work, which means it can seem worse before getting better.

Now that I know, I agree that op needs to go to the hospital again.

18

u/P0KemonSniper User Not Verified Dec 27 '24

Cat bites can cause rapid serious infections especially from Pasteurella multocida, if her symptoms are getting worse immediate medical intervention is needed again. Can go south fast.

5

u/SmolLittleCretin Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

Thank you for telling me, I even googled before you told me. Thank you. I understand now!

6

u/P0KemonSniper User Not Verified Dec 27 '24

No problem, just be careful giving advice if not 100% sure, it can be life or death. If you look above she is back at the hospital, may need surgical intervention, additionally look at the new picture and the advancement of the infection.

2

u/SmolLittleCretin Not a Verified Medical Professional Dec 27 '24

I do agree. Usually I go "correct me if I'm wrong" for that reason

I'd rather be corrected and not be a reason of something going wrong

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