I care for an 80 year old woman with alzheimers. She moved into our
home in early June. Her second week here she got a tiny scratch from
our cat. She ended up nearly dying. The scratch happened at ten in the
morning, Carla trying to move our cat from one to spot to another, which
cats don't take kindly to, or our Tiger doesn't. We washed the scratch,
put on antibiotic ointment and a bandage. Carla was fine when she went
to bed at 8 PM. By ten that evening she tried to get up to the bathroom
and couldn't. I heard her moaning and went to help. She had a fever
and was in severe pain, and a gulf ball size lump had risen on her neck,
over her lymph node. We rushed her to the ER and we nearly lost her.
She had an extremely rapid onset of a condition called cat scratch fever
- which usually happens more from a bite than a scratch, but that is
still the name of the condition. There are many different bacteria in a
cat's mouth, but the cat scratch fever "bug" is present in about a tenth
of all cats, especially those that are outdoor or indoor/outdoor cats.
When you bring a new cat into your home, and keep it as an indoor cat,
you can get the cat tested and treat it with an antibiotic if it carries
the bug. It is much more prevalent in outdoors cats, and you can't
keep them from being reinfected. Most folks don't die from cat scratch
fever, and once a human gets it and recovers they typically have
developed an immunity. Most folks can actually recover without
treatment, but it can be a long and painful process. it involves the
lymph system. But folks who have a compromised immune system can
actually die from it, as almost happened with Carla. She was in the
hospital for a week on IV antibiotics, and trying to get her system
stabalized. So please heed the cautions, and go the doctor for a cat
scratch and/or bite. Sara
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