What to do if a stray cat bites you and breaks the skin
Cat bites easily introduce bacteria that cause rapid swelling, redness, and severe infection within hours. When urgent care is closed, waiting it out can allow an infection or blood poisoning to escalate quickly, making immediate professional medical evaluation necessary.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1talking to a doctor
- 2reporting to animal control
- 3Washing the wound with soap and antiseptics
- 4Applying Neosporin or alcohol wipes
- 5Monitoring the wound overnight before visiting urgent care or the emergency room the next morning
- 6monitoring the cat for 10 days
- 7washing the wound with soap, water, and hand sanitizer
- 8relying on previous tetanus vaccinations
- 9letting the dog continue the behavior if the recipient does not mind
- 10working with the dog to reduce or redirect the behavior
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Hey my cat bit me last Tuesday and it definitely got infected. Ive been bit dozens of times by cats and I knew immediately this one was different.”source ↗
“Poked the stray cat’s paw, it bit me. Lesson learnt to not poke their paws. I’m in Hawai’i so rabies doesn’t exist here, although I get very nervous regarding medical issues so I wanted to ask for opinions.”source ↗
“Unfortunately it’s 8:38 PM and the urgent care is closed. ER is too far. Is it okay to just watch it for now?”source ↗
“Random kitten I’ve never seen was at my front door when I came home.”source ↗
“bit my arm playfully with its sharp teeth and broke skin.”source ↗
“now worried because it t bit me.”source ↗
“My husband was bitten by a cat once (walking between 2 fighting cats) and it started out like yours. But within 12 hours it started to swell up a lot and turn red and hurt. He was diagnosed with blood poisoning.”source ↗
“I have a little malshie mix dog who has always nibbled on people's hands when he gets really excited (generally when someone comes home and he's happy to see them) his entire 10 year life, someone told me that it's bad behavior and there's a correlation between that and biting.”source ↗
“i also don’t wanna pay a bunch of money for nothing”source ↗
“Mine does this too. She is a pug-weenie, just turned 2. We worked with her, and now she mainly just does it with me, and she doesn’t clamp down.”source ↗
“will i be ok? i really don’t want to go to the doctor😓”source ↗