I once got bit and scratched by a snow leopard (a far more stupid and boring story than you might think). I had been bitten by house cats before and my hand would swell up a bit. This time though the cat had just broke the skin a bit my hand looked like someone had shoved a softball into a fleshy glove. Not a lot of pain but certainly uncomfortable. And, just like that, it was gone.

The reason i bring up the anecdote is largely because I'm bored, but secondly because I was amazed that my reaction to a cat bite seemed directly proportional to the size of the cat. I have not experimented on tigers or lions to confirm.

I should have went to the doctor but did not as I did not want to have to explain how I got bit. But I should have. I was younger, dumber, and full of piss and figured everything was just fine. An antibiotic would be in order.

And don't get pregnant for a while.

Go to a doctor immediately, you definitely have an infection!

In general if the swelling happens fast or doesn't go down in 24 hours, you should go to the doctor.

Not only are cat bites prone to infection, their mouths harbor a number of pathogens that are harmless to them, but a few of these are fantastically well adapted for infecting the human blood stream. (Sorry elenchos, but you're totally wrong about this.)

You need to be especially careful if the area around the bite turns bright red and that redness starts moving up your arm. I have a degree in clinical microbiology just so you know I'm not full of shit. Please go get a beta-lactam right away, even penicillin would probably do the trick. (But get it from your doctor, and take the entire series!)

I think another reason, along with those listed, for bite wounds to get infected so easily is because of the dirty mouths that they come from.

Maybe if you have some kind of teeth cleaning regime for your cat the next bite wouldn't get infected as easily.

Might not be worth the trouble though, since it sounds like your cat would probably bite you a lot more often if you tried to brush his teeth at this point in his life.

The best way to avoid getting an infection after exposure to a pathogen, or a puncture, or a small wound or what have you, is to wash the area with mild soap and water for 10 minutes, making sure to use moderate friction. Do not use alcohol or any other harsh chemicals - these will damage the healthy cells in the wound and actually increase your risk for infection. For quicker healing time, decreased risk of infection, and decreased scarring, keep it moist (neosporin or bacitracin ointment) and covered. If you have a larger wound, irrigating it with saline for a long ass time and covering it with a moist and sterile as possible dressing is your best bet.

But I agree with Elenchos - my husband got bit by a cat and nothing helped except prompt antibiotic use - it was TERRIFYING how quickly it got really really bad. There's not a lot you can do for a cat bite except be thankful for modern medicine.

My other advice, as your friendly neighborhood nurse for everybody out there is remember, a) going to the local clinic and getting antibiotics is far cheaper in the long run then a trip to the ED and/or a possible prolonged hospital stay and b) make your decision to do this during regular business hours, because when it starts getting really painful or obviously effed up, is also more cost effective.

Their teeth are perfect little bacterial injectors. They are very sharp, and very narrow, and the wounds tend to close up quickly. Their mouths are full of bacteria which proliferate like mad bastards in anaerobic conditions.

All of this means that a cat bite on a knuckle (or other location that bleeds very little) should generally be considered a medical emergency. I know a couple of people who've had to have fingers amputated due to cat bite, and several others (including my husband) who came very close to doing so (IV antibiotics were the thing that saved their digits).

When my Yankee - the cat in my picture - was dying, she took a good chomp on the knuckle of my thumb (she was in a lot of pain at the end). I opened the wound up under running water and poured hydrogen peroxide in it, then kept topical antibiotics on it for several days. I avoided serious infection, although I did have to open it up a couple more times when it tried to infect. My husband, on the other hand, got a kitten bite on the middle knuckle of his pinky, and the tiny little hole healed almost immediately (my husband heals freakishly fast). Within 8 hours, his hand swelled like a balloon and he was on IV antibiotics. The finger is still stiff and the knuckle misshapen, 15 years later.

So the moral of the story is, don't let a cat bite heal over without abrading it and thoroughly irrigating it, and run, don't walk to the doctor when it starts to swell and/or show red streaks.