lyvanna

lyvanna t1_jazv4s5 wrote

I would really hesitate to call cat scratches puncture wounds. It can happen, I suppose, but in the vast majority of scratches the cat slices not punctures, and slices have a much bigger surface area that bleed much more readily and are rarely deep.

Cat scratch fever is a catch-all name used for feline bartonellosis and is caught by scratches as well, but you're more likely to get it from a bite. It's also a rare and usually mild issue with 500 hospitalizations a year in the US and around 12k registered cases.

Cat scratches are harmless beyond bleeding and maybe a scar in the vast majority of cases, cat bites are not.

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lyvanna t1_jaxatxo wrote

You can, theoretically, but it's not terribly likely. Cats don't stick their claws deep into your skin, they scratch the surface. It's not scratch wounds that tend to abscess and get infected, in- or outdoor.

I've been scratched really badly growing up as an idiot kid with outdoor cats and never had so much as a bit of pus in any scratch wound of any severity, bites that puncture the skin get at least a little bit infected like 90% of the time though.

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