Merle F. Marks, DVM
 

Don't Ignore Cat Fight Wounds
 

We've all heard the early AM howling and wailing...then there is a sudden flurry, a cat scream...and it is over. This scenario rarely lasts more than a minute or two. We all look around to make sure we know where our cats are and that it wasn't one of ours involved in the fight. If it was one of ours, typically all seems to be well...only tell tale signs anything at all occurred is a big fluffed up tail swishing around. This scene gets played out many times, especially in the warmer summer months. The innocent cat fight. However, that usually isn't the end of the story.
 

In my book, there are few things as nasty as cat bite wounds. Sure, dog bites can damage tissue badly, and the wounds can become infected. Dog bites, however are more of a crushing injury, like hitting your hand with the claw part of a hammer. Cat bites are different. Cats teeth are smaller and sharper. Their bite is more like stabbing your hand with an ice pick. Not a lot of tissue damage. But there is a secondary culprit...bacteria. Cat bites usually go much deeper than dog bites and so, they in a sense inject bacteria deep into muscle tissue, like stepping on a rusty nail. You just know that it is going to get infected.
 

The most common places for cat bite wounds to show up are on the cheeks of the face, around the area where the tail attaches to the body and the front forelegs. Unless your cat is limping, you may have no signs that a fight occurred at all. Usually within 3 days, signs will start to show up. They will start to run a fever, which initially presents as a cat who starts sleeping a lot, stops eating or starts hiding. If left untreated, many of these bite wounds will become abscesses, large pockets of infection which need to be surgically drained. Most abscesses show up 4-7 days after a fight occurs.
 

The other problem with these bite wounds is this is the most common way Feline Leukemia Virus and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (cat AIDS) are spread. Many of your cat's sparing partners are rogue tomcats who spend their life picking fights. They are battled scarred and virus infected. 90% of stray cats carry one of these viruses. The neighborhood Typhoid Mary.
 

If you suspect or know that your cat has been in a cat fight, don't wait to get them treated. They will definitely need antibiotic therapy. That can head off progression of the infection, prevent an abscess from developing and get your cat back on the mend. Also make sure you know your cat is FeLV/FIV negative (a simple 10 minute blood test) and then keep them up to date on their vaccines.