Cat Scratch Fever
posted in General |You think they’re so clean, always licking themselves. You think they’re quiet and smart, and … clean.
Let me tell ya, quiet? Sure. Smart? Sure. Clean? Not so much. Last Saturday, we brought home a new kitty toy, and Toddler K decided to … express her expansive love for the kitties. She hugged the coal black Alice and he turned on her; scratched and bit her hand. We cleaned her up, comforted her, and put her to bed a little later. When she woke in the morning, her hand had swollen up to twice the size and it was red and angry looking. Not so great.
We took her to the mall, because it’s that time of the year, where we go to the mall, and chatted with our friends E & A (congrats on the house!) and worried about Toddler K. About noon we decided to call a doctor. They recommended the Emergency Room. About three minutes later, we were at Emmanual Children’s Emergency, slightly out of breath.
Watching them stick an IV into my seventeen month old kid, my heart was in my throat. It’s a little tiny needle, a little tiny tube, and they draw blood by dripping it out of the tube. It turns out she had a fast-moving infection, they were concerned about her hand because it’s so small and cat scratches can be so deep. So we got to chat with a hand surgeon. And have X-rays to make sure there’s no tooth or claw bits left in the wounds. Guess who got to pin the kid to the xray film? And they decided to keep her overnight and give her intravenous antibiotics. In the morning, her hand was still swollen and red, but better. The day after (Tuesday) she was a lot better. Still kind of cranky, but not quite so … snake-bite looking.
They were pretty confident it was the bite, but the claw mark was a lot deeper, in our opinion. Either way, she got what she needed; a lot of attention, fluids and antibiotics.
