need help helping strays. Pls..

[Nana]

Originally Posted by FurKids

(but my girls no sound pun, bergolek lantai pun tak nampak ... but those rascals all seemed to know from the scent)

That's important to know huh. I purposely waited for Bintang's 'optimal' age to be spayed. Only to be surprised that she was already on heat when I sent her in. A new lesson for me, as I didn't see that coming, no noise or anything odd. Luckily, Bulan had been neutered earlier.

[blackie007]

Have you had your tetanus shot & boosters, Nana? If not get them done asap to protect yourself. It should last 5 years, or that's what the doctor told me.

If you're rescuing cats, you never know one day when one might bite you so hard that you bleed like pipe bocor. And if the time is in the middle of the night, you'd have to go to an emergency 24 hours clinic which charges you hundreds of dollars just for the tetanus shot, not inclusive of treating the open wound!!

That's what happened to me, and that doctor didn't even tell me about needing boosters. I only found out from Furkids in one of the threads here.

Originally Posted by Nana

Alamak, I wouldn't hv thought of that! So from your experience, how to know when I would need medical treatment? I'm thinking its subjective judgements? go if I think the bite is bad and really bengkak?

[FurKids]

Originally Posted by Nana

Alamak, I wouldn't hv thought of that! So from your experience, how to know when I would need medical treatment? I'm thinking its subjective judgements? go if I think the bite is bad and really bengkak?

Nana, if you perasan kena gigit kucing tu (there will be 2 teeth punctures), cepat-cepat tekan as much blood out as you can, don't wait because the wound will close up very, very fast and trap the bacteria. Every second counts for you to get the oozing blood to drain out the wound.

If you are not able to get much blood out, chances are big that it will get bengkak and painful quite fast. Setengah hari pun dah mula terasa.

If the bite is near or on a joint lagi cepat sebab everytime you move the joint, the infection will spread (mcm snake bite la, you must drain and tie a tornique - lupa spelling dia lak! - not try to move the limb because the movement will cause the poison to spread faster). You will see it swell up and merah at the site ... and you will feel pain. Kalau very sakit, get to the clinic fast and get your course of antibiotics to stop the infection.

If you see red streaks from the wound site travelling to your vein, that is a sign that the infection has entered the blood stream and you definitely need to get to the clinic as fast as you can. Dulu masa first time sebab inexperienced, saya sampai nangis while waiting for the doctor! Soooooooooo very, very painful, terlolong-lolong! Not only that, for a long time, I could not bend my finger because of the damage to the joint. Sometimes the damage can be quite permanent, so do not risk it. Also, we can die from blood poisoning.

Now, I am very, very careful NOT to take chances if a situation arises where a cat may bites (ie. bila dia tengah nak bergaduh dgn kucing lain (don't try to pick him up, just throw a cloth over him then balut dia dengan kain tu and pick him up and place him in his cage, atau bila dia cedera/ketakutan because an injured/frightened cat can bite).

Always use gloves or throw a big cloth over the cat that may bite. Cover totally. Bila dia tak nampak and totally covered up, he will not thrash around and will not be able to bite or scratch you. But you must stay very, very calm and talk to him gently and soothingly because animals can sense your feelings and make the situation harder.

Hopes this info helps you, Nana.

[Nana]

Owh... I think I got my shot...hmm...I just can't recall exactly when, it must've been long ago.

This is very informative, didn't know it can be THAT serious. Thanks for sharing, hope this info will spare me the experience from going through that.

I hope none of the cats here would be so harsh on me. So far so good , they've started using their litter box , although I'm not sure which and which that have/haven't learned, but as long as I can see poo in the box i'm happy...

[FurKids]

Nana, day before yesterday I was feeding shreds of daging dada ayam kukus to a young boboy recuperating from a bad injury. Dia tak berapa biasa makan dari huluran jari and being so hungry from his past stray days (skin and bones), dia ngap dengan jari saya sekali.

He got me at the tip of my index finger. I immediately and quickly pressed and pressed and pressed out as much blood as I could so that the oozing blood would drain out as much bacteria as possible and clean out the wound.

I pressed for several minutes and kept pressing until no more blood would come out. I then quickly applied alcohol to disinfect the wound for a minute or so.

Several hours later, the wound felt a little smarting (not very painful) and a little red swelling. Not very. Judging from the large amount of blood that I managed to press out, I felt that I had managed to clean out the wound considerably and did not go to the clinic for a course of antibiotics.

Today my wound is healing and ok already.

So, Nana, you need to monitor the condition of each bite in order to know when you should go to a clinic for antibiotics pronto and when you can skip it and be ok. You need to press out as much blood as you can immediately and as fast as you possibly can before the wound closes by itself. This way, you can ensure that the amount of bacteria trapped is as minimal as possible.

But then, the problem is, sometimes during the excitement, you tak sedar pun that you had been bitten at another place (when the cat goes ngap! eeeoooooowww! ngap! hissssss!!!! ngap! oooowwwww!!!! and as such were not able to press out any blood all and this is the bad one. You only realise that you have been bitten there when the wound starts to sakit and swell up all red. And often, this is the one yang serious because of the bacteria that managed to get trapped inside.