I was just chatting with a friend who helps at a shelter and she has this to share for bite wounds (please see below), but disclaimer alert: This is only a sharing, with good intentions. Please see a doctor within the first hour of any bite wound to get professional treatment and advice.
But in case you cannot see a doctor, this is what my friend does:
I was bitten on my left hand recently pulling apart two dogs who got into a fight. The wound didn’t look too deep. I soaked the wound with Chlorhexidine and applied an antibiotic cream. The hand was swollen and painful. I took Beazyme next day and the swelling gradually reduced. If swelling had persisted, would go see a GP, have a tetanus jab and get oral Co Amoxiclav antibiotics. Had worked well for my cat bites before when wound had pus.
But what if the wound does not bleed, like in the case of my Cow Bite?
Need to squeeze till it bleeds. I suspect cats bites are actually more infectious than dog bites.
I have been using Chlorhexidine since I found that it also helps reduce the sting whenever I get clawed by the cats when they protest being carried.
Aha…there you have it! Silly me! I thought not bleeding was good, but actually it isn’t! On hindsight now, I realise this: Not bleeding means the toxins don’t even have a way to get out of the body. So it infests inside. Yikes! So, bleeding might actually be a good thing as the toxins can come off the body with the blood. Makes sense?
An update to the question above: I asked the doctor and he said NO, the above is not true. When it bleeds, it could be worse because it means the toxins have gone into the blood stream. So, either way is bad – bleeding or not bleeding. An animal bite is a serious injury. Just go see the doctor within the first hour and let the doctor figure it out!!
So, ok, I learnt something today: Soak in Chlorhexidine. I didn’t do this. I just washed it with soap and water and applied some iodine onto it, like some gungho hero….haha. Beazyme, ok, I have Beazyme at home all the time for the cats. Silly me, didn’t even think of using it for myself!
So how is my wound so far? Well, I don’t know! Because today’s doctor says it has to be wrapped up and so it’s been wrapped up and taking a bath was quite the challenge as I cannot get it wet. But it is itchy, though, because it’s been wrapped up for so many hours now. I did get it a bit wet today, but I dried it with the hair dryer…haha. It’s pretty hilarious! I went places today and when people looked at it, I just said, “Kucing gigit”.
Can’t wait to get the bandage off tomorrow!
The bandage is elastic and breathable, so I peeked and it looks okay inside. It isn’t red.