Hoping you can help a terrified individual...

[Slim]

Would love to hear it sometime Slim...I'm pretty fascinated by cat behavior myself

One of my former USAF combatives instructors was a bit unconventional....

[Sita]

I read that you're feeling better about the whole thing now, but I just wanted to add a little.

If the cat had rabies, and this happened over a month ago, you and the cat would be dead right now. Period. End of story. You do not have it and will not get it.

As for anything else that could have been transmitted, you would have had problems at the source: the wounds. Your foot looks totally healed. If you had been infected with anything, your wounds would have turned VERY red and painful, swollen all over the area, possibly with pus. There would have also been red lines traveling from the wounds up your body. Since none of that happened, and you are healed up, you're fine. There's nothing I can think of that you could get from a scratch OR bite that wouldn't have immediately showed within a day or two.

In case you're wondering, here's my qualifications for this info. I'm a veterinary technician, and I've (unfortunately) been scratched hundreds of times over the years. A quick scrub with soap and water and wipe with a disinfectant and I'm good to go. Assuming I'm not dripping blood everywhere, of course, but that's only happened once or twice.

[meowmeowkazoo]

I know how you feel, I also struggle with anxiety and it can be very much like a physical illness. I take medications to manage mine, but have also learned coping techniques over the years. I hope seeing a therapist helps you.

[4Ballz]

have some medical kush to calm you down. hope you're alright. my wife google's her symptoms all the time. scares me more, cause I know it ain't the reason. she googled about our 3 year old wetting the bed, she was crying and had issues at work all day, cause it is a sign of diabetes. He is 3....:cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: happens. Sorry, I needed to get that off my chest.

[Jazi]

Slim, somehow I hear a funny story coming on.

OP, derp, somehow I missed the part that said it happened a month ago. I'd say then that there's 0 chance you'd have rabies, but if you're feeling ill, going to the doctor can help out with allergies and seasonal bugs. If there were any concern about it, they would have urged you very strongly to get the shot that day.

When my sister's friend was bitten by a symptomatic bat, they had him on a series of injections that very night. He was an idiot and picked up a limp bat laying in playground mulch and struggling to fly barehanded. He'd just wanted to move it off the playground, but seriously... really dumb move. Rabid bats have junked up sonars and cannot fly well if at all, so messing with one flopping around on the ground is asking for it.

To those who said that it's impossible to get rabies from a cat scratch, you're technically mostly right. 97% of rabies cases come from dog bites worldwide and nearly all cases in the US come from bats, less than 1% from cat bites, and less than even half that from cat scratches. It's possible, but you'd really have to go out of your way to get rabies from a cat scratch.

[xFenrir]

I read that you're feeling better about the whole thing now, but I just wanted to add a little.

If the cat had rabies, and this happened over a month ago, you and the cat would be dead right now. Period. End of story. You do not have it and will not get it.

As for anything else that could have been transmitted, you would have had problems at the source: the wounds. Your foot looks totally healed. If you had been infected with anything, your wounds would have turned VERY red and painful, swollen all over the area, possibly with pus. There would have also been red lines traveling from the wounds up your body. Since none of that happened, and you are healed up, you're fine. There's nothing I can think of that you could get from a scratch OR bite that wouldn't have immediately showed within a day or two.

In case you're wondering, here's my qualifications for this info. I'm a veterinary technician, and I've (unfortunately) been scratched hundreds of times over the years. A quick scrub with soap and water and wipe with a disinfectant and I'm good to go. Assuming I'm not dripping blood everywhere, of course, but that's only happened once or twice.

This was just what I needed. Someone qualified to say "I'm 100% sure you don't have it." It helps so much! My other question would be that a mother of kittens so young (about a month old) wouldn't go very far, especially if she was being fed where she was, so the chances of it being a different cat are pretty much nonexistent, right?

[Sita]

This was just what I needed. Someone qualified to say "I'm 100% sure you don't have it." It helps so much! My other question would be that a mother of kittens so young (about a month old) wouldn't go very far, especially if she was being fed where she was, so the chances of it being a different cat are pretty much nonexistent, right?

Cats usually stick around where they are being fed, and since she's been there consistently for 2 years, I'd agree it's probably the same one. Protecting her kittens is probably what prompted the attack, like you had thought. It's HIGHLY unlikely it was a different one that actually scratched you, since it's seems like that area is her territory, and she would try to keep other cats away from such young kittens, but it's not impossible that it was a different one. One that could've been passing through and happened to be hiding in the bushes and got scared when your dog started sniffing.

It doesn't really matter at this point (since so much time has passed) which cat got you, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[Sama]

Mama cats with little kittens don't tend to travel much without a very pressing reason. If the neighbors have been feeding and watching out for her for years she is very established. The attack you described sounds like a defensive mama to me. Sound like your in good shape at this point.

[CherryPython]

For reasons I would rather not go into here, I have studied the fighting style of cats extensively.

One of my former USAF combatives instructors was a bit unconventional....

Slim's a cat ninja

Going online and researching symptoms is just going to make things worse I had a scare last year, freaked myself out to the point I was having regular panic attacks, because my symptoms matched up to those of Cervical Cancer. On top of the Doctors sending me to the hospital for ultrasounds and all sorts of blood tests, I was a wreck. It turned out to be...? Only my IUD screwing up my system! I'm currently waiting for it to be removed. I know how you feel having anxiety, I've been on medication for years, it sucks.

I don't know a lot about rabies, other than if you had it you'd have some seriiiiious symptoms and that cat wouldn't be around any more for sure.

[Slim]

Slim's a cat ninja

Back in the day, maybe. Now I have the reflexes of a highly trained 3-Toed Sloth