Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: Mark on January 30, 2009, 07:35:25 AM
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Willow bit right into my finger last night when I unsuccessfully tried to pill her. It has been throbbing since and even woke me up at 4.30am. It is a bit swollen this morning and still sore - should I go to the doctor?
When Kylie bit me at the vets once, my hand swelled right up - this time t isn't like that but there is a bit of swelling.
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I would to be on the safe side.
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The throbbing has almost stopped over the last couple of hours but my finger feels numb. The thing is, I have so much to do today that I don't want to waste time at the doctors. The last time, it was a lot worse than this and all they gave me was some steroid cream to make the swelling go down.
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As long as you washed it and put something on it (antiseptic etc) you should be fine.
The many times I've been bitten it does hurt a bit and swell but eventually the numbness/pain will fade.
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I did wash it with hot water and soap (my nurse friend says don't waste time with antiseptic creams etc)
I suppose at least I know my immune system is in working order :evillaugh:
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Have you had a tetanus? If not I think I'd go to the Doctors to be on the safe side
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I can't remember when but I did have a tetanus about 10 years ago.
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Schui lashed out at me once and his claws got caught in my finger and I had to pull them out, my finger came up purple and bruised and hurt like hell when I bent it, I was actually a bit worried but it did go down after about a week.
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Mark, it depends how bad it is, i was bitten by DD few years ago and the swelling started a day later and i couldnt bend my fingers or move my hand, my neighbour told me to go to doctor because of the bacteria which cats have in their teeth, i was given 5 days on antibiotics. Is your GP open on Saturday mornings? If it gets any worse by tomorrow then you should.
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Somebody I work with got a nasty bite from her cat a while ago and ended up having to get antibiotics. Her tetanus was out of date though.
Saying that Jon got a chunk taken out of him a while ago on the forearm (not by either of our girls) and he was fine, just kept it clean.
Might be worth a visit to the quacks Mark. :evillaugh: :hug:
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If it hurts to bend your finger, or feels so stiff that you can't move it properly, then go to the docs as it could be an infection needing anti'bs. If its just sore and swollen, then it will probably be OK.
If your tenatanus is coming up to or over 10 years, I think you need another?
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Our doctor is open Saturdays so I will wait and see. After all the times I have been in there with my stomach, I am getting embarrassed. I will be offered a season ticket the way I am going :-[
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Yep, it's a good idea. Cats have all sorts of lovely stuff on their teeth.....hope you had a tetanus recently. :hug:
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BUT IS WILLOW OK? :evillaugh: :Luv2: :rofl:
I think you had better go to the doc Mark and even if it is ok you can have your jab.
How do you give tablets to your lot? The hard way by the sound of it.
My friend's cat hasd to have 2 tablets every day for the rest of her life and she is so good she comes when she shakes the bottle and sits there with her mouth open. Even when I look after her she takes them off me too.
I used to put a tablet in a piece of cheese spread or liver pate for Smudge.
Mary :hug:
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Korky bit me when we were on our way back from France. I was transferring him from his carrier to the dog cage we have in the car and he just sat down halfway through the doorway. Thinking he was being awkward I gave him a push and he bit me - but he still didn't move because he couldn't, one of his back paws was trapped in the between two of the 'wires' of the cage. We had a terrible time trying to release him without hurting him further and when we got him out I was so worried about him that I never even gave a thought to my own wound but I've lived to tell the tale . At least I knew I wasn't going to catch rabies, worms, ticks or fleas because he'd just had all his treatments. Yu'll be pleased to know he was uninjured (we certainly were).
It would be a good idea to get your tetanus up to date even if you don't need antibiotics Mark. I think cat/dog bites are so painful because you end up badly bruised as well.
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I think you can safely leave it for now at least. I think Carol is right- its the bruising as much as the bite which hurts. Munchkin gave me a fairly substantial nip a couple of days ago when I broke up a fight (between him and his nemesis from 3 doors down)- I suppose the adrenaline had to go somewhere. Right on the fleshy bit at the base of my thumb too- ouch!
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I will be offered a season ticket the way I am going :-[
They call regulars 'frequent flyers', I'm informed. :evillaugh:
How's your finger now?
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I met Sharon for lunch and decided as I was passing the doctors on the way back. I would go in. It is infected and they have given me 250/125mg Co-Amoxiclav to take 3 times a day for 7 days.
The bite had gone right under my nail bed and it is turning black.
According to their records, I last had a tetanus in 2002 and prior to that, 1967 when was 5 :evillaugh:
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I think Bonnie should have a word with you about regular jabs!! :evillaugh: :Luv2:
Glad you got it sorted Mark.
You're probably overloaded with peopple telling you what to do BUT...... I swear by lavendar oil for bringing out brusing and healing. I had an op 10 years ago and I was told I could put it on my scar to heal it up by the surgeon.
Put some in a cup or something with cold water and soak fro a while a few times a day.
Mary
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Now you tell me - I have just been in the herbalist shop over the road. She is a chatterbox so I'm not going again today :evillaugh:
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She's a chatterbox... and you're not of course!! :evillaugh: ;) :hug:
Try salt water for now.
Mary
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Thanks Mary :hug:
I'll take my antiB's as well :evillaugh:
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Make sure they are yours and not Willows :rofl:
Mary
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Glad you saw your Doc Mark, hope your finger feels better soon :hug:
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Make sure they are yours and not Willows :rofl:
Mary
I have more tablets in the house than Boots :evillaugh:
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Unlike Leigh... I sent him something through the post last week for his back :rofl:
Mary
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Yes yes and yes, when I worked in A&E I saw many people with cat bites who didn't and they became septic and they had to become an iinpatient for IV antibiotics.
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Has anybody actually ever caught tetanus from a cat bite? :-:
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I have seen many cases of septicemia hun
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Yes yes and yes, when I worked in A&E I saw many people with cat bites who didn't and they became septic and they had to become an iinpatient for IV antibiotics.
just out of interest could that apply to scratches too?
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I have seen many cases of septicemia hun
Oh yes id expect infection but drs seem set on jabbing for tetanus and not antibiotics :shify: I would have thought infection is a dead cert for happening, i got a nasty bite on my knee but liberal hibi sorted that out, stung tho :censored:
Yes yes and yes, when I worked in A&E I saw many people with cat bites who didn't and they became septic and they had to become an iinpatient for IV antibiotics.
just out of interest could that apply to scratches too?
Yep, more likely to get tetanus from a scratch as its in soil i believe :-:
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A scratch wont really cause septicemia as its not deep enough but needs a damn good clean out. Not all bites turn septic but the risk is :hug:huge. The have been bitten but hit the fleshy skin part whereas my dad got bitten through the middle of his hand and that turned very nasty indeed. Its always best to get a deep bite seen to medically as animals especially dogs and cats carry a scarey amount of bacteria in their mouths.
However a scratch on someone with low immunity, etc can cause very nasty indeed.
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I was bitten by Franta a month ago and watched it carefully and lathough a bruised and swollen a bit it went down Ok and goy better.
I know there was someone on here recently that got badly bitten on both hands and had septicema, actually was wondering last night whether she managed to catch her missing cat wwho did this..............so behing in posts may have missed it.
teteanus need not just for cat bites but if you work outside in the garden etc and should be boosted every 10 years........Mine must be running out I think or maybe not.....got a catctus spine in finger which made it swell up badly and everybody at doctors laughed >:(
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We have to be careful with deep cuts as we are prone on DVT and other things, having Lieden factor V (genetic blood disorder). My mum's mum died a few days after my mum was born. At the time (1939) they said it was septicaemia but we think it must have been the Lieden which causes our blood to clot too quickly.
http://www.fvleiden.org/ This is it. My sister, 2 brothers and me are all positive.
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I know there was someone on here recently that got badly bitten on both hands and had septicema, actually was wondering last night whether she managed to catch her missing cat wwho did this..............so behing in posts may have missed it.
Yep Sonnie has felix back, he turned up at home of his own accord and has been neutered and chipped ;D
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Mark you definately need to get it seen to them sweetie - pop down to A&E hun x
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Oh thanks MM, didnt realize it was Sonnie and Felix but thats great ;D
Hope her hands have recovered too.
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Mark you definately need to get it seen to them sweetie - pop down to A&E hun x
I got Co-Amoxiclav fro the doctor (I was seen in the treatment room) that should be OK shouldn't it? - he also said to take pain killers if I need them. I am happier to be a martyr though :evillaugh:
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Make sure you are a very careful martyr Mark.
Mary :hug:
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How you doing today hun?
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Still sore but I will survive thanks :)
Just taking extra precautions like gloves for doing trays etc.
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Good just keep an eye on it and keep an eye out for tracking hun too - any tracking seen mark it with biro and get down to A&E. Marking it with biro will show them how quick its tracking from when you left the house to being see in A&E.
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Is that redness?
I remember when my friend Tommy Lennon pierced my ear with a needle and it got infected and there was a red line all down my neck. It was agony but at the time, my mum though surgical spirit would help it :Crazy:
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Is that redness?
I remember when my friend Tommy Lennon pierced my ear with a needle and it got infected and there was a red line all down my neck. It was agony but at the time, my mum though surgical spirit would help it :Crazy:
Yes red or blueishline
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Thanks Nikki :hug:
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Thanks Nikki :hug:
No probs hunnie, probably wont happen but just want to make sure you know what to look out for x
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I know it is swollen and misshapen at the moment but I can't compare it with my other middle finger as that is deformed already :evillaugh: - my granddad acciedentally shut my finger in the door (hinge side) when I was 3 so that finget is all skinny where they stitched the end back on :evillaugh:
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It will swell and thats normal unless it swells to a stupid amount or you loose feelings in your fingers or hand or it starts to get tingley. If you have a finger more swollen than the other press down on the nail and release and watch to see how quick the colour returns under your nail. If you start feeling nauseous, your temp going up, etc all these things just keep an eye out for.
I am sure its fine though sweetie just me going into A&E mode!
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A scratch wont really cause septicemia as its not deep enough but needs a damn good clean out. Not all bites turn septic but the risk is :hug:huge. The have been bitten but hit the fleshy skin part whereas my dad got bitten through the middle of his hand and that turned very nasty indeed. Its always best to get a deep bite seen to medically as animals especially dogs and cats carry a scarey amount of bacteria in their mouths.
However a scratch on someone with low immunity, etc can cause very nasty indeed.
thanks for the info :)
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Thank Nikki - who who have thought our Tiny little Willow could do so much damage :shify:
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Thank Nikki - who who have thought our Tiny little Willow could do so much damage :shify:
It was my Sylvester who bite my dad but then he did try to get in the midle of 2 cats fighting - silly man!
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Has anybody actually ever caught tetanus from a cat bite? :-:
When I got bitten by Magpie (at the vets before he died) they sent me to A&E fior antibiotics. They said that the hospital would probably insist on giving me a tetanus but I didnt really need that. The main thing was the bacteria in a cats mouth and why you often need antibiotics. The vet said that when they get bitten by a cat they just prescribe themselves some antibiotics but obv they couldn't do that for me.
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I have only just seen this - just goes to show what attention I pay. :evillaugh:
Mark, I'm so sorry to hear about poor you and poor Willow. :hug:
Yes, you can feel quite ill following cat scratches and sometimes not get symptoms until weeks afteward, so always best to have a good clean and monitor things carefully. I have heard it's rarely fatal unless the animal is also carrying some other kinds of batteria as well.
For geeks....
http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40002245/
For everyone else...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_scratch_fever
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Well I have some mobility back in the finger. I had heard somewhere that the 3rd day is usually when you start seeing improvements with antibiotics. The swelling has gone down quite a bit but I know I need to finish the course. Annoyingly, our local chemist only had 12 tablets in stock to I have an IOU to get the others tomorrow. I swore I wouldn't go in there after he basically called me an alky when I went to pick up my stomach meds >:(
With hand movements, he said I needed to do a bit less :beer: :drink:
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Mark glad its getting better and please do complete your whole course of antibiotics - if you don't the ones you have already taken become irrelevant and you may as well of not taken them.
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Ay Ay MrsR :evillaugh: - I heard that one of the main reasons that bacteria have developed a resistance is due to people not completing courses?
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Good - I'll back off now and leave you to heal in peace :evillaugh:
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Help!
I forgot to go to the chemist for the balance of the tablets today :scared:
I have 2 left. One for tonight and one for the morning. I won't be home until at least 6pm tomorrow by which time it will be closed. OH may be working from home tomorrow and could pick them up for me which would mean me taking the lunchtime one at 6pm - about 3 hours late. If he does have to go in, the earliest I could pick them up is Wednesday afternoon as I do 1/2 day at uni on Wednesdays.
Really annoying - I wish I had gone to Boots now where they would have given me the whole lot at once.
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If you can get them tomorrow if oh is working from home, then I imagine that would be OK, albeit slightly late with the gap between tablets.
Would probably be alright though as they would still be in your system?
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Iwas stressing but then realised that at worst, I can get the tablets myself and skip the skills (Mostly maths) lecture :innocent:
I will just go in for biology :evillaugh:
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Sorted ;D
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I know there was someone on here recently that got badly bitten on both hands and had septicema, actually was wondering last night whether she managed to catch her missing cat wwho did this..............so behing in posts may have missed it.
Yep Sonnie has felix back, he turned up at home of his own accord and has been neutered and chipped ;D
;)
Yeah it was I who managed to get attacked by her own cat!!! :rofl:
Although we have had cats for 4 years now, and I have been scratched or nibbled when they were all younger, being bitten as bad as I did was such a shock to me. I had bathed my hands in TCP three/four times a day, and still ended up with septic hands.
Im all healed up now, and have some beautiful scars too!!!
How are you healing up mark?? ok i hope x
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Healing almost done thanks :) =I think the ABs wored really well. The finger still looked bad at the weekend but I managed to nibble all the dead skin off in biology class today :sick: and all new skin underneath. I wish I could say the same for Willow - she is still coughing & sneezig and huddling up near heaters :(
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Glad your hand's healing :)
Poor Willow :( Schui won't use beds at all but he taken to sleeping on top of the sofa by the radiator and we think it is what has improved his sinuses and snotty nose no end (he does tend to keep falling off though :scared:)
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Hi Mark,
glad the hands are healing, ive started using vitamin E and wheat-germ oil on the scars and they are fading a bit now!!! (i had a huge deep scratch on my right arm and a couple of friends thought i was self-harming!)
just an idea!!!
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glad to hear you are on the mend. The trouble with heaters and central heating is that if they have a bit of a respiratory problem, it gets worse when they huddle up to the heaters, but with this winter we're having can't exactly blame them. You could put a tealight olbas oil burner or just a steam one near where she's huddling to see if it helps a little bit?
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I'm not bothered about a few scars :evillaugh: I am a mass of scar tissue anyway :evillaugh:
She is sneezing as I type so I will phone the vet in the morning. I am so behind on Uni work but stuff it - my babies come first :Luv2:
Not only that, This morning, I heard a cat mewing before I went to uni - came home at 6pm and still heard it. OH said it sounds in pain - I have been hunting in a derelict garden but can't locate it - I don't know why I posted that on this thread but just to say that worrying about cats is becoming a full-time job :(
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Glad your hand is doing well.
Did you manage to find the cat?
I know what you mean about a full time job as when I worked heavily for AR in London years ago it took me over and I had to step away.
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AR
OH says I am a magnet for injured animals - even on my birthday in July on a day trip to Rye, I ended up taking a seagull into a vet :Crazy: (although they turned me away >:( )
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Revived this thread, just checking to see if there's any magic treatment for cat bites LOL! - my lovely, placid, sweet and gorgeous Sam bit me last nigt - no, he didnt mean any malice, its just that he's not been very interested in having the handful of biscuits I give them all at bedtime, so I decided he could have some strips of raw beef instead. Stupidly, I hadnt reckoned on all the others thinking, hey, we've just got biscuits and HE's got beef? So, fighting them off, while trying to hand-feed Sam this beef, my thumb somehow got into Sam's mouth, he thought - beef, and clamped his fangs down one through the side of my nail, the other through the fleshy part of my thumb - oh, the pain :Crazy: . Now it is swollen and sore, bit of germolene and it should be fine?
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Got any iodine? Or Betadine soap?
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Hydrogen peroxide - fizzes a lot and takes out any "yuck" - stings like crazy but seems to do the trick ..... :) Its good for splinters too :)
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Depends how bad it is. I had a cat bite on my hand, it became infected and my hand and arm up to my elbow swelled. I had a course of antibiotics and a tetanus jab and was off work for a week, the pain was really bad - throbbing like mad. Just keep an eye on it tonight and see how it is tomorrow.
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Thanks :thanks: - havent got any of those things! oops, the cats' medicine chest is better stocked than mine LOL!
Depends how bad it is. I had a cat bite on my hand, it became infected and my hand and arm up to my elbow swelled. I had a course of antibiotics and a tetanus jab and was off work for a week, the pain was really bad - throbbing like mad.
Ouch, that sounds nasty Yvonne!
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If it's still swollen tomorrow see if you can find an NHS walk in centre. Anti biotics are generally what you need with cat bites due to the bacteria in their mouths.
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It also depends on the severity. When Kylie bit me and my hand was swollen, the doctor in London just gave be steroid cream. My recent one one that needed ABs sound like yours Gillian where Willow had bitten me and the tooth went right inder the nail. It was so painful and the edge of my nail went purple.
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Got any hibiscrub? Thats what i clean all my war wounds with and havnt had a problem yet...
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When Willow scratched me at the vet the other week, the vet had hibiscrub and idodine handwash. She said the Iodine was the best but it would really sting - I opted for the Iodine. It wasn't that bad. Not sure where you can buy it though. Maybe Petmeds or somewhere?
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The more old fashiond type chemists might sell iodine - that said I found some in a Super Saver, too!!!
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I remember we used to have iodine burn cream in the first aid kit at home. I loved the smell of the box :) - I was always after the orange flavoured junior disorin in a glass bottle with cotton wool in :scared:
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Been scratched/bitten hundreds of times over the years never put anything on it and never had any problems.
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When Willow scratched me at the vet the other week, the vet had hibiscrub and idodine handwash. She said the Iodine was the best but it would really sting - I opted for the Iodine. It wasn't that bad. Not sure where you can buy it though. Maybe Petmeds or somewhere?
I have bought iodine from the local chemist before. I've also had a few painful deep scratches which lasted a couple of weeks when Schui used to lash out, I put antiseptic on and they healed ok.
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I have scratches all down my arms from holding Clapton for the vet just now :evillaugh: - luckily just surface ones as he was terrified but he would never hurt me intentionally (Unlike Willow :evillaugh: )
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Not really related but I thought I'd let you know Mark you're not alone - I also have Lieden factor V thrombophilia - its a drag isn't it. But also a great excuse when the other half gives me a playful dab....don't I might get a blood clot lol
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The main drag (no pun) is that I get nagged even more for smoking :tired:
You are the first person I have "met" with it - in fact the forst person that has heard of it! :evillaugh:
That has got me wondering if that is why my stomach is still bruised and sore 6 weeks after the op. :Crazy:
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Its my dad's fault I have it - he's the "carrier" so is his brother - my cousin has it also - but she is on warfarin all the time - I only had to take it for 6 mths until last October
Would make sense that's why you're bruised and taking a while to heal (assume that you're on thinners)........the hospital should monitor you more closely cos of it. But yes you really should try and stop smoking as that means you have 2 increased risks of clots, Factor V and smoking but I'm sure you've been told that a million times :Crazy:
Anyway I'm sure people don't want to know the facts out Factor V lol :evillaugh:
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My mum is on Warfarin but we have never been put on it. I was last monitored at Barts Hospital around 2000 - I had an idea you are supposed to go back every so many years? - I will ask my mum.