Joining the rabies anxiety bandwagon- I was bitten by a kitten

My parents have a farm and used to have just two cats, but then they had some that were dumped
and found their way to their house, so while they are working to get everyone spayed and vaccinated they have a couple of litters of kittens. There is one that is about 5 weeks old now; she was out so I brought her some turkey with the hope of taming her. Well, she got excited about the turkey and leapt up and bit my finger. It did draw blood, just for a moment and still stings.

She’s obviously not been vaccinated yet and she’s too young, she lives outside, and her mom’s not done yet either as they haven’t been able to catch her. The Google monster says it’s unlikely for a kitten that young to be rabid, but not impossible.

I just got UTD on tetanus and I’m going to message my doctor to see what she says/suggests but of course I’m very paranoid about this now. If she were an indoor kitty I’d not worry but she’s not.

EDIT:I guess I’ll wait for my doctors response, even if she doesn’t answer until Monday that’s fine right? I can’t even see the spot on my finger (though it stings) so it’s probably silly to go to the ER or urgent care (I don’t think urgent care does post rabies anyway) especially for a low likelihood but idk. I also looked up cost and even though I have insurance it could still be super expensive if recommended, so that’s upsetting too.

If the cat had rabies it would either be very noticeably ill or dead by now.

You are fine and do NOT have rabies.

Thanks. I do think asking my doctor was a good idea just to be sure. The general consensus was that in a kitten that young the virus wouldn’t have been able to activate, and anyway it’s super unlikely for a small kitten to have been bitten by a rabid animal and survived; let alone have no visible injuries. The mom seems fine as well. But there was someone who said they had a 5ish week old kitten that turned up positive, so even though it’s super unlikely I think asking my doc will make me feel better (believing her will be the challenge).

EDIT: well, now I’m concerned about infection. I did clean it well but it seems cat bites, especially deep ones, are super prone to infection. To the point they recommend you see a doctor immediately after the bite? Ive certainly never done so and I’ve been bitten by cats before. Though I remember urgent care telling me once when I went in for a dog bite that cat bites were the real concern.

I guess I’ll watch it tonight and see what it looks like tomorrow.

It's a good idea to get it checked out, but not for rabies. A kitten with rabies would die very quickly. They're so tiny that it would be quite fast, and an addition to that, would have likely died due to whatever hypothetically attacked them. If you can't get the idea out of your head, your parents could keep an eye on the kitten over the next few days, which would serve as a mini "quarantine" of sorts. That's generally what they do after a dog bite and are unsure of vaccination status.

Cat bites can get infected quite easily, so your doctor will probably want to give it a quick checkover. If progressively gets a lot worse quickly, hot to the touch, swollen, weeping, and discolouration within hours of the bite, not a bad idea to get it seen asap That being said, I've been bitten by plenty of cats and didn't even give it a second thought! Like you said, keep an eye on it and see how it goes :)

Thanks Worry Raptor. I have also been bitten before and not been worried. I think because I'm worried about some other health related stuff right now, plus the fact that our previous cats have all been friendly and this one (and her mom) are more wild, that it's scaring me a bit more. If she were in the barn I'd probably not worry but they are outside and the mom moves them around a lot so mentally I'm like "what could she have been exposed to?" And of course then when I heard about infection I did a nice little panic.

Hopefully my doctor gets back to me this morning; if not I suppose I could pop into urgent care this evening and see what they say. My logical brain says it looks fine - there's a little spot where she bit and it's sore from time to time, but not swollen or red, I feel fine otherwise, etc. My HA brain said "I just felt my finger tingle, that must be infection spreading!" or even last night "my back is a bit sore, it must be infection spreading!". So that's fun.

I think I may feel better if they can quarantine the kitten, it's just with mom being more wild it's harder to do. But they are old enough that they could start weaning, so it would be possible to put her in a dog kennel with one of her siblings and start feeding them kitten food for a couple of weeks just to be sure.

My doctor did get back to me this evening, but unfortunately wasn’t super reassuring. She suggested I go to urgent care tomorrow (as her office is closed tomorrow) to make sure there is no infection and ask what they think about rabies. She said with wild cats it’s sometimes better to play it safe, so that’s what I’ll do.

I’m kind of frustrated because I told my mom that and she said “hmm, I’m surprised she didn’t just say the kitten was too young”. I also told her it would be good to quarantine the kitten and she just kind of pushed that idea aside and said she wasn’t sure how I expected her to do that. I’m at their house tonight and went out looking and didn’t see the kitten anywhere, so now I’m afraid it passed somewhere and we’ll never know. I suspect if I tell urgent care that I can’t reliably find or monitor the kitten, they’ll have me go for the shots, since I think that’s something they asked me when I went in for a dog bite. But I suppose I’ll have to see what they say.

I’m just really irritated that my mom isn’t more pressed over it. It may come down to nothing but this is scary for me - and potentially will be expensive as well! - and she just seems to think it’s not really her problem to worry about.

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Originally Posted by .Poppy.

My doctor did get back to me this evening, but unfortunately wasn’t super reassuring. She suggested I go to urgent care tomorrow (as her office is closed tomorrow) to make sure there is no infection and ask what they think about rabies. She said with wild cats it’s sometimes better to play it safe, so that’s what I’ll do.

I’m kind of frustrated because I told my mom that and she said “hmm, I’m surprised she didn’t just say the kitten was too young”. I also told her it would be good to quarantine the kitten and she just kind of pushed that idea aside and said she wasn’t sure how I expected her to do that. I’m at their house tonight and went out looking and didn’t see the kitten anywhere, so now I’m afraid it passed somewhere and we’ll never know. I suspect if I tell urgent care that I can’t reliably find or monitor the kitten, they’ll have me go for the shots, since I think that’s something they asked me when I went in for a dog bite. But I suppose I’ll have to see what they say.

I’m just really irritated that my mom isn’t more pressed over it. It may come down to nothing but this is scary for me - and potentially will be expensive as well! - and she just seems to think it’s not really her problem to worry about.

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I can imagine how frightening and frustrating it feels right now, especially when your doctor has suggested you follow up about it. I'd be irritated too if my Mum didn't at least try to help out. It's not like you're panicking about something like a cold or anything. I grew up in a country where there were no risks of certain diseases, but if one of our animals bit us, we would still "keep and eye" on them over the next few days just as a common sense approach.

They'll probably give you the shots just in case, especially if you express a concern over rabies and the fact the kittens aren't easy and check up on. It's still SUPER unlikely to be that though.

Well, I made it to urgent care despite a near panic attack at the door. They were super nice, thankfully. She wrote me a script for an antibiotic just in case, but said it looked fine and she didn’t think I’d need it.

My mom seemed pretty concerned, but then I had to report to a deputy and she wasn’t happy about that. He said since it’s basically a stray they won’t do anything (unlike when it was my dog and he had pictures taken and a report made) but I still don’t think she was pleased as when I called her when I was done she was less than thrilled.

The doctor said the ideal route would be to find the kitty and quarantine. If we can’t, she said I’d need to call the health department and they’d assess the risk and let me know what to do. She did say the risk was really, really low but that was her recommendation to play it safe. I’d feel a lot better of course if we could find the darn thing.

So, unfortunately I’m kind of spiraling. They still aren’t able to find the kitten - in fact, two of the kittens are just gone. They’re outdoors so really anything could have happened but it’s still majorly gotten me on edge. My dad used to work for the health department (different department) and agreed that based on the age it’s super unlikely but with something so serious I just don’t know. I am afraid I’m going to suddenly get sick and that will just be it. I am too afraid to google timelines, so I dont know if this would happen quickly or if it would be like 3 months, 6 months, even years later that I suddenly get sick and that’s the end of the line.

I’m wondering if I should just call the hospital and ask them what they think, if I should come in. I can’t figure out how to contact the health department myself but the doctor yesterday told me the ER usually does that and assesses risk. But I also worry about side effects of the shots, or that it might be too late?

I know statistically I’m probably fine, but I did also read of a kitten they thought was too young until it passed the last day of quarantine. I’m thinking now what if it was sick and I just didn’t realize. I’m kicking myself for not grabbing it and kenneling it immediately. I’m just a mess.

I'm sorry you're going through this. You must be so stressed.

The chances are insanely low that this is anything. The kittens have likely just wandered off now that they're a bit older, and more curious. That kitten is probably perfectly healthy. Try not to beat yourself up about not kennelling the kitten. It wouldn't even occur to most people, and Im sure there are lots out there who rescue or play with feral kittens and get bitten quite frequently with no ill effects.

It might help to put your mind at ease to call the hospital, explain the situation, and tell them you were advised to follow up.

Thank you, Worry Raptor. It's likely the kitty just wandered off and will show back up, or if not the chances are greater that she fell victim to another animal vs. being sick, especially as she was effectively fine when I last saw her. I didn't end up calling because my mom said she was going to ask the health department (which made me feel a lot better) but then she messaged me and said my dad didn't think that was necessary. So I'm not sure, I guess I'll decide tomorrow.

I am trying to fight back with logic. The amount of people that become ill with rabies in the US is very, very, very low as-is. It's also incredibly unlikely that the kitten had it since she was very young and also appeared healthy. I also did look on our state's health department website and, while their recommendation is to do the PEP shots if you aren't able to monitor the animal for 10 days, they do say that it's fine to wait until that 10 day mark (even if you can't find the animal, in which case you can spend the 10 days trying to locate them). They also have a table on their site and of the 200-odd cats that have been tested for rabies in the state in 2023, none have been positive. They have had some years where there were some positives, but overwhelmingly most animals tested come up negative, especially domestic animals.

It's just the what if, that I guess is part of health anxiety, that gets me. I know the odds are extremely low and I can tell myself that, but then I ask myself "even at very low risk, is this something you want to risk?". So I'm not sure. I'll see what tomorrow brings.

Thank you for your posts, and for reading my ramblings. Sometimes it helps to just get it out. :blush:

Just wanted to rant a bit, if that's okay. I was happy to hear my mom was going to call the health department for me, but then they decided that wasn't necessary. This morning I got a call from the health department, following up after the report that was made. I missed the call since I was at work, but I let my mom know in the hopes she'd offer to just go ahead and call then; she didn't, saying instead they'd talk to their doctor. I saw my mom at lunch and asked her what he said, his opinion was that the likelihood was very low and it was basically up to me to "do with that information what I will". When I told my mom that that was basically no new information, she just said he was very helpful and then said he told her that it's possible to be bitten and not have it be an issue for years. :scared15: No idea why she thought the idea of it weighing on me for years and years seemed like a comfort, thinking that every illness is it (which I may anyway at this point).

So I called the health department back myself, and the woman was incredibly kind on the phone. She said we had some time, but if we still couldn't find the kitten by day 10 (or so, she's looking up the exact date for me) it would be best to go ahead and get the shots and play it safe. So, since the kitten may or may not resurface, I'll probably end up getting them. Probably by myself since no one else seems to care too much.

One thing she did tell me was that the shots are very expensive. She said her daughter had to get them and that they were covered by insurance, so I'm going to call my insurance this evening and see what they will cover. Even if I have to pay the rest of my deductible it would save me a lot, so I'm hoping they'll cover some of it.

But anyway, that's where we landed and now I'm just sitting at work trying not to burst into tears. I'm just so afraid of getting sick, especially as I live alone with my own dog and cat (whom I find myself needing to hug a lot, as they are fully vaccinated so I don't have to be afraid of them). What if I got sick and they were alone in the house with me?

Anyway, just had to vent. I just feel really alone right now and a little bit resentful.

So, just another brief update. I'll be honest, I'm getting really burnt out over the whole thing and find myself wanting to fall back into my HA mindset of denying anything is wrong at all, but I do realize I need to deal with this.

I called my insurance today and after a very long (but helpful!) call, the woman on the phone was able to contact the hospital and verify the code they use and that my insurance will cover the post exposure shots in full pending review (which I believe means they contact the hospital and verify that it was ordered/necessary). That's a huge relief, and with that development it is likely I'll end up going in on Sunday or Monday to get the shots unless by some miracle the kitten is found this weekend.

Of course now I have to address the anxiety of getting the shots themselves, and fussing that maybe I've waited too long (even though the health department and the state health site both say waiting 10 days is perfectly acceptable). This whole thing is just a mess, but I'm trying to wade through it as best I can.

Just wanted to update - I went to the ER today and after a lot of waiting got the first round of shots (ouch!). I talked to my mom and we basically decided that if the health department recommended it, that was the way to go. We were there for over two hours (why, I have no idea, they got us into a room immediately and it was very empty but we just waited). A doctor came in and basically told me that there hadn't been a case of rabies from a cat in over 35 years - when I mentioned it was a wild, outdoor cat he admitted it raised the risk - so he was basically like "why are you here?". But thankfully my mom was with me and she re-iterated that since we can't find the kitten to verify its status, and the health department and multiple physicians had made this recommendation, that we were here to get the shots unless he had a good reason not to.

I kid you not, he rolled his eyes, said "fine", and then left. The nurse who came in to give the shot then was very kind, and when my mom mentioned the doctor's comments she said that if it were up to her, she'd make the same choice since it's not like the flu or even covid - better safe than sorry.

But I've been to that ER before and never really had a good experience. I went in once when I had a headache with symptoms I feared could be a stroke (blindness, aphasia) and one came in when I was asleep and gave me my summary and discharge information. I woke up just as he said "got that? any questions?".

So now I sit here and worry about side effects from the vaccine itself and if I'm going to be in any pain or anything, but despite that anxiety (and the fact that I have to go back in three more times for follow ups) I think it was the right call. I wasn't sure I could live with the "what if".

It's a shame to see that you're suffering like this. I know it's hard to see it in yourself, but this is really just the same anxiety spiral and intrusive thought pattern. The theme doesn't really matter - it's the anxiety causing the unpleasant feelings. Personally, I would say don't go to the hospital. Stand up to the anxiety and practice acceptance and tolerance towards the uncertainty. It's incredibly unlikely that there's anything to worry about. Obviously it's not a 0% chance but there are very few situations where we can 100% certain everything is okay. If going to the hospital would truly help and you could move on after that, there might be some value in it so it's up to you to decide for sure, but if you think the spiral will continue regardless, then the time to get working on the anxiety is now.

Edited to add that after I wrote this, your new post appeared, so obviously the advice is a little outdated. I still think you have nothing to worry about and, as always, the issue is really one of aberrant thought patterns. Don't mean to sound dismissive. As if I would be, given my own history. Just hoping to help you realise what the real issue is here. I appreciate in the US there is rabies circulating, albeit at a very low level, but the chance of it ever affecting you are unbelievably low.

Thank you, ServerError. I do recognize that anxiety had me in its grips, and I think I did okay considering - a few years ago and it would have been much worse! So I suppose I should celebrate the small wins. I do think I made the right choice overall, as even being rare it is a serious issue and was recommended by multiple professionals, but of course now just have to deal with the anxiety surrounding that decision anyway. I think that's the rub with anxiety; it's damned if you do, damned if you don't - you'll be upset anyway.

Just checked in on this thread now.

So glad to hear you got sorted at the ER (though it sounds like a stressful experience, some doctors needs lessons on bedside manners)
You've really been through a lot with this. Anxiety or not, that experience would have anybody extremely stressed out, but it sounds like you handled it all extremely well. I think in this case, being extra cautious was the sensible approach considering what could have been a (very) minute possibility, and you pressed for what you needed.

I'm glad you didn't let them brush you off. The reason why rabies cases are so very rare, is because people get vaccinations after an encounter with a wild animal/animal acting strange. I think the general public and some physicians tend to confuse this with the rarity of the disease itself. While the chances were extraordinarily low for you, as it wasn't a raccoon etc attacking you, merely an excited kitten with a penchant for food, it still was better to take the safer option. It's one of those necessary "overreactions" because of how serious the disease is, and multiple professionals supported you on that. I think you acted very rationally in this case.

I hope you feel better soon. I can only imagine how exhausting it all must feel after the anxiety you were dealing with over this. Sending virtual hugs from somebody who used to have an irrational fear of this stuff! I developed OCD phobic behaviour due to a bunch of vitamin deficiencies that were messing with my brain. I was convinced that ninja bats were going to get me at any second! While I don't feel the anxiety now, I can remember how powerless I felt while I spiralled in fear.

Thank you, Worry Raptor. It's definitely been a ride. I will hopefully feel a lot better when the entire course is done and I can just move on.

The doctor definitely surprised me (not in a good way) but I'm glad I stuck to what the health department recommended. I can't believe he tried to tell me to go against their advice. He was also wrong - rabies in domestic cats is rare, but my state publishes annual reports of animals that have been tested and how many have come up positive, and there have been positive cases in cats in the last few years. It's not something I wanted to mess with.

Hope everything is okay for you! I remember how I was when I was really in the throes of HA and how awful this would have been back then; it's still been a challenge but I've gotten on with it. It's nice to come out the other side a bit and have a little more rationality.

[QUOTE] I remember how I was when I was really in the throes of HA and how awful this would have been back then; it's still been a challenge but I've gotten on with it. It's nice to come out the other side a bit and have a little more rationality./QUOTE]

It sounds like you handled this whole situation better than somebody without anxiety! I hope you're feeling a lot better now :)

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Hope everything is okay for you!

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I'm doing pretty well thanks :) Once I sorted out my nutrition issues, I didn't experience the anxiety any more. (Apart from a normal mild blip during really stressful events!)