Are dogs allergic to a cat scratch?

[Chad0429]

There's a lady in our neighborhood who feels it's acceptable to let her cat roam the neighborhood and the cat is less than friendly. We were in the garage of our house and this cat came up and scratched Lola on her upper lip - just to the right of her nose in the whisker section of the lip.

It was just a tiny red spot - it appears to have just been a knick and not a huge gash or anything.

In the past week or so, I notice that this spot is not healing and it seems to be getting a bit swolen. Like there's an ingrown hair or something. I checked to see if there was an ingrown whisker, but it doesn't appear that there's a whisker follicle where this bump is.

Is this some kind of reaction to the cat's scratch? I'm not sure if it's an old wives tale or something I dreamed up, but I thought I remembered something about cat scratches can cause a reaction or infection of some kind.

Am I dreaming? Should I be concerned? She doesn't seem to notice it and she let's me pick and poke at it like it's not hurting.

She just went to the vet a few weeks ago for her yearly shots and the vet didn't say anything about it - but I also didn't bring it up because I hadn't noticed it much. It seems to be getting a bit worse. There's no puss or anything like that oozing to indicate some kind of infection and there's no scab on it either.

I'd take a picture and post it, but I'm not sure where to host it.

Thanks for any advice.

Chad (and Lola)

 

[atlasmom911]

One of my boxers was scratched in the eye by a cat. It got infected and she had to have some ointment for her eye.

 

[Dempseysmama]

My cat isn't declawed and when Demps and her play she rarley uses them. But he has had a few very small knicks and they are gone within a few days. All I can say is my cat is healthy and vaccinated and indoors only. Maybe this cat is not and since it was a dirty scratch could have infected it? I have no idea-just guessing. But Demps' few scratches always cleared up within a few days, so I would be concerned with this one.

Sorry I couldn't help much- Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Chad0429]

Ok - thanks for the info.

I'm going to schedule a visit to the vet in a bit. I'll post back the results.

Thanks

 

[sanford7]

Yes!! Cat scratch fever does exist!! My older sister has had 2 severe infections due to cat scratches.. I know my cats are mostly indoor and clean and utd on shots, fixed and the whole 9 yards..but Nada can give some nasty scratches when she plays really rough.. We even have resorted to clipping their nails every few weeks to help with this... Hoping they can give you an ointment to help clear it up..

 

[scrlt]

it could definately be an infection, Lord knows what is on the cats claws. I hope your baby gets well soon.

 

[Chad0429]

Well crud - it appears that vet's also like to take vacations.

So I can't take her in to her usual vet until next week. I'm going to swing by another place and have them just give it a cursory look and see what they think.

 

[Chad0429]

Update

I just got back from the vet. I had my 3y/o son with me so I didn't catch everything that was said but here goes...

The vet looked at the lip and said that dogs under 2 and esp. boxers get this little button growth sometimes. It's benign (sp?) and usually goes away after a couple of months. She said she wanted to do a cytosis on it to make sure. So she pulled a little blood from the growth and looked at it under a microscope. She said it did have a few infected cells in there, so she gave me some antibiotics. Hopefully it will go away in the next week or so. If not, then it's that growth that I didn't catch the name of.

Anyway -that's the update. I find it kind of strange that she'd develop this growth right at the same time as the cat scratched her, so my bet is that it's a small infection and not the growth.

Happy New Years to all!