Occasionally, I get lost in random thoughts. For example, one of our cats, Sully, will occasionally allow us to pet him, until, abruptly, he will sort of bite us: he may believe that it playful, but, considering that his people are thin skinned humans, we take it as considerably more than a playful little nibble.
With that as a take off point, I wonder how a conversation with one of my cats might go, should we understand Cat, and he/she understand English.
“Dude!”, he might say, “I’m only taking a little nibble! Relax!”
We would then explain in detail about thin skinned people, and how cat bites leads to inoculation of the bitten skin with Cat Germs! (ermagherd!), including Pastuerella Multocida.
As a general principle, anything named after Louis Pasteur is a germ of significance: getting infected with same, is A Very Bad Thing.
In my practice, I see several cat bites, and (perhaps unsurprisingly) I see the ones that develop infections. Those infections, when I see them, are generally pretty significant and require big gun antibiotics.
Back to my fevered imaginings: Perhaps Friend Cat would comprehend our narrative regarding (probably) inadvertent infections, and halt his cat-friendly nibbles.
Or, perhaps he would ignore us, and continue to taste taste us, from time to time.
Musings of A Stretcher Ape 
Sully, being a cat, would do exactly whatever Sully wants to do. Consequences are something suffered by lesser creatures (most of whom exist to entertain cats).
A friend of a friend was bitten by a startled vet-clinic-greeter cat. 24 hours later she arrived at urgent care to be greeted with “Oh, my. Next time, come here immediately. You don’t have any plans for the next day or two, do you? You have insurance? Good. You know what an IV is, yes? etc.” Hypodermic kitty teeth be bad mojo. I had interacted with said kitty a few times; he was a real laid back sweetheart, now retired.
Any prophylactic measures one could take after a bitey encounter? Ironically, I have an IV rig from subjecting a beloved kitty to sub-q hydration; I am NOT using that humongous needle on me!
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I’ll go with, “Oh, my. Next time, come here immediately”
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Ha ha! Not in the least pre-emptive, but entirely reasonable as long as the system is functioning. Gawd, that sounds darker than I meant. Seriously, can you suggest any austere-medicine measures? Not that I anticipate needing any… Oh, any memory of this exchange will be unrecallable in court. Tragically traumatic boating accident, y’know.
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problem is that this sort of infection requires real abx, and that leads to first world medicine (maybe 2nd- think Mexican pharmacies). That pretty much takes you out of “austere”, in my view. Even if your “rainy day” planning stands in for the pharmacy.
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Thanks for a quick reply. I’m realize I’m trying to take advantage of your knowledge; please forgive me. Would there be a second-tier abx after penicillin? Bacteriology be complex!
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