Should I give antibiotics for a cat bite?

[TonyaW]

Ugh, my son was bitten by a cat yesterday. It is a small bite but he did get a puncture wound. I cleaned him thoroughly once I got home an hour later. The doc said however that cat bites are notorious for causing infections. It has been almost 36 hours since the bite and there are no signs of infection. I have Augmentin sitting in my fridge. My son has never had antibiotics at the age of 3.5 years. I hate to ruin it and give him antibiotics unless truly needed. I have been giving him a high dose of vitamin C and using hydrogen peroxide and neosporin.

Do you think waiting to see signs of infection would be too late?

[kittywitty]

I wouldn't. Not unless it was a gross, mangy looking cat that looked diseased. But then again me and my kids have had hundreds of cat bites/scratches and never had a problem. I would say after 36 hours and you keeping it clean and it looking fine, that abx would be pushing it.

[neetling]

I would only if it started getting infected and topicals didn't cure it. My mom's cat bit her last year and it got nasty fast. She could barely move her hand and it had red streaks spreading from the bite wound by the following day. I think you'd be able to tell if it were infected.

[oiseau]

I would hold off. I was given augmentin for an iguana bite and took it even though iguana mouths are nowhere near as scary as cat mouths (germ wise). It totally killed my gut and I ended up seriously ill (2 bouts of the worst gastroenteritis ever) for 2+ months....despite taking probiotics during my course of abx (and timing the dosing correctly).

I'd just keep a close eye on the wound and keep up with cleaning it as you have been and hold off on the augmentin. It's a really strong antibiotic and I think it would do a lot more harm than good if taken unnecessarily. If the wound does get nasty, only then would I go to the antibiotics (and team them with probiotics taken several hours before or after each antibiotic dose).

[Lady Lilya]

I've had dozens of cat bites and never got an infection. I have never had an antibiotic in my life.

But some people are very prone to infections, and get them from every little thing.