cat scratch disease question

[shadow79]

I was playing with my semi-feral cat today and she played pawed me and i got a scratch. The scratch is very slight it didnt bleed but i am just wondering how you get this do you have to bleed?

 

[amyh]

Cat scratch disease can be transmitted through any bite or scratch from a cat who has bartonella. I actually think I have/had it because one of our cats - who was a stray when we found her last fall - recently tested positive for bartonella; she bit me back in December when we were initially trying to introduce her to our five other cats. (She is a sweet, fairly low-key kitty now that she is settled in.) We found out she had bartonella because when we took her to the vet for her annual exam, he noticed she had bright red gums; at 4 years old she is pretty young to have severe gingivtivis, so the vet thought she might had bartonella (bartonella is linked to gingivitis and pancreatitis - at this point they are really just starting to learn about it). He was right, and she is now in the middle of a 28 day treatment course of Zithromax.

For the most part, cat scratch disease (aka cat scratch fever) is self-limiting and mild, but - like any other illness - there is always the chance for complications. You can only get the disease if the cat who scratched you has bartonella, and of course getting scratched doesn't guarentee that you will get the disease.

Here is one basic website about it...there really isn't all that much info on it.

Cat Scratch Disease

And feline bartonella - again, not much info out there:

Bartonella