So, let's follow the evolution of an infected bite...

Time zero

This is about an hour after the bite. As soon as it occurred (or more precisely as soon as I was able to pull the friggin' cat's jaws apart) the bites were soaked in hydrogen peroxide and washed with soap/water. Once we finished with F.C. the bites were smeared with triple antibiotic cream and bandaged. At this time I was more concerned with the bite on the bottom middle pad of the index finger as it hurt the most.

I put off going to the doctor for 48 hours even though I knew cat bites are exceptionally dirty. Even when I went it didn't look very bad but it was very swollen, kind of colorful and hurt like a SOB. The doctor injected some penicillin-type antibiotic into my @ss and prescribed a 10-day dose of Augmentin.

Day 4 at 6am

So, this is what it looked like the day after going to the doctor. It was very stiff, swollen and the colors were getting, well, more colorful.

Day 4 at 6pm

Suddenly it took a turn for the worse, even with the antibiotics.

Day 5

Back to the doctor. He lanced it and forced a large amount of puss out. After that it began draining much better. According to the doc, this pocket of pus put pressure on the capillaries in my finger which prevented the flow of blood to the zone, which meant the antibiotic couldn't reach the infection. Lancing it relieved the pressure and allowed the blood to flow bringing the antibiotic to the wound.

Day 6

The antibiotic is doing it's job. Finger starts to become flexible again.

Day 7

Getting better, draining well.

And what have we learned?
1. It's very hard to clean out a bite effectively.
2. Antibiotics only work if the blood can reach the infection. Note: this is not a suggestion to lance your own wounds, but if you can't get to a doctor and nothing seems to be working that might help...
3. An infected finger can really limit your actions. Being left-handed my shooting/tool-using/uh...personel hygiene hand was out of commision. I had a hard time tying my shoes, flossing my teeth, or caring for my 19-month old.
4. It's a good idea to go to the doctor right away for a deep animal bite.
5. OTC flea treatments are a crock.
6. Cats taste a lot like squirrel.

-Blast

Holy Cow!!!!!!!!!!!

Not to be overly gross, but after just having surgery on a hemorrhoid that followed a course of action very similar to your finger, I can say two things with certainty:

1. I'm extremely glad I wasn't out in the woods. Especially alone or far away from advanced civilization.

2. Thank God for surgeons.

I don’t know what I would have done. Makes you realize that, no matter how much you prepare, sometimes S**t happens. Or in my case, didn’t happen.

Yikes..all that from a stupid cat? That'd be one homeless kitty if it did that to me...lol

Dude! Kill the cat!

Hey, can I steal those pics for powerpoint?

I sure would get rid of the cat, was it yours?

Glad to see you are recovering.

About the cat, it clearly panicked. It's possible a verry friendly annimal in normal circumstances.

OUCH
Infections/Non-healing wounds are a (word rhymes with witch)

I have an ulcerated leg wound that started with a simple blister that broke, then got infected. Trips to one of the top wound care guys in the country 2x/week since May still have not healed it. The doc says "nationwide, the average to heal what you have is 27 months - I target getting it done in 24 weeks" - Thank God for modern medicine - turns out that what I have often cost you your leg "back when"

Bee,

It is my wife's cat. It'll be staying.

However, it hasn't come upstairs since the bath.

-Blast

Alan,

Sure, go ahead and put them in a powerpoint presentation. If you go to my flikr.com page (via my blog) you can get much larger versions of the pictures.

-Blast