Animal control phone numbers:
Boulder County: 303-441-3626
Longmont: 303-651-8500
Boulder: 303-441-3333
Safe cat handling
Longmont Humane Society Animal Care Team Supervisor Jerry McClarty said handling a cat depends on its disposition.
For a playful and mouthy cat, he said, “I would recommend playing with a long string toy and maybe treats to get that energy out.”
For a fearful cat that doesn’t like getting closed into a carrier, he said, “I would always recommend not using their bare hands.” He suggested using a towel or gloves.
Interfering with a cat fight didn’t end well for Matthew Hemker.
“I was reaching for my cat while he was biting another cat,” Hemker, of Longmont, said, “and it was a very bad decision.”
On the afternoon of Feb. 7, Hemker’s tabby cat, Ziggy, turned on him during a fight with a newer cat, October, making it the first attack in the two years he’s owned him. He said Ziggy latched on to his skin, leaving scratches and bite marks.
“They have, like, dominance issues going on,” Hemker said. “We try to keep them as separate as we can, but sometimes we just need to let them have free roam … I mean, I definitely won’t get between them again.”
Last year, Longmont animal control responded to 33 reports of cat bites and Boulder animal control responded to 27 reports, according to respective records divisions, which pales in comparison to the 179 dog bites in Longmont and 131 in Boulder last year. Hemker’s call was the most recent of four cat bites reported so far this year.
But Longmont animal control Officer Robin Breffle believes the disparity doesn’t necessarily mean that one animal is more prone to aggression than the other, even though she has issued a mere two tickets for aggressive cats in her 27 years as an animal control officer.
“I think cats probably can bite a lot too,” Breffle said. ” … I think owners just learn, ‘That triggers my cat. Don’t rub him in the belly.'”
The average call to a dog or cat bite, she said, turns out to be accidental and within the family, such as, “The dog was going for the food and at the same time I was reaching down to pick it up.” She said fewer bites come from feral cats.
She believes that’s partly why so many cat attacks go unreported, skewing the numbers. She said people seem to treat themselves, whereas it’s more often that dog bites need hospital attention — larger teeth, larger bite.
Yet, contrary to common thought, cat bites need more medical attention.
Prone to infect
Surprised by how deep and painful the bites were, Hemker sought antibiotics at the hospital, where staff called animal control. He said if it had been less severe, he would have treated the wound at home.
According to Boulder County’s animal control website, bite victims or the owners of biting animals are required under Colorado law to file a report within 12 hours of an attack.
In many cases, it’s not the bite victim who calls 911 directly. Instead, either someone from the human society or the hospital is mandated to report when a victim visits.
For example, police reports show that Breffle on Jan. 12 received a fax from UCHealth that a woman was bitten four days earlier by her cat named Cali while it was on the bed.
“The cat ran at her and bit her on the top of her hand,” the report stated. “It hurt her and she went in for treatment. I saw the bite and it looked good. I saw the cat and she was in apparent good health.”
In another example about two weeks earlier, reports show that a different animal control officer received a call from the Longmont Humane Society that a cat bit a man’s middle finger while he was putting it into its carrier.
What makes cat bites riskier than dog bites is their propensity for infection.
Patricia Gill, an infectious disease specialist with Longmont’s UCHealth clinic, said a cat’s sharp tooth injects saliva into tissue through a tiny hole that closes up quickly, causing a deep infection. She said the bacteria Pasteurella multocida is more common in cats than dogs.
She said the infection can cause an abscess, or a bite on a hand can penetrate into the tendon sheath. She said the infection occurs within 24 hours, so it needs quick attention.
“For some people, they’re shocked at how fast the infection happened,” she said, because “a seemingly trivial injury led to such a serious problem.”
She said a bite should shrink, and the best home treatment includes washing it as soon as possible and making sure the swelling goes down and the redness fades.
If that doesn’t work, antibiotics, such as penicillin, might be needed to kill the bacteria.
10-day quarantine
Once an officer learns of a case, the dog or cat is placed on its first day of confinement, either in a house, at a veterinarian’s office or at a humane society for a 10-day observation period.
Breffle said the 10 days cover the three-day to seven-day window when animals could be shedding rabies and could die from the virus. She said officers check on an animal on the first day and the last day of quarantine.
“We do have rabies in Boulder County and so it could always move into the domestic population,” Breffle said, but added, “We haven’t seen it yet.”
During the lockup, animals have no public contact other than with family. She said once they’re released, they can go back to normal life, going on walks outside or curling up on a visitor’s lap.
At the Longmont Humane Society, Client Care Team Supervisor Lindsey Culver said they look after isolated animals on quarantine fairly regularly, but she said she finds that people don’t know about the isolation period. She said they don’t take in feral cats.
“Personally owned animals, even if they actually bite you in the home, it’s still something that should be reported,” she said. ” … The intent is just to prevent the spread of rabies, and it doesn’t mean that anything is negative about the behavior.”
She said knowing a cat’s tendencies can help the owner know when to give the furry friend space versus playing with it to avoid a surprise nip.
“Animals, they can’t talk, so they have to find a way to communicate with us,” Culver said, adding that it might not be because they’re aggressive or playing. “They might just be trying to tell us something, and they use their mouths instead of their tails.”
Amelia Arvesen: 303-684-5212, arvesena@times-call.com or twitter.com/ameliaarvesen
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