My cat attacked me

[SWEETPEA1975]

Wow I am sooo worried
I am 12 weeks pregnant and my cat just attached me out of the blue yesterday, he did quite the number of me, I actually had to get 2 stiches on my thigh
the doctor gave me a cream antibiotic for the wounds and told me to really keep an eye on it because an infection can mean trouble
I am sooo worried that if I do get an infection it will harm my baby
I am not finding any info on this on the web, do any of you know anything

P.S.  I called the vet and he told me cats can sense when you are pregnant some get protective and some get jealous, he thinks the attach was part of his jealousy, no idea what I should do about the cat now ... any suggestions???

[1234betterlife]

honey, first of all the cat bite itself will do no harm to you or your unborn child. the important thing is to watch it and use the antibiotics the physician gave you. the only thing i would worry about is if he had used the litter box just prior to this. you may talk to your physician about this. they can test kitty for toxo. it will show up in the bloodstream but it would be farfetched to think you could obtain this from that as it was a bite not a scratch. second, savas is right. i had two cats behave this way when i was pregnant on two different occasions, two different pregnancies.they acted like i was carrying an alien. one of the cats calmed down after awhile and i had no further problems. the other one we had to give away as he continued to stalk me and i just could not handle that. cats are loving fuzzy little things but when they go psycho they are scary as h****.

[Savas]

One way you go is to not approach/pick up kitty for a time. It's a very tricky period to get through and really can only work if you really want it to and you can be understanding.

There's another theory here I have (a few behavioralists I've spoken to think I'm onto something with this); pregnant woman go through biological changes that dramatically change their scent. Cat's recognize others by scent first, they don't have quite as refined a visual recognition system we have.

So as far as kitty knows, you smell "wrong". It's as if his beloved owner has been replaced by someone who...well...isn't her.

Try giving it some time for him to adjust to the new situation. Treat it as if he's a newly aquired kitty who doesn't know you and is scared because of the sudden change of ownership. In a few weeks he'll hopefully grow accustomed to the "new you".

[SWEETPEA1975]

I have had the cat for 5 years and he is 5 years old, I got him when he was just a little kitten
He does not have all his shots which is what is freaking me out
Since this took place I have stayed away from him, in fact I have him in the basement right now because I am terrified he might do it again
He is an indoor cat although this summer he has been out and about a few times, and yes it was a huge bite and I did end up getting 2 stiches, in total he bite me 3 times, he just went psycho on me
Nothing out of the ordinary was happening, in fact I had just changed his water and gave him a fresh bowl of food
it really was out of the blue

[suzysdone]

how long have you had this cat? how old is the cat? Does he /she have all their shots?
How is he acting since this took place? Is he an outside cat? how bad did he attack you : bite? scratch? Was there anything out of the ordinary happening when this happened?