Case 31-2010: A 29-Year-Old Woman with Fever after a Cat Bite

A 29-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of swelling, erythema, and pain of the hand at the site of a cat bite. Despite treatment with amoxicillin–clavulanic acid, her symptoms worsened and fever, chills, headache, and arthralgias developed. Presentation of Case Dr. Allyson K. Bloom (Infectious Disease): A 29-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of fever after a cat bite. The patient had been well until 5 days before admission, when, while working as a veterinarian's assistant at an animal hospital, she was bitten on the right thenar eminence by a domesticated cat, sustaining a single puncture wound. The cat, which had received rabies vaccinations in the past, had disappeared from its home for several days and had returned febrile, jaundiced, and anemic. After being bitten, the patient washed the wound and took one dose of . . .