This may sound nuts but bear with me!

[TooOldForAllThatShit]

So this afternoon we noticed the cat had a wound on her neck. Shed been out all night as she won't stay in in the summer months and she didn't reappear until then.

I caught her outside as she kept running off if we tried to go near her, and bathed the wound. It was only a small laceration. While we were discussing how she came about it, we noticed various dried blood stains on the decking area at the end of the garden which couldn't have come from her as her wound was too small and it looked like something had been dragged around.

At this point DS aged 9, came and laid on his front on one of the sun loungers on the decking and pushed himself forward so he was practically kissing the decking, right on top of one of the bloodstains FFS! I mean only one of my kids would do that!

I immediately told him to go inside and wash his hands and face.

Now he's complaining of a sore throat which has come on very suddenly.

We live in an area with lots of squirrels, frogs, bats, birds, foxes etc and I'm now freaking out that the blood stain has transferred some disease to him! No idea what it came from as there are no bodies about.

Please tell me I'm being stupid.

Much, much more likely to be the warmer weather meaning he is dehydrated today, or is developing hayfever, or coming down with a cold.

I doubt any of the drops of blood could have got into his mouth unless he was licking the decking
I wouldn't worry too much

Timescale is far too short surely? Far more likely to be something he picked up at school last week.

Oh god you sound like me 😂

I genuinely think everything is fine here, if he gets a fever and becomes unwell suddenly then of course seek medical advice (111/gp) as you may have done regardless of the blood.

But I really don’t think there’s anything to worry about and the sore throat is unrelated