Dog scratch

[Snowdropfairy85]

I’ll start off by saying I get very anxious and over worry lots of the time when it comes to the kids. We have 14 week old puppies who get a bit over excited and can playfully nip. One of them have caught ds’ hand, he’s 5. The puppy was playing and not being aggressive, but ds pulled his hand away (understandably) and there is a red line on his hand, like a graze. No blood appeared to be drawn, we washed his hand and applied germolene straight away, but I can’t help worrying about infection because dogs mouths are zoos of bacteria. Of course I googled it and it made me feel worse, said do not delay getting medical attention. I’m well aware now is not the time to be potentially wasting any health professionals time, I was thinking if I should maybe call the local minor injuries unit tomorrow and explain and see if it might need an antibiotic cream? Or just see what it’s like in the morning? Feel free to tell me I’m mad.

So it’s a bite rather than a scratch from a claw and It hasn’t broken the skin?

Animal bites that don't break the skin are not at risk for infection. Scrapes or scratches that just graze the skin's surface have a minimal risk of infection.

www.healthline.com/health/animal-bite-infections

Take a photo, see how it looks in the morning, if you are concerned phone the surgery and speak to a nurse. Lots are doing telephone /video consultations or asking you to send photographs. They will be able to have a look.

He's fine. People who own puppies, kittens, cats and dogs get scratched all the time. This will happen many more times. Please try not to worry, you've done the right thing by cleabing the scratch. Tell him to leave it be and keep an eye for signs of infection but this is unlikely to happen (I work with animals and get these shallow scratches on at least a weekly basis and have never developed an infection).
Just FYI, deep cat scratches and cat bites are a different kettle of fish, but that's a whole other post.

It’s from a tooth not claw yes, it didn’t bleed but it was slightly raised for a little while, like a welt if that’s the correct way to describe, and it is now a completely flat light red line of about 2cm length. It doesn’t look to be scabbed so I’m taking that as the skin isn’t broken? Thanks for replying.

Thanks GetTheSprinkles, I would definitely describe it as shallow.

I get scratches from dogs all the time, I work with some very mouthy dogs. They become like a red raised line.

You washed it out, so everything should be fine.

Also, I noticed you said ‘puppies’, please make sure you read up on littermate syndrome to avoid any nasty problems in the future. (NB the puppies don’t have to be actual littermate just same age)

Thanks LochJessMonster, I’ve just looked this up and will bear the potential problems in mind.