A lot of things. I often take care of baby chipmunks that have somehow been spectated/abandoned/etc from their mothers, and they often suck on my fingers, sometimes penetrating my skin with their tiny teeth, which I guess counts as biting.
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Lol I am also an older sister, I must say I agree as wellā¦
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I know personally people who got bitten like that and wound up in the same hospital. One had septicemia, the other some kind of exotic streptococcus with pasteurella, with years-long return from decreased muscle functionality, the other got a sub-muscular Capnocytophaga with strange fungal infection. All were on antibiotic IVs and had bad swelling. Circumstances: trying to get a cat from a seemingly stuck situation; picking up a cat which was facing another cat across a patio door, trying to chase a cat out of a bathroom.
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I have a theory about cat bites, yet Iāve never read any scientific support for such a thing.
Iāve had countless cat bites that amounted to nothing much. The only time a cat bite was ~instantaneously~ highly swollen and painful (within a minute), was when I was trying to handle a scared, aroused cat.
My theory is that although cats are not considered venomous (no normal venom glands), when they have had stress hormones racing through their bodies, their saliva becomes venomous. Such a venom may no longer be detectable once the cat has settled down.
But, Iāve seen (and felt) that the damage done to another cat or human from a very scared cat bite is beyond what a normal dirty bite would do (IMO). Iāve seen my own reaction, as well wounds in other rescuers (and, possibly other cats*) become instantly hugely swollen and infected. Not in an hour or two, but in minutes.
For my part, as a non-medical person and non-biologist, I do not think a bacterial infection would happen that fast. If it does, no such medical or scientifically trained person has adequately explained to me how the immediate reaction happens.
DUNNOā¦
*I say possibly, because when a cat comes home with reaking wounds, it can be hard to tell if itās minutes old or hours or a day old.
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Letās see: vertical slit pupil, front fangs, a pattern of rings or bands, hissing sound. Clearly, cats are a species of snake.
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Funnily enough I created a list for this exact thing a few weeks ago, although I included plants that sting/prick/cause an allergic reaction
Animals:
- āChiggerā - Trombicula alfreddugesi
- Oak Leaf Gall Mite Pyemotes herfsi
- Lone Star Tick - Amblyomma americanum
- Little River Creek Crayfish - Faxonius leptogonopodus
- Meekās Short Pointed Crayfish - Faxonius meeki ssp. brevis
- Mantis Shrimp sp. - Stomatopoda sp.
- Atlantic Blue Crab - Callinectes sapidus
- Bombardier Beetle sp. - Brachinus sp.
- Black Horse Fly - Tabanus atratus
- Striped Horse Fly - Tabanus lineola
- Yellow Fever Mosquito - Aedes aegypti
- Asian Tiger Mosquito - Aedes albopictus
- Inland Floodwater Mosquito - Aedes vexans
- Imported Fire Ant - Solenopsis invicta
- Southern Yellowjacket - Vespula squamosa
- Domestic Cat - Felis catus
- Green Anole - Anolis carolinensis
Plants
- Saw Greenbrier - Smilax bona-nox
- Tree Cholla - Cylindropuntia imbricata
- Christmas Cholla - Cylindropuntia leptocaulis
- Brown-spined Prickly-Pear - Opuntia phaeacantha
- Starvation Prickly-Pear - Opuntia polyacantha
- Honey Locust - Gleditsia triacanthos
- Honey Mesquite - Prosopis glandulosa
- Velvet Mesquite - Prosopic velutina
- Rose sp. - Rosa sp.
- Bramble sp. - Rubus sp.
- Stinging Nettle - Urtica dioica
- Poison Ivy - Toxicodendron radicans
- Western Poison Ivy - Toxicodendron rydbergii
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Lolš As a cat lover, that just seriously cracked me up!
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excellent idea for research. Oral flora swabs of about 100 cats at rest, vs swabs after showing them an unreachable cat. Also swabs post-catnip exposure :-)
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Iāve been stung multiple times by yellowjackets, and once by a honey bee (which I stepped on.) Besides that just countless mosquitos, and some greenhead flies, and chiggers.
I had one bite as a teenager that I think may have been some sort of spider. It was not particularly painful, but it swelled slightly, took a while to go away, and left two marks which faded very, very slowly (over years).
And thenā¦some housecats have bitten or clawed me and one dog nipped me but dogs have never broken my skin whereas cats have. Usually itās kittens that draw blood, actually. Itās like they havenāt yet learned to play safe.
Not animals, but I have been stung numerous times by nettles. Overall, Iād say plants inflict more damage on me than animals. The worst are blackberries with recurved thorns, they frequently draw blood and they have drawn blood through leather gloves, and through jeans. And itās awful when you get stuck on them. No fun!
I find wasps fascinating as Iāve been in very close quarters with numerous wasps, including bald-faced hornets, and I have never been stung by anything other than yellowjackets. Most wasp species seem incredibly docile. Same for all the numerous bees, never stung by anything other than a honeybee and even there, they seem to be docile, I just stepped on the one.
Yellow jackets are so annoying, especially how they nest in the ground so I can step on a nest and disturb it. Bald-faced hornet nests are nice because theyāre so visible. I suspect thatās why Iāve never been stung by them. Also, the whole thing of yellowjackets crawling into your canned drink. Why? So annoyingā¦that happened to me as a kid several times.
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Broad-winged Hawk (talons), 4-5 Barred Owls (talons), Eastern Screech Owl jumped on my face and scratched just below my eye (itās a wonder that I he didnāt hit my eye), Baby and adult Virginian Opossum (the baby bit my ear), Red-bellied Woodpecker bites (OUCH), a Green Iguana whipped my face with itās tail, multiple Leopard Gecko bites, Bearded Dragon claws, Chickens, 2 Milk Snakes have given me a total of 8-9 bites (one was my Honduran Milksnake, the other was a Nature Centers), multiple sweet bees, Blue Crab claw, a young Rat Snake, multiple tick and chiggers. Iām likely forgetting a few. Oh, the reason for all the exotic/protected species (Raptors and Reptiles, except for the Rat Snake ) is that I volunteer for Lake Cumberland Wildlife Refuge, in Kentucky, USA. I handle 7-8 species of raptors, and all sorts of non-native reptiles.
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I have been bitten by insects: wasp, midges, horse and sand flies, ticks (so far no lyme disease 
), some kind of NM grass bug and, of course, mosquitoes. The worst bites that I have ever had so far were from bugs in Panama. I think they were mosquitoes. The discomfort lasted for several weeks and the bites developed a yellow spot. It was only when my sister gave me some antibiotics in Cuba (we met there to have a vacation together) that those darn bites started to go away. Well, I cannot blame the mosquitoes for doing their job; for some reasons I believed that I did not need to spray my exposed skin with insect repellent.
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Ticks, crayfish, yellowjackets and wasps of many varieties, mosquito, biting midges, black flies, leeches, ants, Northern Pike, pet hamster, pet cats (but always in a playful way), hermit crabs, tropical house gecko (I may have deserved that one while handling it), praying mantis (same thing- I was a child, but should have known better). I may have missed some, but I have notably never been bitten by a spider or snake or stung by a honeybee or bumblebee (Iāve probably jinxed myself).
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I definitely forgot my mortal enemies- horseflies and deerflies
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Fire ants - multiple times (4 years ago I developed a severe allergy to them so now they could kill me) - Realized I was allergic when I had an anaphylactic reaction from only 4 bites - bad when you think of how many times someone steps in a fire ant pile
Paper wasp
My dogs (minor)
My cat (minor)
My rabbit (mostly nips but a little asshole that does it all the time)
Pet rat (Not mine - mine never bit me hard enough to draw blood)
My ball python
Various species of bats (through gloves)
My brother
Ticks (chiggers)
Captive red-shouldered hawk attacked my shoes
Mosquitos
Hispid cotton rat (through gloves)
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1-cats
2-dogs
3-horses
4-rabbits (got a scar)
5-guinea pigs
6-bees
7-mice (not a pet (an unwanted visitor))
8-birds
9-younger brothers
10-sandfly
11-spiders
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A brotherā¦ sounds familiarā¦
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Iāve had close calls with rattlesnakes a few times but, unlike some of of my colleagues, Iāve thankfully never been bitten. The one that really could have bitten me once, as I was trying to photo it and leaned in too close, reached out slowly while it was coiled and tapped me on the knuckles with its snout as I was preoccupied with focusing my camera. I realized pretty quickly what I had done, and what the snake had done, and backed off. I actually said āThank youā to the rattler, then left it alone.
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Iāve been bitten by an adder, the UKās only venomous snake, TWICE. Ironically, Iāve still never actually seen one. The bite was identified by a doctor each time after examining my ballooned arm/leg and finding the bite marks.
I can also add a mysterious Croatian spider to my history of ābites without seeing the animalā. This was suggested by the doctor when I went to find out why my foot looked like a balloon.
I stupidly got a Crown of Thorns Starfish spine under my thumb while doing a conservation dive and lost feeling in it for quite a while. My most memorable jellyfish sting was when I forgot to ājellyfish purgeā my sidemount regulators. Jellyfish tentacles can get caught around the mouthpiece of the regulator youāre not breathing from so when you switch itās a good idea to blast air through the regulator to free them. Of course, the one time I didnāt is the time I put a mouthful of jellyfish onto my mouth. It didnāt hurt as much as you might think but I looked pretty stupid with big swollen lips.
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Rabies is nothing to mess with since itās pretty much fatal. I was vaccinated against rabies quite a few years ago since I was handling bats fairly regularly at the time. Years later, I was bitten through a leather glove by a Big Brown Bat that I was taking out of a mist net. It definitely hurt, but I couldnāt find the puncture on my finger. At first I passed it off as nothing, since I was vaccinated (but hadnāt ever had my rabies blood titer checked) and only a small percentage of bats are rabid ā plus, it wasnāt much of a bite after all. But rabies transmission doesnāt require much of a bite. Then I got nervous. By the time I got back into town a couple days later, I was convinced I needed a booster shot. Not that easy in my area, surprisingly ā my physician couldnāt do it ā so I ended up at the hospital ER for 4 hours among all the real emergency cases, to get a shot in the arm. That bat really cost me in money and possibly unwarranted anxiety.
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I stepped on a Western tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) once while out on a walk, because I was (stupidly) texting while walking, arranging transport back home. Worse, I wasnāt wearing gumboots. Even worse, I was out bush, too far away from the road to walk. Thankfully they arenāt very aggressive, and it just headbutted me twice on the shin. It feels remarkably like a piece of rope. Anyway, I looked down and see this snake going full cobra style, so I backed off and let it go its own way. Thatās the closest Iāve ever come.
Donāt get me wrong, I donāt make a habit of not looking where Iām going, Itās just that the one time I did it, something happened.
Iāve also had one mock strike past my ear when I got too close.
EDIT- I added a link, so you can see what they do when they are cranky.
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