From the Center of Disease Control:
http://www.cdc.gov/HEALTHYPETS/diseases/catscratch.htm

Or wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_scratch_fever

If you or someone you know has the symptoms you NEED to get the nearest ER room ASAP - dont screw around with it.

My son had it when he was 20 Months old... All it is, is e-coli in the skin. Not as dangerous as it is in the gut, unless you are pregnant or immuno-suppressed. Your lymphnodes will swell up, my son looked like the elephant man. He also had little yellow polyps on the inside of his eyelids. Funny thigs is, the ER could not tell me what my son had. An eye doctor sat with me for 5 hours and went through medical journal after medical journal looking for a diagnosis. It was a bacteria that had to run it's course.

Thanks dwnjhl. Everything I read agrees with your assessment and I am sure that if my niece had gone to a doctor, many tests would have been done and by the time she found out what the problem was, it would have run it's course and she would be broke! (an 'Aleve' allowed her to sleep in comfort at night)

Anyway, from what I learned that is indeed what she has and she is on the down side of it already after only a little over a week of extreme discomfort. The good thing is that her body will now be immune to it in the future and she does love her kitties.

These kinds of things are great reasons why people who are elderly, immune compromised or live in group/nursing homes shouldn't be allowed to have cats to begin with, rather then trying to make sissy/cruel shortcuts by de clawing/having cat locked up in a room.

Better for the people and better for the cats. Get a tank of fish, if your one of these people, IMHO

Totally agree with you, runsnwalken! I feel cats are very different than dogs in that they were never meant to be completely domesticated. They need to have the opportunity to be free/wild and allowed to hunt their food. My niece doesn't fall into the catagory you describe above.

She has dogs, cats, fish, birds and a few cold-blooded pets (including her husband!)

The reason I posted what I did is because our neighbor got cat scratch fever. She had to be seen in the ER and had to be given an IV fluid bag for two days. She even had the red streak going up her arm and was seriously impaired, they said it was good she came in when she did. I guess it all depends how good your immune system is. Hope everyone is okay

No, cat scratch fever is NOT "E. coli in the skin". It is a bacterial infection, but it is a very different bacterium than E. coli. It is called Bartonella henselae.

Most cases do run their course without complications. However, it can lead to very serious complications ranging from swollen and painful lymph nodes to seizures and, very rarely, death.

I hope so to. People should get shots to protect against things like that.. I know they do for silly things like chicken pox/ some kids end up Autistic afterwards to..

As for cats roaming free, its better they stay indoors in urban areas, unless you live in the country, have alot of money on hand in case something happens and don't have any evil neighbors,farmers that just shoot cats.

We have 4 cats and a dog at our place- two of which are mine, I'm going to leave my cats with mom and dad when I move into a group home, eventually.

My dad and I had swollen lymph nodes in our necks (mine above the collar bone and his under his jaw). Mine hurt, his didn't. I went to the Dr who told me I shouldn't worry too much about it because I had normal blood work. My dad went to an ENT who did a FNA which came back inconclusive, but had a good possibility of being cancer (lymphoma or some sort of head and neck cancer - my dad's been smoking cigarettes for 32 years). So my family and I spent a few weeks freaking out. He had his lymph node removed and tested to find that it's cat scratch disease. We've never been more relieved.

I got this about 15 years ago. At the time, no one knew what bacteria caused it, or even it was a bacteria. I had a cat scratch on my finger tip, and it healed... mostly, but about 10 days later it started to look a bit red again, and then my entire arm started to hurt pretty bad and my lymph node in my arm pit got enormous. Doctors knew what it was but didn't think that antibiotics would help. I did go away on its own in a week but it was a pretty uncomfortable experience. No one seemed to be worried about it except for me. Several other vets I knew had gotten it and they all recovered uneventfully, too. Occupational hazard I guess. Not had another episode since (despite being scratched numerous times).

Became a first time cat owner about 2 years ago after losing a great big goofy dog way too young. Adopted June from local animal shelter. She scratched me pretty good across my forearm... purely an accident. It bled a little, but I didn't really think much of it. A few days later, it was extremely itchy, kinda red, and sorta looked a bit like poison ivy. By the time I took her to the vets for something routine... shots probably... vet asked me when it happened. It had probably been a good 2 weeks and was just starting to calm down and heal. It eventually healed completely, but on rare occasions where I do get scratched, I make a point to really clean the area asap.