tetanus in a baby

[karen ross]

i have a 9 month old girl and both her grandparents, auntie and uncles have dogs, we have 2 cats, if any of theM scatched her and she bled, do i have to whizz her down to the A&E at hospital for a tetanus?  i live in fear of it happening as she is crawling about now and started to pull at the poor cats and dogs ear, i cant keep her apart from the pets forever.eek please help.

[ann_h]

Tetanus lives in soil,etc and can be picked up from scratches caused by old metal, rose throns etc as well, so it's wise to have the jab.

Has she had her normal innoculations though, as the triple jab includes tetanus anyway?

Tetanus needs a booster and will be done on the normal schedule.

[nrmatth]

I have two dogs and four cats and two kids with usually a scratch on them at any given time, as they like to drag the cats around the house. Though tolerant the cats tend to scratch when they're being dragged upside down or out of balance, which my one year old hasn't mastered the handling yet like my three year old. nothing wrong yet or foreseen in the future. my cats are indoors so that helps too. The benefits of preventing allergies and learning to care for other creatures out weighs the very unlikely chance of developing tetanus, especially if shots are up to date on every one (pets included).