A teen girls kitten turned out to cause much more trouble than usual.
Thankfully, once the infection was identified and treated, the girl recovered fully.
The feline fiasco wasdetailedearlier this month in BMJ Case Reports by doctors in Portugal.
A stray kitten photographed on the street in Guellala village, Djerba Island, Tunisia.Photo: Natalia Seliverstova/Sputnik (AP)
According to the report, the girl visited doctors with severe pain in her right abdomen and a fever.
She reported no recent travel or contact with animals, at least initially.
At that point, the family recalled to the doctors that they had a young cat some time before.
The most common symptoms of cat scratch fever specifically are enlarged lymph nodes, rashes, and fever.
But in this case, the girl made a complete recovery following treatment with doxycycline and rifampicin.
Cat scratch disease is a challenging diagnosis in the absence of typical features, the doctors wrote.
However, B. henselae must be investigated if common pathogens are ruled out and response to therapy is poor.
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