Okie dokie, here's the scoop now that I went and had my cat bite looked at by a doctor. I'm sharing it here since I posted my initial mishap and might as well provide a wrap-up on recommended treatment:
Between 50% to 80% of all cat bites get infected, due to a particular bacteria in their saliva and their sharp, pointed teeth which expose all layers of your skin at the wound site to the bacteria. Even with immediate water irrigation, disinfecting ointment and the whole nine yards, such bites get infected, so doctors recommend always starting antibiotics if you've received a cat bite (any bite that punctures your skin; scrapes and such tend to heal fine.) I received an antibiotic shot, since I was already running a low (99.3 degree F) fever within four hours of receiving the cat bite.
Tetanus. I always thought tetanus was only a concern if you stepped on a rusty nail or something. Justin's mom called the "Ask a Nurse" hotline and sure enough, tetanus is the other thing you want to make sure you're protected from if you've received a cat bite. I knew it'd been well over a decade since my last tetanus shot -- ideally, you'd want to have had one in the last 5 years or so. So, I also received a tetanus shot.
Rabies is relatively rare in the U.S., but ideally I'd observe or capture the stray cat that bit me -- if it shows no signs of illness within 10 days, I'm rabies-free. Animal Control could take the cat, but the easiest way to determine if a cat or dog has rabies is apparently to euthanize it and check its brain for the rabies virus. I'm sure our local no-kill shelter would take the cat and give me a call if it showed behaviour or health changes within 10 days. I only see the cat about once a week, so hopefully I'll see it again within the incubation period. I doubt it is ill; it probably bit due to smelling my three cats all at once when I reached to pet it, and reacting defensively.
However, rabies is no laughing matter -- it affects the neurologic system and can be fatal. It's rare in humans in the U.S. but plenty of animals have it -- it's most prevalent in skunks and other wild animals like that, as well as dogs and cats. It's far easier to vaccinate strays and pets against it than it is to take the course of injections needed to kill the virus if a person gets it -- it's a multiple course of shots at specific intervals (eg. 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 11 days), with the first given directly in or near the wound site. It's also apparently an expensive set of shots -- someone at the office mentioned $1,000 for the first shot, so you really only want to take it if you KNOW you've been exposed. There are also preventative shots, but the same circumstances apply (costly, painful, etc.), so only veteriarians or others who know they're likely to at some point be bitten by a rabid animal are likely to go that route.
Alright, so the moral of the story here is ...?
Don't feed stray cats, and if they get close to you it's probably best to corral them carefully into a carrier and take them to your favorite pet shelter for adoption. That way they'll get observed for rabies, vaccinated, treated for any ailments (ringworm, etc.) and placed in a good home rather than roaming the streets making new kitties or biting the hands that feed it.
