Don’t anger the cat!

Being bitten by a cat, while less likely than being bitten by a dog, poses a greater risk of infection, a study finds.

A three-year retrospective study published in The Journal of Hand Surgery looked at the records of 193 people who came to Mayo Clinic Hospital with cat bites to the hand, according to The New York Times. The researchers found that, unlike dog bites—which can tear skin and break bones, but tend to leave open puncture wounds that are easy to disinfect—cat bites can inject bacteria deep into hard-to-reach tendons and bones.

Of the 154 cat-bite victims who were treated with oral antibiotics as outpatients, 21 of them were eventually hospitalized, with complications including abscesses, loss of joint mobility and nerve involvement.

The most common cause of infection was an aggressive bacterium, Pasteurella multocida, which is found in the mouths of roughly 90 percent of healthy cats.