rabbit bite, mayday

So, flist....

Whilst trying to control teh Competinng Alpha Males of Doom, I got a fairly painful bite about two and a half inches below my knee (I was crosslegged in the pen and Waffles went for Reggie and got me instead. Frankly, I'm lucky it wasn't my hand). Open wound, two definnite punctured areas, and Waffles dug in and held on so it took a bit to pry him off. I slathered with antibiotic. Now, question.

1.) I'm healthy, other than the allergy thing. Do I bother with a doctor?

2.) Do I need to do anything but antibiotic and cover?

Seriously, this thing has a pain thing going on. It's very--hmm. Shooting when I move. But the bite is very tiny. Huh.

Comments

[robotjen.livejournal.com]

I got a fairly nasty bite from our dearly departed pet rat, Brownie, once. Srsly, razor sharp teeth... Thing was bleeding profusely. Just slathered on the Neosporin and a put on bandage. Damned rat.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd see a doctor, just as a kind of insurance. It'd be even more inconvenient and horrible to get sick and then have to be treated afterwards.

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

Doctor. Animal bites are prone to infection, and if you're acutally punctured (it has any depth) you could be harbouring nasty bacteria. I got a cat bite and needed my tetanus booster and even with antibiotics and proper hygiene techniques, one puncture got a bit messy.

It's way, way to easy for an animal bite to go septic, and blood poisoning to follow. (Equally true of human bite, in all fairness ... mouthes are just, in general, dirty.)

B

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

god. Forgive me my typos. My only excuse is I've been working since six a.m.

B

[jilltanith.livejournal.com]

I'd say doctor, especially if you haven't had a tetanus shot in a while. But if there's an walk-in clinic near you, I recommend it. Last fall, when I burned my fingers so badly right before H. Wilma, I went to one and was out in less than an hour, having filled out papers, gotten dressings, prescription, and a shot. And the co-pay was less than the one for visiting an ER, too!

[joesther.livejournal.com]

Just to be on the safe side, go to the doctor. It's your health - why take a risk?

[silk-knickers.livejournal.com]

Definitely go see a doctor, and sooner rather than later. They should give you a tetanus booster and possibly antibiotics as well. The tetanus vaccine isn't very good; they recommend you have a booster shot every ten years, but few adults actually do this, so you may have basically no immunity. Don't wait for an appointment on Monday; go to an emergency room or urgent care kind of place right away. Mouths, particularly animal mouths, are very dirty, and this is a case of "better safe than sorry." Even though they aren't wild animals, they're sure to be chock full o' bacteria.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

My sister used to get a tetanus booster every summer at my grandma's farm, because she was always scratching herself on rusty wire fences. And my last shot was while I was in grad school (I fell up a Metro elevator and gashed my knee), and keep planning for a booster shot next year, just in case. Vaccines are fun!

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

Another vote for the doctor. When I had to pry Harry off another cat and got bitten, I ended up having to go to the doctor and get oral antibiotics. With punctures it's just too hard to get the topical antibiotic down in there, and animal bites get infected really easily.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

Eeep!

Is it deep? If it's deep, I say doctor. Bacteria, tetanus, punctures. They can clean it out thoroughly and prevent any chance of infection.

I hesitate to ask, but there's no chance of rabies? I don't know what kind of innoculations rabbits get.

[ratcreature]

Ouch! That sounds painful.

The one time I got a bleeding rat bite to my hand I didn't bother with a doctor, and it healed okay and without any infection, but it wasn't *that* bad, and I had at least a tetanus shot that was still good, otoh my sister once got a nasty infection from a cat bite and that one definitely needed treatment. I think the doctor is the safer option.

[giddygeek.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no helpful advice for you, I'm just here to boggle. I mean, BUNNIES. Why are they so AWFUL to you? Did you check their pedigrees, are any of them (REGGIE) related to the Vicious Rabbit of Endor?

I hope you are going to see your doctor, and that your Bunny Puncture Wound heals fast and well!

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

TETANUS SHOT OMG. ASAP.

[diluvian.livejournal.com]

Hydrogen peroxide is good for cat scratches, and I've had some pretty deep punctures that I've kept uninfected simply with repeated dousing. Ointment has never done much good for me with animal-related injuries. Peroxide has not only prevented stuff from developing, it's killed off a couple of infections I wasn't able to fend off with just Neosporin.

I vote hold off seeing the doctor for a day -- unless the wound gets inflamed. Nuking your system with antibiotics for no good reason is tiring and hard on you.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I've heard that hydrogen peroxide isn't good for deep puncture wounds, because it essentially destroys all the cells it touches, which makes it harder for them to heal. Rubbing alcohol was said to be a better choice. Of course, I am not a medical professional!

[druidspell.livejournal.com]

(from my mother, the nurse)
Beware of using hydrogen peroxide--it will kill the cells, and has a much greater likelihood of leaving a scar. Rubbing alcohol has a much better likelihood of killing the germs and nastiness without scarring.

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Doctor, Doctor, Doctor. Are your tetnus shots current? There are also a host of other, less lethal, but nasty infections that you can get from animal bites. And wow - is this an education on bunnies or what?

[vickita.livejournal.com]

Tetanus. shot. The last time I had a puncture kind of wound (rusty safety pin got flipped up into my sandal as I walked across a parking lot -- yeow), I went and got a tetanus shot the next day, and the nurse said to me, "Did you soak it?" And when I said that I didn't, she shook her head sadly, and told me I should soak a puncture wound in warm-hot water to draw out the toxic crap. And get a tetanus shot. *g*

I don't know, to this day, if the soaking thing *really* helps anything, but I'm reasonably sure it won't hurt. So, go soak in a hot bath for a while (what better excuse?) and then yeah, go *tomorrow* for that tetanus booster if it's been more than ten years since you've had one. That won't hurt anything, either.

[lainy122.livejournal.com]

You probably don't need anything stronger than anitbiotics and a cover, but you should still get it checked out - just in case. If nothing else, maybe the doc can give you painkillers *bg*

Always the doctor

[lillian78.livejournal.com]

when I was breeding ahd showing cats nothing was worse than a cat bite. Puncture wound that sealed up quickly leaving the infective agents in sometimes by the end of the day a breeder who'd been bit (usually in a showhall) had to get I.V. antibiotics because their arm had started to swell. Now, I don't know what rabbits carry in their little mouths but the doctor will want a up to date tetanus and might want to put you on an oral antibiotic just to be safe. Cat people who didn't seek help often found themselves on I.V. antibiotics because the infection became so advanced and nasty.

[dossier.livejournal.com]

seriously, go see a doctor--pronto. Puncture wounds are immensely prone to infection, and if your tetnus shots are not up to date, you need a booster.

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

It definitely depends on how deep it is--you're actually not supposed to use most antibiotic creams on deep punctures. But I'm not technically voting for the doctor--I've been bitten and scratched up by rabbits and never had a problem. Still, rabbits are filthy animals (they _are_ rodents) so it couldn't hurt anything.

I'm amazed by the amount of freaked out comments, though. I never realized that many people got infected bites ^.^

[queenydiva.livejournal.com]

I'm adding my voice to those who say: Doctor. Mouths are nasty, bacteria-filled things, and sharp teeth can drive the bacteria deep. Oh and BTW, after reading your stories, I'm never getting bunnies!

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

Have to vote with Dr. Visit; especially after having to drive a friend to the Doctor and watching her untreated puncture wound get lanced and packed because an abscess developed under the skin *yecch*

[dianehc.livejournal.com]

Yet another vote from the doctor, though I can't say that I think you need to be particularly freaked out.

But, I've raised and trained numerous animals and have been bitten a score of times: some bites with no ill result but others leaving me seriously sick for weeks.

I do agree, though, with the comment that you shouldn't just jump to antibotics. But, the germs from the animal's mouth aren't the only things to worry about: if the teeth went through cloth you may also have threads pushed into the wound that can cause problems (not to mention anything else that the bunnies might have had on their teeth). The doctor should be able to flush anything that might have been left in.

One thing though, until you get to the doctor, Do Not Pour Hydrogen Peroxide Into A Puncture this can cause as many problems as it stands to heal, especially if any small veins or blood vessels have been nicked. Similarly, don't pack the puncture with neosporin (yes, I've actually seen that done), or pour alchohol in. They are best left topical treatments.

Clean the bites with warm water, then if you have any epsom salts (or even iodized table salt if epsom salts aren't handy) soak the bite with warm salt-water gauze pads (if the water isn't slightly ghostly white/grey you may need to add more salt). This helps to draw any poisons out and makes the environment unfavorable for bacteria growth without introducing synthetic chemicals into the wound. This should be repeated every few hours for between 15-25 minutes at a time (a doc once told me), but I've fallen asleep while soaking a bite and never noticed any negative effects from over soaking.

Btw, watch for a fever and take care.

[fairlyironic.livejournal.com]

If it's a minor bite, don't bother with the doctor; they'll do a minimal two minute examination (probably done by a nurse, not a doctor) and send you home with antibiotics that you could have bought off the shelf for 1/10th the price (this is especially true in the emergency room, where their goal is to get you out as quickly as possible). Doctors jump to antibiotics as a solution because they either quickly cure you of whatever you have, or prevent you from catching something by temporarily boosting your immune system, but they're terrible for your long-term health. There are few things worse for your body than regularly using antibiotics as a preventative measure, because in the long term they weaken your immune system and slow the healing process.

Animal bites can be bad, but in my experience most minor bites and scratches from housepets are harmless if they're quickly cleaned in warm water and bandaged, especially if the housepets have had regular vet checks. Wild or feral animals, or even strays, are a completely different story.

It sounds like you're lucky to get away with a minor bite, rabbits can be more vicious with one another than just about any other domesticated creature. I once saw a rabbit turn to another and in one quick movement tear the skin off the poor things' face. We patched her back together, but she was always disfigured, and she lost an eye. I'd be very careful introducing those rabbits to each other. It sounds like they're pretty easygoing, but you never know when something serious is going to happen. The two that had the fight I just described had been hutchmates for five years.

Not to sound all negative about rabbits, they can be sweet and funny and even wierdly cuddly at times. If you want to guarantee no bad fights between your rabbits, you could always get them neutered. It's not usually necessary to neuter rabbits, but if you're keeping a bunch of them together then it'll make their dispositions calmer. On the other hand, neutering and spaying is expensive, especially for small animals like rabbits, and there's no absolute guarantee that it'll work. Your rabbits will probably get used to each other given time and careful observation. If they do go for each other, don't reach in and try to seperate them (risking another bite), instead, throw a bucket of cold water on them, it'll break them up really fast :)

[sensine.livejournal.com]

I would go with the others and say Doctor! Tetanus shot! Just to be on the safe side. Better safe than sorry, eh?

[lemonbella.livejournal.com]

See, I want to say don't bother with a doctor, (because I grew up with a nurse for a mother who took three days to take me to hospital with appendicitis, on the grounds that illness happened to other people). However, then you might die of an infected rabbit bite, and that would be sad for me and embarrassing for you.

Maybe give it a few days, to see if it turns a funny colour?

[akacat]

I hate to sound fussy, but if there's any depth to it you should see a doctor.

[jimandblair.livejournal.com]

another vote: go to the doctor.

I had a minor dog bite, cleaned it myself.... Got a serious infection three days down the line.

[everagaby.livejournal.com]

From prior experience, and the terror that is preparing for the MCATs, deep puncture wounds that don't bleed much are the most dangerous thing to get; minimal exit area means potential for deeper infection that can't be easily flushed out. Also, the fact that it was animal related is a sanitary concern. That said, I would disinfect it several times a day and keep an eye on it. If it doesn't get better in the next few days, or if it shows signs of change in ambient temperature, size, or appearance, have it checked out.
As for the shooting pain portion, ow. Really, that's it, just ow.

I highly suggest that you make sure your shots are up to date, but that's just a matter of precaution.

Hope it feels better.