I Got Bit By a Squirrel! (page 3)

Jesika

I hope you are ok.

Squirrelman---LOL too funny---only cars can kill me--LOL

Nathan Natas

Hi Funchback,

You said you didn't bleed, so unless you're a mummy, I'd assume your skin was not broken.

As far as I know, squirrel spit does not contaiin DMSO, so it is unlikely that any squirrel boogers got into your bloodstream.

Squirrels, of course are rodents, and as such they have chisel-like front teeth that are designed for gnawing into your attic - if the squirrel wanted to really hurt you bad, he could have, and if you did bleed, you would be asked to bring his head along to the ER room so his brain could be examined for the rabies virus.

Bubonic plague is spread by FLEAS. The warm mammal is only a host to the flea.

Rabies makes the poor animals who get it attack out of the clear blue sky. This squirrel simply confused your finger with a peanut. If you were handling peanuts, guess what your fingers smelled like?

It's a good idea to keep hydrogen peroxide in your medicine chest so you can immediately treat any possible injury. If I didn't have hydrogen peroxide, I would use good old clorox, which, by the way is what professional fishermen use to treat the skin irritation caused by some salt water microorganisms. Just be sure to wash the clorox off after you've slathered it around a bit.

We feed squirrels too (and crows and jays and half the cats in the 'hood) - we used to have one squirrel who would come into the house and take walnuts out of a bowl on the dining room table. There was lots of good eatin' on that squirrel!

I enjoyed your story.

Edited by - Nathan Natas on 20 September 2002 15:24:21

Funchback

Cool info, Nikita! Thanks.

RedhorseWoman- Thanks, also, for the added resaerch.

Jesika- LOL @ you for LOL @ me. Laughter is contagious!

Xandria... If catching bad guys means that I have to do something with their "bag of good" then I'm gonna have to hang up my cape!

Englishman- Did you start saying "trunk" instead "boot" and "subway" instead of "tunnel"?

Funchback

Larry-

I can't believe someone actually created a Squirrelman superhero! Unbelievable!

Nathan-

Cool story! Thanks for the medical insight. The squirrel DID break my skin but I didn't bleed...and, no, I'm no Mummy (or daddy!). I have a tiny hole near the tip of my finger about the size of a pin hole.

Nikita

I'm relieved that you called your Doc-is it Dr. Sh.?

Funchback

No. I go to a different doctor now.

RedhorseWoman

Since your finger didn't bleed, but the bite broke the skin, then you definitely want to get it checked and perhaps get an antibiotic shot just to guard against infection.

Bleeding is actually a way to flush bacteria out of a wound, so any bacteria that was on your skin or in the squirrel's mouth could enter the pinhole-sized wound and set up shop. I was bitten by a feral cat that I was taming. It wasn't his fault, it was mine, but he really nailed me with teeth and claws.

Since he was feral, I knew that the Department of Health would want his head on a platter. He had been coming around for over a year for food, however, and I knew he wasn't sick....just frightened....so I didn't go to the doctor. I also didn't clean the wound sufficiently at first, and my hand got infected. I DID treat it myself with hot water soaks and Tea Tree oil, and everything worked out fine, but my hand did swell quite a bit, and it really hurt.

So have them check it out.

Kaethra

I was bit by a squirrel when I was three. We had a "pet" squirrel that used to visit our front kitchen window, where we would put out peanut butter for him. We had petted him many times. One day, my mom left me alone in the house while she worked in the garden just outside and I decided that it would be so much fun to let the squirrel inside. So, I opened up the kitchen window and in he scampered. Well, I don't think that he liked the tile floors very much and he became quite confused as to how to get the heck out of there. He scurried off into my parents' bedroom and up the curtains with his sweet little feet. I was so excited, clapping my little hands...but then I saw that the squirrel was frightened, so like any little animal lover, I tried to help him...to put him back outside...that's when he bit me. I screeeeeeched blue murder, mainly because it frightened me so, and my mother came running. I can still see the blood pouring out of my little finger. I think that that was the first time that I'd ever been injured. Even as a three-year-old, I knew that it wasn't the squirrel's fault, and I didn't hold it against him.

But, I didn't contract rabies. :) I don't think anyone in my family even thought of it as a possibility. I'm sure that you're fine Funch!

BTW...thanks for bringing back one of my earliest childhood memories!

Funchback

Kaethra... Awesome story! The way you told it made me feel like I was in the room with you. I'm glad you didn't get some horrible disease. I'm also glad I could help you with that memory thing!

RedhorseWoman... I'll definitely get it checked out. I'm glad YOU'RE alive, too!

Nathan Natas

RedHorseWoman mentioned Tea Tree Oil - another useful item to have in the medicine chest. In the first world war (if I recall correctly) Tea Tree Oil all went to the military medics. By the second world war, penicillin and other artificial antibiotics put Tea Tree Oil in little demand, but it still works - it smells like turpentine.

To my twisted mind, there's an important distinction between antibiotics like penicillin, sulfa drugs, etc., that bacteria can become immune to, and antiseptics like clorox, peroxide and carbolic acid (phenol) that I believe no bacteria or virus can adapt to - although I have heard stories of mold growing around the neck of a betadine bottle (betadine is an iodine based solution used in surgical prep). In an end of the world scenario, facing unknown multiple possible organisms I would want to have antiseptics more than antibiotics. In the event of a specific threat- say smallpox - I'd want to have the antibiotics on hand too.

I Got Bit By a Squirrel!

Share this