Sasheena
02-02-2005, 10:33 PM
I thought I would start a thread on some of my adventures in critter raising, in particular... BITES
Since I started to raise mice, I have been bitten innumerable times. Most of the time it's been unremarkable (aside from that initial profanity-ridden response). But a couple of the bites I've had have been actually quite serious. I thought I would share some of the potential hazards. My latest mouse bite cost me $45 in doctor's visits and medicine!
The bite in general. In general, when a mouse bites, it's usually a nasty painful experience, bleeds freely, and a quick anti-bacterial soap scrub, followed by neosporin and a bandaide (especially before returning to the benighted creatures if you haven't finished cleaning cages)... and all is well. I've had hopper-bites (most prevalent, and usually the least painful) that are just little random "bite everything"... I learned after a while to hold the hoppers by the tail with my right hand, and place them on the back of my left hand... they can bite my wedding ring (it draws them) and NOT me. Usually this works. Sometimes I try to figure out the temperament of the critters by offering them up a long fingernail.... the MEAN mice (aka snake food) will try to bite three holes in my fingernail in the space of seconds. Usually those go bye bye. Over time, I've gotten so that few of my mice actually bite... either that is because I've fed off almost all the critters that bite, or I've gotten better at understanding their moods. I think I've probably only had one bite in the last 3 months, and even that one was not very serious. (or so I thought).
The three most memorable bites I've received....
The first one was from one of my three "founder" mice...the ones that were "pets" that the kids got to name and we promised they would never be fed to a snake. Mavra was the name of one of the females and she was MEAN. Once she sunk her little teeth into the back of my thumb, and the only way I could get her off was by pulling until her little teeth ripped through the skin! YEOWCH! That one bled a lot, but cleaned up fine, no biggie.
The second mouse bite I had that was actually serious didn't seem to be so at first. One of my favorite male breeder mice (long curly satin hair) was sickly, reaching the end of his natural life. I picked him up and he bit me on the inside of my right thumb (yes, I'm right handed). I really thought nothing of it, it wasn't a bad bite as such things go. I did put him in the bin full of "food" but mostly because he was old and decrepit, not because he'd bitten me. Then ten minutes later I started to ache in my thumb. I take a look (I hadn't gone to get it cleaned, as I only had one thing left to do in the mouse room before finishing up for the night).... my thumb was bleeding a light pink substance... more white blood cells than red .... that was odd... and it was starting to swell. VERY odd I thought. I went into the house and scrubbed up, got out my bandaide and neosporin, and looked at it in the better light of the house. YIKES... it was REALLY swelling up, and now leaking only a clear fluid. What on earth? Could the mouse have penetrated into the thumb joint? Retrospectively, I should have seen the doctor, but at the time I was stubborn (and I hated my doctor), so I didn't see the doc. But by the next day the thumb was swollen to about twice it's normal size and holding a pen or pencil was VERY painful. I treated it very carefully, neosporin, making sure there was no infection building under the skin, and i nursed it for a week or two. It was incredibly painful for that entire time until finally the swelling subsided. WHILE it was painful, I had an eight-hour teacher test I had to take... quite the trial. But since I passed the test with flying colors, it wasn't that bad.
Now on to the worst mouse bite of all... and the strangest one of all.... I'd been cleaning cages and was just finishing up on the rats when one darn near severed the tip of my pinky finger on my left hand. It bled quite a bit (CSI would not know where to begin with all the blood spatter in my mouse-house)... I went into the house because I had a lot of cleaning to do and my hands were VERY dirty... I cleaned up the half-severed pinky finger, and put a bandaide on it, and went back out to the mouse house. Next thing I do, I pick up a weaner (weanling mouse) and instead of resting calmly on my left hand (biting my ring), the thing crawled back up it's tail and bit me on the outside of my RIGHT pinky...just a teeny tiny hopper bite, barely broke the skin. No biggie. Bled a moment and then stopped bleeding. It was so minor I didn't even bother going back into the house for more soap, neosporin, and bandaides. Finished cleaning mouse cages, and went back into the house to doctor the mouse bite (I doubt I put a bandaide on, it was barely more severe than a paper cut). Within three days my mouse-bitten finger was almost completely healed, and the other rat-bitten finger was healing nicely. Then I bumped my right pinky finger against something... a button I think, and said "OW" ... it hurt REALLY bad for about 1/2 of one second. I thought, "Wow" and went on with what I was doing.... only the finger felt very bruised in the area of the almost healed mouse bite (same place I bonked it)...for about a week... just felt bruised but no biggie. Almost ten days after the initial bite, (a wednesday) suddenly my finger gets a little puffy and swollen. What?? I couldn't figure it out. COULD it be that teeny tiny little mouse bite? It seemed crazy to think it could be something that small.... Perhaps I bruised something when I bonked it on the button? BUT... I had some serious surgery coming up Monday (biopsy to find out if I had cancer.... BENIGN thank goodness!)... so I didn't want to deal with a lousy swollen finger...what if they gave me something that would keep me from my biopsy? After six weeks of waiting to learn if I had cancer, I wasn't going to let a tiny little swollen finger get in the way of learning the truth!!! NO SIREE! Then it's Friday, and my entire pinky is now slightly swollen and a bit painful.... I'm trying to sleep with it elevated, alternating cold and hot packs, can't take anti-inflammatories due to my upcoming surgery, gobbling down tylenol like candy, but my finger is starting to explode in size and pain. By Saturday I was starting to think of going to the doctor, regardless of whether it would postpone my important surgery.... but I think, no biggee... I'll see the doctor after surgery... it can't get THAT bad, can it?
Well it got worse.... by Sunday I was starting to classify the pain as a TEN on a scale of one to ten..... by sunday night my finger is two times the size of my thumb, almost hot enough to cook eggs on, and the angry redness is seeping into my hand (which is starting to swell). I'm kicking myself over not gong to the doctor, still worried about my upcoming surgery, and still trying to tough it out. Had some codeine and even though I wasn't supposed to before my surgery, took some of that.... it helped the pain. Next day, surgery day, the docs almost decide not to do the surgery, but decide a little swollen pinky finger isn't goin to stop them. I'm thinking.... don't let them know how badly it hurts, don't let them stop this surgery, all the while the pain has doubled on the hour EVERY hour for the last 12 (couldn't sleep for the pain and the mental anguish over the surgery).... And I thought the pain was bad....when they took my blood pressure...ooooooh.... 100 times worse~!!!.... I don't think I ever greeted the oblivion of general anasthetic with more enthusiasm than I did on that day....and what happens while I'm under? They have the blood pressure cuff on my right arm...so every couple of minutes (or whatever S.O.P. is) they take my blood pressure....each time, were I awake, I would have been in 10 ZILLION on a scale of one to Ten PAIN. By the time I wake up my entire pinky finger is BLACK & BLUE and RED from all the burst capillaries. The pain from the FINGER woke me up in the recovery room ... the pain from the two walnut sized chunks of flesh they removed was NOTIHNG comparing! My plan was I would ask for pain pills...and I did instantly I woke up. Oh, the glory of pain killers! It was two days after the surgery before I finally saw the doctors (the antibiotics the docs gave me while in surgery, plus anti-inflammatories, AND the pain killers, all conspired to make my finger FEEL better) .... and when I saw the doc, he was certain it was just that dirty mouse bite! Can you believe it? Ten thousand agonies over a silly HEALED mouse bite. BUT.... it's 9 days after my surgery, and aside from the fact that I lost ALL the skin from my pinky finger, it's healing up nicely.
Anyway.... My thought is now... next time I get a swelling where I have had a mouse bite or a rat bite, I will go to the doctor at the beginning of the process of infection, I will NOT wait for the infection to seep up to my hand and wrist!
SO.... mouse bites can be pretty nasty things. Don't ignore them if they don't heal right, see a doctor.
Anyone else with mouse bite stories to contribute ?
oh, and kudos to those who actually read through this entire tale. :)
Since I started to raise mice, I have been bitten innumerable times. Most of the time it's been unremarkable (aside from that initial profanity-ridden response). But a couple of the bites I've had have been actually quite serious. I thought I would share some of the potential hazards. My latest mouse bite cost me $45 in doctor's visits and medicine!
The bite in general. In general, when a mouse bites, it's usually a nasty painful experience, bleeds freely, and a quick anti-bacterial soap scrub, followed by neosporin and a bandaide (especially before returning to the benighted creatures if you haven't finished cleaning cages)... and all is well. I've had hopper-bites (most prevalent, and usually the least painful) that are just little random "bite everything"... I learned after a while to hold the hoppers by the tail with my right hand, and place them on the back of my left hand... they can bite my wedding ring (it draws them) and NOT me. Usually this works. Sometimes I try to figure out the temperament of the critters by offering them up a long fingernail.... the MEAN mice (aka snake food) will try to bite three holes in my fingernail in the space of seconds. Usually those go bye bye. Over time, I've gotten so that few of my mice actually bite... either that is because I've fed off almost all the critters that bite, or I've gotten better at understanding their moods. I think I've probably only had one bite in the last 3 months, and even that one was not very serious. (or so I thought).
The three most memorable bites I've received....
The first one was from one of my three "founder" mice...the ones that were "pets" that the kids got to name and we promised they would never be fed to a snake. Mavra was the name of one of the females and she was MEAN. Once she sunk her little teeth into the back of my thumb, and the only way I could get her off was by pulling until her little teeth ripped through the skin! YEOWCH! That one bled a lot, but cleaned up fine, no biggie.
The second mouse bite I had that was actually serious didn't seem to be so at first. One of my favorite male breeder mice (long curly satin hair) was sickly, reaching the end of his natural life. I picked him up and he bit me on the inside of my right thumb (yes, I'm right handed). I really thought nothing of it, it wasn't a bad bite as such things go. I did put him in the bin full of "food" but mostly because he was old and decrepit, not because he'd bitten me. Then ten minutes later I started to ache in my thumb. I take a look (I hadn't gone to get it cleaned, as I only had one thing left to do in the mouse room before finishing up for the night).... my thumb was bleeding a light pink substance... more white blood cells than red .... that was odd... and it was starting to swell. VERY odd I thought. I went into the house and scrubbed up, got out my bandaide and neosporin, and looked at it in the better light of the house. YIKES... it was REALLY swelling up, and now leaking only a clear fluid. What on earth? Could the mouse have penetrated into the thumb joint? Retrospectively, I should have seen the doctor, but at the time I was stubborn (and I hated my doctor), so I didn't see the doc. But by the next day the thumb was swollen to about twice it's normal size and holding a pen or pencil was VERY painful. I treated it very carefully, neosporin, making sure there was no infection building under the skin, and i nursed it for a week or two. It was incredibly painful for that entire time until finally the swelling subsided. WHILE it was painful, I had an eight-hour teacher test I had to take... quite the trial. But since I passed the test with flying colors, it wasn't that bad.
Now on to the worst mouse bite of all... and the strangest one of all.... I'd been cleaning cages and was just finishing up on the rats when one darn near severed the tip of my pinky finger on my left hand. It bled quite a bit (CSI would not know where to begin with all the blood spatter in my mouse-house)... I went into the house because I had a lot of cleaning to do and my hands were VERY dirty... I cleaned up the half-severed pinky finger, and put a bandaide on it, and went back out to the mouse house. Next thing I do, I pick up a weaner (weanling mouse) and instead of resting calmly on my left hand (biting my ring), the thing crawled back up it's tail and bit me on the outside of my RIGHT pinky...just a teeny tiny hopper bite, barely broke the skin. No biggie. Bled a moment and then stopped bleeding. It was so minor I didn't even bother going back into the house for more soap, neosporin, and bandaides. Finished cleaning mouse cages, and went back into the house to doctor the mouse bite (I doubt I put a bandaide on, it was barely more severe than a paper cut). Within three days my mouse-bitten finger was almost completely healed, and the other rat-bitten finger was healing nicely. Then I bumped my right pinky finger against something... a button I think, and said "OW" ... it hurt REALLY bad for about 1/2 of one second. I thought, "Wow" and went on with what I was doing.... only the finger felt very bruised in the area of the almost healed mouse bite (same place I bonked it)...for about a week... just felt bruised but no biggie. Almost ten days after the initial bite, (a wednesday) suddenly my finger gets a little puffy and swollen. What?? I couldn't figure it out. COULD it be that teeny tiny little mouse bite? It seemed crazy to think it could be something that small.... Perhaps I bruised something when I bonked it on the button? BUT... I had some serious surgery coming up Monday (biopsy to find out if I had cancer.... BENIGN thank goodness!)... so I didn't want to deal with a lousy swollen finger...what if they gave me something that would keep me from my biopsy? After six weeks of waiting to learn if I had cancer, I wasn't going to let a tiny little swollen finger get in the way of learning the truth!!! NO SIREE! Then it's Friday, and my entire pinky is now slightly swollen and a bit painful.... I'm trying to sleep with it elevated, alternating cold and hot packs, can't take anti-inflammatories due to my upcoming surgery, gobbling down tylenol like candy, but my finger is starting to explode in size and pain. By Saturday I was starting to think of going to the doctor, regardless of whether it would postpone my important surgery.... but I think, no biggee... I'll see the doctor after surgery... it can't get THAT bad, can it?
Well it got worse.... by Sunday I was starting to classify the pain as a TEN on a scale of one to ten..... by sunday night my finger is two times the size of my thumb, almost hot enough to cook eggs on, and the angry redness is seeping into my hand (which is starting to swell). I'm kicking myself over not gong to the doctor, still worried about my upcoming surgery, and still trying to tough it out. Had some codeine and even though I wasn't supposed to before my surgery, took some of that.... it helped the pain. Next day, surgery day, the docs almost decide not to do the surgery, but decide a little swollen pinky finger isn't goin to stop them. I'm thinking.... don't let them know how badly it hurts, don't let them stop this surgery, all the while the pain has doubled on the hour EVERY hour for the last 12 (couldn't sleep for the pain and the mental anguish over the surgery).... And I thought the pain was bad....when they took my blood pressure...ooooooh.... 100 times worse~!!!.... I don't think I ever greeted the oblivion of general anasthetic with more enthusiasm than I did on that day....and what happens while I'm under? They have the blood pressure cuff on my right arm...so every couple of minutes (or whatever S.O.P. is) they take my blood pressure....each time, were I awake, I would have been in 10 ZILLION on a scale of one to Ten PAIN. By the time I wake up my entire pinky finger is BLACK & BLUE and RED from all the burst capillaries. The pain from the FINGER woke me up in the recovery room ... the pain from the two walnut sized chunks of flesh they removed was NOTIHNG comparing! My plan was I would ask for pain pills...and I did instantly I woke up. Oh, the glory of pain killers! It was two days after the surgery before I finally saw the doctors (the antibiotics the docs gave me while in surgery, plus anti-inflammatories, AND the pain killers, all conspired to make my finger FEEL better) .... and when I saw the doc, he was certain it was just that dirty mouse bite! Can you believe it? Ten thousand agonies over a silly HEALED mouse bite. BUT.... it's 9 days after my surgery, and aside from the fact that I lost ALL the skin from my pinky finger, it's healing up nicely.
Anyway.... My thought is now... next time I get a swelling where I have had a mouse bite or a rat bite, I will go to the doctor at the beginning of the process of infection, I will NOT wait for the infection to seep up to my hand and wrist!
SO.... mouse bites can be pretty nasty things. Don't ignore them if they don't heal right, see a doctor.
Anyone else with mouse bite stories to contribute ?
oh, and kudos to those who actually read through this entire tale. :)