Mouse and Rat Bites

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.

Oh no! Thats horrible. It kinda makes me glad I'm not breeding my own feeders. Hopefully that will never happen to you (or anyone else) ever again.

wow that is really bad i have been bitten by a hopper but it sjut got me to bleed i mean i was playing with it bescaeu it was so cuite and the next second a pain went through my finger and i looked down and there was blood on my lap .... first i eant stright into the bathroom got a bandaid next i turned on some heavy metal ... took my snake outa the tank droped it into its seperate tank and watched him eat that mouse... i was mad at it and i didnt know what else to do... i guess all along it was my fault i mean they dont liek to be held and i mean i was gunna feed it anyway but i just thought i would tell my wacky adventure...

Wow..I've always heard of dog or cat bites being pretty nasty with the infections from their natural oral flora/fauna. But mice?

I've been bitten by countless gerbils, hamsters (children of Satan himself), mice (domestic and wild) and rats. But thankfully none of them ever ended up in such a painful ordeal, my pinky finger was aching just reading your story.

- Rat bites I'd have to say are the quickest and cleanest (not much tissue damage) bites I've received, but they bleed a lot.

- Gerbils are close to rats, but just not as deep.

- Hamsters, they dig in and hang on. The instinctual *cursing while flinging your hand with attached rodent* that you do doesn't work..I actually had to thump one of my dwarf hamsters after he became imbedded in the outside portion of the palm of my left hand. I wasn't even trying to grab him, I was cleaning their cage out and had rested my hand down in the wide tub they were all in and he latched on. And hamsters make it doubly more difficult in the fact they don't have "handles" like any other rodent, i.e. tails.

- Mice, I've only been bitten by wild mice on a couple of occasions. Once when putting my foot into a rubber boot that was in the garage when I was a kid. And the other when I dumb-buttedly grabbed it barehanded..same mouse. That was definitely a highlight of my blondness.

My domestic mice are less inclined to bite, I think mainly because I impliment the same strategy as Sasheena; "You dare bite me, you dare die." The only thing I make exceptions on, for one instance only, is a female protecting her nest when I poke her aside to harvest her "fruits". The next time she lunges for me, her and the entire litter will be culled. No if's, and's, or but's.

I will not tolerate aggressiveness in ANY of my pets, not a single one. I am master, not them...I'll be the only one doing the biting around here.

Dang Sasheena, I thought I had bad luck.

I had to chuckle when you explained the blood pressure causing more pain (been there, done it, did it). I have nerve problems in both upper extremities and when I have the good ol' blood pressure taken it feels like my fingers are going to pop.

I breed my own rodents and they nail me all the time. The ones that bite get to go play with my caiman . With the nerve problems I sometimes don't really feel it and other times I feel it for days on end. Now I'm going to be paranoid everytime I get bitten and worry that my finger will blow up to twice it's normal size.

My worst ones, by far, have come from wild opossums and fox squirrels that we were rehabbing at work. They may not be breeder animals for snakes or pets, but they were under our care and they were in control...lol. Opossums have 50 sharp teeth (more than any other land mammal in North America) and can open their jaws to almost 90 degrees, so when they lock down on your arm, there's really no way to get them to back off til they decide you've had enough. Squirrels, on the other hand turn vicious when they hit sexual maturity. When people bring them in as babies, they can't be released until after they hit that mark, so it gets a little hairy the last couple of weeks we're rehabbing them. I've had them go down to the bone in my hands several times, and it bleeds forever, so it's a nice sight for when the new volunteers come in for training

Another close second to this is when we occasionally get taloned by our hawks and owls. I had a redtail hawk out on an educational program at a school last summer and all the kids asked if I ever got hurt working with the animals. I said not usually, and if I do, it's almost always my fault. At the end of the program, all the kids (about 40 of them, ages 7 and under) were standing around while I was putting the hawk back in its carrier. This was this hawk's first program and he was pretty nervous because he had been holding onto my fist pretty tightly the whole time. He had held on so tightly that he had actually put his talons through the thick leather falconry glove I had on and through the flap of skin between my thumb and fingers. I took the glove off and there was blood halfway down my arm and all the kids freaked out. I had fun though and that's all that counts, right?

My boss got taloned by an eagle a few years back and almost had to have her spleen removed, so I guess it gets worse.

geeze that's horrrible....I have rarely been bitten by mice...the first time I got bit the mouse bit my index finger, I was petting him and about to put him in the feeder tank, guess he knew lol but he bit down on my finger...I reacted of course, the poor guy was flung across the room onto my bed...you may be thinking thank goodness he didn't hit the wall or the window...but my dog was on my bed...poor mouse never saw it coming lol quicker than a snake, weenie dogs lol

I have a pretty calm and good natured colony, every time a mouse bites me they get fed off, once they have their eyes open they are fair game for being culled for biting, I hold them from literally day one so they have no reason to fear me lol unless they bite I haven't been bitten in a few months now so it must be working

hamsters...been bitten by every single one I have ever held...except one lol I decided to hold one a month or so ago at the petstore, friend made me, he was the only hamster to have never bitten me, just the sweetest little guy needless to say I took him home he is great too, never bitten me and never gets cranky, he even lives happily with two mice and they get along just fine...but if he ever does bite me, I won't have mercy lol

Wow Sasheena, that's a heck of a story. But the best part is that I am glad you are doing fine, especially after the surgery. I had been thinking of you and hoping all was OK. I don't breed my own mice. I'm not quite there yet about the little vermons...I admit some are cute in the pics posted here, and I did feel guilty when I used to feed live. But now the pre-packaged "hey-they-were-already-dead" kinda mice are just my kinda mice.

I haven't ever been bitten by my mice or rats, thank goodness! I have had my fair share of bites from other animals, though. Hamsters are typically the most aggressive rodent! I used to have a pair that was really sweet, though. After they died, I've not been able to find any more sweet ones...so now I don't have any!

I have done some work at the wildlife rehabilitation center here. I agree that squirrels are nasty little critters when they reach sexual maturity! I got bit by them plenty of times! Those are not fun bites! I have also been bitten by a turkey vulture. That was one of the most painful bites I've experienced. Vultures bite, twist, and yank the meat off the carrion they are feeding from...that is what the vulture that bit me did! It was horrible! I was lucky with the owls, hawks, etc, and never was gaffed (cut by their razor sharp talons). One of the girls I work with was, however, and it was not a pretty sight!

I am a vet tech so I have had my fair share of bites from dogs and cats, but I've never had a serious one. I've never had one bad enough to need treatment...but I have seen how bad the bites can be (when some co-workers have been bitten).

Originally Posted by CornCrazy

I have also been bitten by a turkey vulture. That was one of the most painful bites I've experienced. Vultures bite, twist, and yank the meat off the carrion they are feeding from...that is what the vulture that bit me did!

We have 2 vultures we've been trying to train for educational programs for 3 years now. They've never bit us, but they always give us the gift of vomiting on us when we pick them up. It's interesting when you consider that they wait til their food is fairly potent to eat it....and then you end up wearing it. That is undoubtedly the WORST thing I have ever smelled in my life...lol