Animal bites

Started by KiaKia
Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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KiaKia

KiaKia

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So, as folks who spend a lot of time with animals...what are your worse animal bites/injuries?

Today I got bitten by a 150 potbellied pig named Jack. Jack doesn't like me, and thanks to him I got blood all over my clothes, a swollen knee, and 1 stitch.

Sad thing is, I really wanted Jack to like me.
 
I was bitten by a cat who flew off the table at me when he was getting sedated. What are the chances of me getting bitten when I wasn't even dealing with the cat? Because cat bites are so nasty my hand was swollen for awhile and it didn't look so pretty. I have a nice scar as a reminder (it looks like I was bitten by a vampire haha).

When I was little I tried to save a squirrel from the jaws of my cat. I got bitten and blood was squirting everywhere...that also sucked. They had to send in the squirrel to see if it had rabies. Thank goodness it didn't
 
I was checking to see if my horse needed her teeth floated and all of a sudden she crunched down on my index finger... she about took the side of my finger off and I almost fainted- although I can stand seeing gruesome animal surgeries and wounds, I can't stand the sight of my own bloody injuries :scared:
 
i got bitten in the butt by a kai ken. that pretty much sucked. i learned not to turn my back on a dog though, important lesson.
 
No Imagination said:
I always wondered, who pays for that (the testing?) The department of health cover it, or where you billed?
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I would assume that the CDC would cover the cost, but what do I know lol

Editing to add to what the actual post is about...I've only had two bites in my 3 years of teching. Once by a chihuahua and once by a min pin. The Chihuahua wasn't too bad, I just excused myself from the room for a moment, cleaned and bandaged myself, and came back in. The doctor and client didn't even know that the dog got me until I came back in with my finger all wrapped up. The min pin was ridiculous, one of those cage aggressive dogs, so I was trying to take it for a walk, and it lunged out and bit through my fingernail on my thumb. Luckily, since the dog had actually punched a hole through the nail I didn't have to drill one for drainage. That f'er didn't want to stop bleeding though. All-in-all, I think I've been pretty lucky though, nothing too crazy.

I do know someone who worked at the zoo I used to work at who was bit by a leopard (had to be lifeflighted to the hospital because she went into shock or something) on the hand and by an alligator on the leg I believe. Glad I don't have her luck
 
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I got bitten on my calf by a horse a LONG time ago. Like, right where the outside of your calf muscle bulges. He basically picked me up, and I couldn't walk for 3 days.

Last year I got bitten twice in two weeks by cats, and again this fall by another cat. All three times involved massive abx and swelling - once I had to fly the next day, and my thumb was so swollen it felt like it was going to EXPLODE.
 
you name it, I think I've been bitten by it lol.

Dogs x4, cats x100,000, guinea pig x1, goat x2 (same goat--nasty SOB!) , horse x3 (one on my thigh, once on my hand, once on my shoulder), alpaca x1 (thank god for baggy jackets, he only got a little taste of me!), one cow (right on the butt-- ouch! that hamburger sure tasted good the next year!)

I think out of all those the worst was a bulldog who was basically going into cardiac arrest after anesthesia. I wasn't teching, but ran over to help. We had to reintubate her, so I was attemping to hold her mouth open as she woke up, and yeah, almost lost a couple fingers before the propoflo kicked in. It was pretty bloody.

I swear, most of these critters just like the way I taste. Oh, and there was the sheep and the mini horse that liked to eat my hair when I wasn't paying attention. I think I had a bald spot in the back for a while.
 
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I think I've been luckiest out of anyone I know. When someone else has been trying to get them from trap to cage, I've had feral cats escape and then use my entire body as a climbing/vaulting ramp multiple times (which has left some neat scratch patterns on my back...). Never seen them climb anyone else, and never had much of an escape happen when it's just me netting/transferring or doing anything with them. But the moment I'm in the room when someone else is trying to handle one, it's free and climbing all over me.
 
I was bit by a dog when I was a baby... don't remember it!

Worst bite I received was from my friend's spiny mouse. She didn't socialize with them enough and when I went to pick him up, he hauled off and bit my middle finger.

That's my worst!
 
scarcelyheard said:
I was bit by a dog when I was a baby... don't remember it!

Worst bite I received was from my friend's spiny mouse. She didn't socialize with them enough and when I went to pick him up, he hauled off and bit my middle finger.

That's my worst!
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Yeah I got bitten by my hamsters a lot (well just one of them...he was a jerk) and those hurt a lot more than my cat and squirrel bites even though those did way more damage
 
I think the one I was most angry about was getting bitten by a yearling filly. I wasn't doing anything to her too! Just bent down to grab her empty grain bucket (which was outside her stall) and she leaned over the stall door and crunch! Big bite out of my backside!

Never turned my back on that horse again, in or out of a stall😛
 
I get bitten by German shepherds every week, but somehow, I don't think that counts in the spirit of this thread.

I've only been bitten once at work. We had a maltese come in that had been lost for a few weeks, hit by a car at some point, and his eyes and butt were full of maggots. I was restraining him while the vet looked at him, and she touched a sensitive spot, so he bit me. The bite wasn't so bad, but I was so grossed out that maggot butt dog had bit me.

When I had pet rats, I learned the hard way why you never feed them through the bars of the cage - soon they'll expect that anything near the bars is food, and bite it. I went to scratch my male rat's tummy, and he bit through my fingernail. That bled forever and hurt like crazy.
 
I got bit by a woodchuck in the ankle in 5th grade during recess = got all my rabies shots when I was in 5th grade..I think it was around 20 of them total..
 
I think my second week on the job as a tech I was holding a cat in the exam room and the doctor decided to check its anal glands without warning me to hold on a little tighter. Needless to say, the cat freaked out and turned around and bit me right below my thumb on my hand. I was lucky I pulled my hand away pretty quickly so it was less of a puncture wound and more of a really bad scrape, but I still had to take antibiotics.

One woman I work with had a cat latch on to her lip and she ended up having to have plastic surgery to repair the damage. Ohhh cats...
 
cowgirla said:
That totally made me laugh! Maggots are nasty. I can handle all sorts of gross surgeries and stuff, but maggots = blech.

I feel all itchy and crawly and yucky. the worst I saw was a HBC cat that had maggots in its eyes and nose and mouth. I almost hurled.
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Same with fleas for me ewww
 
luplodw said:
Same with fleas for me ewww
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Uuuuugh I know. When we get strays in that have fleas literally jumping around on the table I want to go home and shower and burn my scrubs!
We also had a litter of absolutely craptastic South African Boerbols (hahahahaha) from a local breeder who ALL had Demodex. Bad. They'd come in with open sores, completely lost all their hair, UGH it was awful. After restraining one of them you feel like you're covered in Demodex AND nasty oozing blood from their open sores and scabs. Barf.
 
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My worst bite: I was 12 and helping my mom take a feral cat to the vet to be neutered. The cat got loose, ran amuck throughout the clinic (they didn't have ANY doors separating the exam room from the treatment and sx areas), I cornered the cat, he launched himself at me, and I ended up with a 10 lb cat hanging off of my thumb pad and palm while I tried to shake him off. Went to the idiot MD who pronounced it a "superficial wound" and only prescribed antibiotics at the insistance of my mom.

Getting bitten by a pig sounds like it would hurt like heck!
 
A Pit Bull had bitten someone and taken to Animal Control to be monitored for rabies for the mandatory 10 day period. Then his owner brought him into the clinic I worked at to get the rabies vaccine that he was wayy past due on. Nobody told me the dog was very aggressive so when he came in I pet him (he was friendly then) and talked to the owner about the vaccine and took him to get weighed. I put him on the scale and he just went nuts on me-he bit both of my hands...his owner came back and basically just watched his dog go to town on me.

I went to the emergeny room for 18 stitched-had to go through occupational therapy-over a year now and I still get pains in my fingers.

Come to find out the owner just chained the dog up outside and didn't give it much attention-and they had children at home!! 😱 ohhh crappy dog owners.

Oh and we had a pig come in one time...they squeal so loud you can't even think!! I was trying to restrain one and I kept thinking of his giant piggy chompers going through my hand. Ha...Luckly he didn't bite...just screamed a lot!
 
Whyevernot55 said:
Uuuuugh I know. When we get strays in that have fleas literally jumping around on the table I want to go home and shower and burn my scrubs!
We also had a litter of absolutely craptastic South African Boerbols (hahahahaha) from a local breeder who ALL had Demodex. Bad. They'd come in with open sores, completely lost all their hair, UGH it was awful. After restraining one of them you feel like you're covered in Demodex AND nasty oozing blood from their open sores and scabs. Barf.
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ugh I hate mange. we have an adorable perfect bull terrier at my shelter that's been quarantined with sarcoptic mange for a few weeks now. I suit up in gloves and full plastic wear to pet her and socialize her sometimes-- I just love her so much-- however everytime I get out I want to douse myself in bleach.
 
We had a huge pitbull come into the hospital one day that had been hit by a car. We put it up on the table and everything was fine until the owner left. The dog starting struggling and tried to jump off the table, I (clearly not thinking) tried to push it back onto the table and it turned and bit me right in the face! Luckily it was very drugged and had bad aim, i just got puncture wounds. But one canine was maybe 1/2 an inch from eye. Totally freaked me out and now I am much more cautious.
 
I was at my high school job (at a flower shop), when a guy came in with his dog. Everyone went to go pet it, and it was fine, but when I went it lunched at me and took off pieces of my nose. 12 stitches by a plastic surgeon to reconstruct it correctly, but now I only have a bit of scarring
 
one of my friends who's a tech got half of her bottom lip ripped off by an akita a few weeks ago. the dog got shot in the face during a home invasion, and was super great for everything (surgery, rads, iv catheter placement, etc)...when he came back in a week later for some follow up, she was trying to draw some blood, and he gave no warning growls or body language, just snapped at her face and took off half of the bottom lip. she went to the ER and one of her co-workers found the other half of her lip on the floor, covered in dog hair. they cleaned it up and rushed it (on ice) to the hospital, but the graft didn't take so they removed it. she's already had a few plastic surgeries and is in for a bunch more before she'll look even halfway normal again =\
 
I've been bitten by dogs/cats/horses/ferrets... but have never really had a *bad* bite. *knocks on wood* I have a few scars but I scar easily so they look worse than they were.

Now kicks... that's a far different story 😛
 
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all yall who get bit by cats should immediately start antibiotics (although I am sure you know this). cat bites are the worst of any bite and can easily get severely infected. every time i've been bitten by a cat i've been scripted out doxy (i'm allergic to penicillin). be careful!
 
3Ms said:
all yall who get bit by cats should immediately start antibiotics (although I am sure you know this). cat bites are the worst of any bite and can easily get severely infected. every time i've been bitten by a cat i've been scripted out doxy (i'm allergic to penicillin). be careful!
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Heck, I don't even think my pharmacist LOOKS at my scripts anymore...he knows what I'm there for! They should just let me buy amoxi by the 500ct bottle, I go through so much of it.
 
MSUspartan said:
one of my friends who's a tech got half of her bottom lip ripped off by an akita a few weeks ago. the dog got shot in the face during a home invasion, and was super great for everything (surgery, rads, iv catheter placement, etc)...when he came back in a week later for some follow up, she was trying to draw some blood, and he gave no warning growls or body language, just snapped at her face and took off half of the bottom lip. she went to the ER and one of her co-workers found the other half of her lip on the floor, covered in dog hair. they cleaned it up and rushed it (on ice) to the hospital, but the graft didn't take so they removed it. she's already had a few plastic surgeries and is in for a bunch more before she'll look even halfway normal again =\
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Poor girl 🙁

A bad horse broke my arm as a kid. That hurt. I opened the stall to drop in some hay and he lunged and grabbed me and flung me across the stall. It was winter in Illinois so I was layered in coats. If I hadn't been, it would have been worse. Gross little qh!
 
I was bit by a 2-year-old colt at the track -- I turned to reach for a bucket and he bit my thigh. He tore my jeans (which probably saved my flesh) and gave me the ugliest, most colorful and most painful bruise I have ever had.

I guess I've been pretty lucky -- considering some of your stories!
 
Wow, I've been really lucky too. I've been bitten by a rabbit and my goats when they were chewing on my fingers and I let them get too far in. I got bit by a horse in the hand when I was too young to remember. I almost got bit by a dog we used to have that was food agressive for some reason but I jumped back quick enough that he only got my shirt. My parents got rid of him a bit after that. I never got anything really bad though.
 
I have been bitten by countless different animals from large birds like ostriches and green wing macaws to various fish, reptiles, small mammals, and large mammals. For the most part I don't really keep a tally but there are a few that are memorable due to latent pain and/or scars.

The one that I think still hurts sometimes is from when I had a 6 foot snake bite my hand; it felt like it hit the bone. The snake had escaped the cage while another handler had been cleaning it and I went to pick him up normally ie just my hand; big mistake since he was 'scared' so he struck my hand. Although, I had a great Macgiver moment where I quickly fashioned a snake hook from part of a light assembly and got him back in the enclosure.

The second one that I remember distinctly is a young green wing macaw (who we were socializing and letting stay on top of a play station while we cleaned other cages) climbed over to the side and took a chunk out of me just below my clavicle. Oddly enough one of my friends ended up with him as a pet and she says he still says 'NO!' like me. 🙂
 
In 4 years of teching I have only been biten once so I consider myself very lucky. I was bit by a cat on my middle finger. It bit down on the fingernail and on the middle knuckle of my finger. It instantly swelled and turned red. I was on antibiotics for 2 weeks for that one little bite.
 
Having a large parrot clamped onto my finger with her nut-crushing beak was easily the most painful of the (admittedly few) bites I've had.
 
I've had lots and lots of cat bites, most memorable was probably the cat that flew out of the kennel at me when I was (ironically) trying to give it a dose of oral Amoxi. It clamped on to my wrist and then let go, somehow managing to scratch my leg to bits on the way down, then proceeded to go tearing through the clinic and hide behind the dryer. Of course I was the only one in the clinic at the time, so I'm bleeding everywhere and trying to extract this cat from behind the dryer so I can somehow get it back in the kennel. And then I got to go on Amoxi myself for two weeks after that!
As for horse bites, I had a very old, very cranky arab reach her head around and bite me in a rather sensitive area in the chest region (if you know what I mean) while I was trying to tighten her girth. Not an experience I'd like to repeat!
 
I got bit by a Golden Retriever when I was in 4th grade in a place no male wants to get bitten. I think he was a little rambunctious at the time. Left some teeth marks, but didn't break the skin too bad. If I had been wearing jeans instead of sweat pant (big time fashion in 1984), I probably would have come out better. Definitely improved my reflexes though.
 
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Plenty of cat bites and scratches, guinea pig/hamster/rat/rabbit bites, and one nasty chomp on the hand from a horse (that one really hurt). The only dog bite I've ever received was actually a close call - got bitten right on the face by a German Shepherd at work. His upper teeth cut my forehead and the lower teeth cut my chin. I was lucky it wasn't any worse!
 
I've been bitten twice now, first was by a cocker spaniel that took a nice slice out of my palm. It wasn't too bad though, was sore for a day or two and the bite itself didn't actually hurt.

Just a couple weeks ago I got bit by this cat. My first cat bite. it was a massive maine coon and it put its canine straight through my thumb. That was no fun at all, I pretty much thought I had died :laugh:, but I got off work for a few hours 😀.
 
I've been scratched way more than I've been bit, but I've had my fair share of both. A dog kicked me in the face and tore my eyelid open. I had to get 8 stitches in my eyelid for that one. I also have numerous scars on my arms from rabbit scratches (worked for a rabbit specialist). Lots of misc cat scratches... When I worked in an animal shelter someone turned the vacuum on while I was moving a cat to a new cage and it bit through my finger nail. Its teeth actually met inside my finger 😱. Similar bite, minus the finger nail, from my gerbil when breaking up a fight. Several bites from an unsocialized parakeet I adopted and my cage aggressive rabbit... As of yet I have not been bitten by a dog (at least not that has broken the skin) and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible.

EDTA: The bobcat in my picture came pretty close, but I miraculously managed to wrangle it with a blanket and avoid being mauled. My luckiest day. I have also been smashed against many things by horses, but I have evaded the kicks and bites thrown my way so far. I'm sure that luck will only last so long.
 
Nothing bad for me so far, but I look forward to what the future holds. I've spent most of my time in a lab or at a not-too-busy small animal clinic, so yep. Wildlife sounds like the place to be for bites! Understandably so.

I have lots of cat scratches though, both from work and personal life (in my younger years). And I suppose I've been bitten by 3 rottweilers (why did all my elementary friends have rotties?) and a mutt. The rots were on my leg, then arm, then side (ouch) and the mutt was on the butt. As I turned away. Nice.

None at work though.

I know someone that burned themselves with a steam vac at their clinic. By far the worst wound in the 5 years they worked there. Hah.
 
ponio said:
EDTA: The bobcat in my picture came pretty close, but I miraculously managed to wrangle it with a blanket and avoid being mauled. My luckiest day.
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When I was working wildlife rehab we had an adult bobcat come in that was 9 lbs! IOW, severely underweight. We had to give her subq fluids four times a day...let's just say that even though she was really sick, she was really feisty. She never bit me but her claws ripped on my legs a couple of times.

The only animal I've been bitten by is a tenrec. Anybody? When they bite, they lock their jaws and it is a bitch to get them off.
 
i got attacked by a turkey over the summer. we were at a farm doing routine stuff on some cattle. i went back to the van to get something and the turkey ambushed me. it seemed like he was trying to jump on my back and then settled for biting (is that the correct word for something with a beak?) the backs of my knees. i had to kick him away with my other foot and he tried to come after me again. i ran back to the barn like a sissy. i had nasty pinch marks on the back of my legs. my vet thought it was hilarious. next time we went to the farm she gave me the long handled boot scrub brush to use as a defense weapon.
 
I count myself lucky that I've never been bitten by any of the dogs or horses I've seen while working with vets. I've only been bitten by cats...at the shelter where I volunteer and once (the worst) by a cat I was cat-sitting. The usually sweet cat escaped and I chased it outside into the yard. It ran under a bush and I wanted to flush it out so I could scoop it up safely, but he just went further under the bush. The next best alternative was to grab him by the scruff of the neck, but I couldn't quite reach.

At that point, I was so afraid that he would run away and I'd never find him again, so I did the only thing I could. I grabbed him by the tail and PULLED. Oh man, he was so mad at me. He turned and bit me so hard. And did I mention he was a big cat with the hugest fangs I've ever seen on a cat? Yeah. It was like getting chomped on by a rattlesnake or something. Ouch.

But I will say that I'd much rather get bitten by a cat that leaves sharp little puncture wounds instead of a horse or dog who seem to leave bruises, torn lips (eeeek!), and ripping wounds instead of just punctures. After being bitten by snake-kitty, I would rather go through that again than take on a mean dog.
 
Puncture wounds are far more dangerous than a nice ripping wound. Easy to clean out the big gaping ones. With a puncture, the microbes get jammed way down into the wound and it's hard to flush them out. That's how gangrene works - no oxygen allows anerobic bacteria to fester.
 
Luckily I don't have any really bad bites But probably the dumbest thing was when I passed out when I was holding onto a foal who was getting pennicilln. Little guy was being great, but it was stuffy and hot in the stall and somebody hadn't had any water all day, so I tried to hand off the lead rope, failed, and face planted in the shavings. I stil don't know how I didn't get stepped on
 
Oddly enough, all of my animal-related injuries have been off the job, most of them when I was fairly young.

My best bite story comes from a gerbil I had when I was about 10. I was next door showing him to some of the neighbor kids, and I held him up to my face to "talk" to him. He chose that moment to latch onto the very tip of my nose. I actually ran home with the little bastard still hanging from the end of my nose - my parents were laughing so hard they wouldn't even help me get him off. :annoyed:

I also have a good-sized scar on my cheek from when 8-year-old me tried to befriend a black cat.

I never claimed I was a smart child.
 
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