Any doctors in the house? Parrot bite situation?!
Question: I have been bitten by a parrot on Friday.
The wound is healing properly (I have applied the antibiotic treatment to it four hours after the bite), however my nurse friend keeps teeling me scary stories about rabies.
1. How possible is it that I had contracted this desease from a parrot bite, given that the parot has lived at another person's home for a long time, has never bitten anyone, and has been a very good natured children-loving bird, etc.
2. Should I bother getting vaccinated for rabies (given that it's Sunday afternoon and the parrot bit me on Friday night). I wish I could take the animal to the vet to make sure it does not have rabies but this is a parrot of my new employer and I am really concerned about whether I will be able to keep my job after making her test her parrot for the disease.
I don't know if it is important, but I would not call the bird vicious even though it bit me, it was more like it was eating me as it would a tree branch or something.
Answers: I have been bitten by a parrot on Friday.
The wound is healing properly (I have applied the antibiotic treatment to it four hours after the bite), however my nurse friend keeps teeling me scary stories about rabies.
1. How possible is it that I had contracted this desease from a parrot bite, given that the parot has lived at another person's home for a long time, has never bitten anyone, and has been a very good natured children-loving bird, etc.
2. Should I bother getting vaccinated for rabies (given that it's Sunday afternoon and the parrot bit me on Friday night). I wish I could take the animal to the vet to make sure it does not have rabies but this is a parrot of my new employer and I am really concerned about whether I will be able to keep my job after making her test her parrot for the disease.
I don't know if it is important, but I would not call the bird vicious even though it bit me, it was more like it was eating me as it would a tree branch or something.
Your nurse friend doesn't know what she's talking about. Rabies is only transmitted by mammals. Birds neither get, nor transmit rabies. There is no chance of you getting rabies from a bird bite. In addition to the fact that you don't need to worry, the only way to find out if the parrot had rabies (which it can't have) is to euthanize it and examine the brain. Since you've applied antibiotic ointment and the wound is healing well, you will be fine. Rabies shots are painful in the extreme, and as I've stated three times already, absolutely, completely unnecessary.
If it has lived in another persons home for awhile I doubt it has rabies. I could be wrong tho. Just keep an eye on where it was bitten, if you experience any numbness in that area they I would see a doctor.
# 1 Birds can't transmit rabies.
# 2 Have you had any symptoms of nausea/vomiting, high fever?
# 3 If anything you may need a Tetanus shot.
# 4 Unless the wound is deep, painful, still bleeding, etc, I would wait till Monday and get a doctor appt.