Well, what was just supposed to be a lazy Sunday morning got rather crazy. I was sitting at the desk reading the comics on-line as I do everyday when the dogs started raising a ruckus. I let them out, its usually about the birds, or occasionally there might be a squirrel to chase. They might tree a squirrel, but Spaatz doesn't understand he's not a bird dog. Today they ran out way into the backyard as usual but there was a pretty good size critter in the thicket on the edge of the property. It looked like a big rat. Foozer hadn't run as far and was doing some business by a birdhouse in the neighboring field. That's when the critter picked the poor timing to come out. Fooze spotted him and sent out the alarm, the critter ran back into the thicket, Spaatz came a running and then Miss Peaches and it as getting really crazy in the thicket and I ran to get my husband and I told him the dogs had what I thought was a big rat in the thicket cornered. He grabbed the pellet gun and went out. I turned the stove off. The 3 dogs had what Jerry said was a muskrat cornered in this heavy vined brush. Fortunately no leaves. It was a very tense situation, barking, yelping, I suppose the muskrat may have been crying out too. Jerry was able to get a pellet off, it wounded him, but the Peach wanted to finish him off and the melee' continued. The 2nd shot finished him, Peaches made sure he was done. We managed to get them to stand down now, Jerry grabbed the body and I got the dogs inside. I wanted to wash Peach immediately as she had what I thought was muskrat blood on her face.( I've had to do this task with Watson), unfortunately she didn't stay where I left her and proceeded to go in my room and get blood on the couch and on some pillows.Then my daughter called, I wanted to talk to her, but this was a really bad time and I would call back. I then got Peaches in the shower and her feet were all muddy, but the blood on her face wouldn't stop. That's when I realized she was wounded. Big puncture in her snout. We washed her with antibacterial soap and doused it with peroxide. Later when she was dry and calmed down Jerry put some ointment on it. We're not worried about rabies, they all had their shots this past fall, but some other infection. Plan to keep close eye on it, may call vet Monday. Realize later that Spaatz also had bite in his face too, there wasn't any blood although it was kinda deep. He really doesn't seem bothered by it. Peachy has it a little worse, some swelling. So they had their excitement for the day, and after the mess was cleaned up we had breakfast.
Still at least call your vet to check on the shots! I don't know the protocol for dogs, but humans get a rabies shot after being bitten whether or not they've had a prior vaccination. The booster after being exposed raises the chance of protection from something in the neighborhood of 97% to 99.9% effectiveness. There's also the chance of secondary bacterial infection of an open wound, whether or not you've cleaned it properly.
ReplyDeleteAgain, just call with your vet to check in all the same.