[Vkowefek]

Kid thought it a good idea to reach for small Opossum at night.
guess it wasn't, we bled it pretty good in an effort to get anything not good out.
today called my kids doc office, they said to go to emergency.
called hospital, they said non emergency and even if I bring him to ER they won't know how to treat opossum bite. I asked about rabies and she again said they wouldn't know how to treat it
called 911, they had no clue said to call hospital or DNR when I explained what hospital said.
called DNR, transferred to another office, left message.
called fire department but the number was disconnected.
Had him drink more herbal tea and silver.
His thumb looks okay, a little numb where nerves were bit by tendon.
WTF?

[MwhwF6bp]

I was once bit by a stray cat and the public health people wanted me to take series of rabies shots, I refused but what I ended up doing was washing the wound every day with clorox bleach(no insurance) and everything worked out okay. It did take some time though..

Wishing you all the best..

[tropicana]

As I understand it rabies, once diagnosed, is too far progressed to treat.

In order to diagnose early the head of the animal must be preserved and then inspected medically.

If the head of the animal is unavailable and there is concern that it may have had rabies then proceed with treatment (which sucks ever living balls) for rabies now.

Other than being bitten is there any reason to suspect the animal was rabid?

[BalaGire]

In general they present a far lower health risk to humans than do dogs and cats! They seem to have a naturally high level of immunity to most diseases. Example? Opossums are more resistant to rabies than any other mammal; cattle, goats, dogs, cats, sheep, and the ice cream man are far more susceptible to rabies!

http://www.opossum.org/

[Helloheshess]

Apparently, rabies is extremely rare in oppossums, so not a concern. I would beconcerned about a wound infection, whcih can be very serious. You should continue using topical colloidal silver on the wound and keep it clean, dry and lightly covered with gauze so the air can get to it. You should check the bite frequently, at minimum 6 times in 24 hours. Arm should be kept elevated above the heart to encourage fluid mobilization. If any of the following signs/symptoms appear, immediately go the ER to have would cultured and treated with broad spectrum antibiotic:

1. development of fever
2. increasing redness around bite
3. painful tender skin developing around bite
4. red streaks running up skin of arm from bite
5. enlarged lymph glands at the elbow joint or the armpit.

[makemoneyonli]

According to wikipedia, about 1/800 opossums carries rabies, probably you run a greater risk with the rabies vaccine than just doing nothing, but what do I know!

[Vkowefek]

Thanks, like mentioned we bled it pretty good and there is no infection. Swelling went down a lot too. After it bit him it wouldn't let go so he shook it off which I think caused a worse wound than the bite itself. I would guess within 2 minutes he came to me and I started squeezing it to bleed out, and it did quite a bit with the pressure. No redness besides the already healed looking hole where it tore open a bit. Treating the surface has long passed, he was bitten about 2am Saturday. I would persue more aggresivly but this kid has ITP and I am afraid treating can jack him up pretty good.

opossums are marsupials and not mammals which reduces the risk a bunch. I am just shocked that treatment for rabies is so rare in this area that nobody has a clue how to treat it. And yes once you get the antibodies your pretty fvcked. Looking around a bit when I can (internet been virtually dead since friday night) looks to be 3 or 4 vaccines and IgG in most rabies treatments. Since the med industry has no clue about viruses i am surprised they can do a thing about this. Any question that it costs a ton of money to treat? I am waiting for a reply from a retired RN in regards to non existent treatment around here.

Edit: thanks again and I will be checking in as often as I can.

[hechicxxrr]

It's just a flesh wound...