Yesterday, I had the unfortunate experience of getting bit by a dog. I walked into a neighbor's yard and noticed an ugly, white dog. More importantly, I noticed he was on a chain so I backed up a little and started going around him. His chain was longer that I thought, and he got me before I could retreat out of range. While I do have a nasty gash (probably 3/4" long and 1/2" deep) on the inside of my right knee and some photo worthy bruising, I actually feel really fortunate. Of course the bite could have been way worse, but more importantly, the dog belongs to someone we know and wasn't just a street dog, so I know it's vaccination history. I found out today that in spite of its many other shortcomings, the Honduran public health department is very diligent about rounding up dogs and vaccinating for rabies, so it never gets to be a problem in the dog population.
They don't generally stitch up bites, since they are so prone to infection, but today, I got some antibiotics to hopefully ward off any infection and a tetanus shot, since my previous one was 6 years ago. At this point the injection site from the tetanus shot is far more painful than the bite!
No comments:
Post a Comment