So I have a bad habit of finding loose dogs and trying to bring them back to their owners. On saturday I found a little Chihuhua roaming without a collar. I picked it up and it was really nice. I remembered my neighbors (who are ghetto and trashy) have chihuhuas and I went up to their door to see if it was there's.
Of course a young child opens the door and their Chihuhuha (too many in my neighborhood) runs out the door and bites me in the leg! I bled a little so it definitely broke the skin.
I asked nicely to see their dogs papers and they showed me that it had all it's shots and especially it's RABIES shot up to date. I called my doctor who said to just wash it and come in if it gets infected.
Now I realize that the chances of getting rabies from ANY dog let alone a fully vaccinated dog is pretty much 0 (the last case of dog rabies in colorado was 1974).
However, i'm a bit of a hypochondriac. The law in Colorado is that I MUST report a dog bite within 12 hours of the bite. They will then watch the dog in quarantine for 10 days to make sure it doesn't go rabid (highly unlikely). Usually this quarantine is at home and a state appointed Vet comes by to check it out over those 10 days.
My problem is that it's my neighbors. And as much as I think they are trashy and yell to much I feel bad. They are always nice to me. I suspect this little dog has bitten someone before. I don't want them to lose the dog but I also don't trust them to watch the dog over the next 10 days on their own to make sure it doesn't start foaming at the mouth or something.
Legally I'm supposed to report the bite. However, I don't really want to piss off my ghetto neighbors.
I think your answer depends a large amount on how likely you think it is that the dog's shots are really up to date. If you trust your neighbors enough to think they're not lying to you, you can probably let this slide and not worry about it too much. Hopefully you put something on the bite pretty quickly, and you won't get any infection or anything.
If you don't trust your neighbors to be honest, you have to weigh the risk of pissing them off for next to nothing and contracting a pretty serious disease.
Also, do you know when your last booster shot was? I think you're going to be in the clear if you've been innoculated recently enough.
I would say that if your doctor isn't too worried, you're pretty safe letting this slide.
Personally I'd let it go, if you weren't seriously injured I wouldn't worry about it. Like you I would hate for someone to lose their pet for something so minor, no matter how scummy I think they are. But more than that I would not want to cause or escalate a feud with my neighbors. I would talk to them directly and let them know how you feel, and that you "could" call on them but have chosen not to, hopefully that will gain you more respect from them.
I actually SAW with my own eyes his Papers saying the Rabies Vaccination on his dogs is good till 2010. I would've thought they were fake (only because I don't trust them) but the receipts dropped out of the envelope (which is the official enveloped). I'm a little less freaked now that I learned that the 10 day quarantine is really "Overdoing it" on the side of safety. Most dogs that can transmit rabies will show major signs within 3-5 days.
The quarantine period is a precaution against the remote possibility that an animal may appear healthy, but actually be sick with rabies. To understand this statement, you have to understand a few things about the pathogenesis of rabies (the way the rabies virus affects the animal it infects). From numerous studies conducted on rabid dogs, cats, and ferrets, we know that rabies virus inoculated into a muscle travels from the site of the inoculation to the brain by moving within nerves. The animal does not appear ill during this time, which is called the incubation period and which may last for weeks to months. A bite by the animal during the incubation period does not carry a risk of rabies because the virus is not in saliva. Only late in the disease, after the virus has reached the brain and multiplied there to cause an encephalitis (or inflammation of the brain), does the virus move from the brain to the salivary glands and saliva. Also at this time, after the virus has multiplied in the brain, almost all animals begin to show the first signs of rabies. Most of these signs are obvious to even an untrained observer, but within a short period of time, usually within 3 to 5 days, the virus has caused enough damage to the brain that the animal begins to show unmistakable signs of rabies. As an added precaution, the quarantine period is lengthened to 10 days.
You're not likely to get rabies, but you can still get pretty messed up. I got bit a few years ago, it ended up getting infected, then got a staph infection on top of that (most likely from the emergency room when I went for the initial infection). It was pretty messed up for a few weeks, swole up like crazy, hurt like hell, and took a few doctor's visits to get everything straightened out. I'd say, just keep an eye on it, make sure your neighbors know that if you have to go to the hospital for it, they're paying the bill, and keep records of anything costs you incur in case you have to go to small claims court or something.
Also, I agree with Metroid. No sense in contacting authorities if this seems like an isolated incident. In my state, I think they put dogs down for one offense like that, and I didn't want dude to lose his dog, so I never gave anyone the owner's name. Plus that's a nice ace to have up your sleeve in case they try to get away with not paying any medical bills.
Art Vandelay wrote:make sure your neighbors know that if you have to go to the hospital for it, they're paying the bill, and keep records of anything costs you incur in case you have to go to small claims court or something.
Good luck with that
acsguitar wrote:The law in Colorado is that I MUST report a dog bite within 12 hours of the bite.
Art Vandelay wrote:make sure your neighbors know that if you have to go to the hospital for it, they're paying the bill, and keep records of anything costs you incur in case you have to go to small claims court or something.
Good luck with that
acsguitar wrote:The law in Colorado is that I MUST report a dog bite within 12 hours of the bite.
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