Bites are easier to prevent than to treat.
Dog bites will be the example even though all mammal bites can be treated the same – basically. The first concern is to control any bleeding. It is important to know if this was a provoked biting or unprovoked. If you are in someone else’s yard when you do not belong there and the dog bites you this is considered a provoked attack because the animal is doing its job and protecting their territory. If on the other hand you are sitting on a park bench and there is nobody within 20 feet of you and you don’t have any food out and the dog sneaks up on you from behind and bites you it is most likely an UN-provoked attack and is of more concern. In all cases wash out the bite area with a LOT of clean water and use soap too. Dress the wound [s]; Band-Aids come in many sizes from the common small size clear up to 4 x 4 inches.
Find out from the victim and bystanders and the owner if available, how the dog was acting before AND after the incident. If the dog was acting ‘normal’ both before and for 10 days after the bite it is most likely ok to not worry [too much] about rabies. On the other hand if the animal was acting strangely in that it is normally a night time creature such as a skunk and it bit you at high noon in your front yard, it is way more concerning because it is not normal. If the dog is foaming at the mouth when it bites you this is not a good sign. As I type this, the image of Jeff Foxworthy popped into my head with his routine of ‘IF you ______, you might be a Red Neck. YouknowwhatImean,VERN?
In semi normal situations report ALL animal bites to animal control for follow-up. IF the animal can be confined without it biting more people, do so. If you must kill the animal to prevent further attacks DO NOT damage the head as the brain is the part that is inspected / tested for rabies. You may have to get the ‘rabies shots’ which is not fun, I have had them before myself and have given the shots more times than I can remember over the years. This is not something to fool around with. As far as I know there are less than ten people to survive contracting rabies… ever. The last one that I have heard of was in the last ten years in Wisconsin, she had been put into a coma during treatment and the patient has recovered and is now in college. The worst animal bites that I have cared for from an infection point of view are human bites.
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