Small bite from pet rat, how serious

[dazwalsh]

So my OH is looking after her stupid friend's pet rats whilst they are on holiday. Clean healthy and well cared for rats i must add.

My 2 yr old has just wandered over to cage and one of then has bitten him on end of finger.

It pierced the skin very slightly and he stopped crying after 30 seconds.

Of course a Google search brings up all sorts of possible outcomes, including death.

How worried ahould I be? And how do I monitor it over the next few hours? Or should I just head down to A+E for a tetanus jab for him just to make sure?

I would rather not head to A+E, purely because its Bradford royal infirmary, about the worst sthole of a place imaginable.

[dazwalsh]

Never mind, 111 said to bring him to A+E, urgghh better to be safe than sorry I suppose

[dazwalsh]

CoolHands said:

A fun Friday night!

Sat in waiting area now, half full of people coughing and crying, the other half with a police officer sat next to some pisshead/nutjob.

Oh the joys...

[dazwalsh]

I think more precaution than anything they gave him a course of antibiotics, so that was the outcome, was glad to get to bed that night.

[dazwalsh]

Boosted LS1 said:

How's the rat? ;-)

They have gone back to their owner now thankfully, we just looked after them whilst she was on holiday. Was a bit dubious at first but they are quite active cute little things.

[dazwalsh]

Nightmare said:

yeah I would very rarely totally decry something on here - but there is absolutely zero evidence for that at all; and given the turnover in the human gut beyond unlikely.

Health scaremongering is a real problem in this country. Do make sure you do the whole course of antibiotics though......

Yeah to be honest I almost didnt give him the antibiotics because hes had a few doses of them in the past for all the random infections they bring back from nursery but started him on them the morning after just to make sure, I bet there is the odd story of sepsis and death out there so just be on on the safe side, I am his health and safety officer...I mean parent after all.