My Skunk and Rabies Stories
Two friends posted skunk stories on Facebook this summer. My personal/professional skunk story is too long for that, I think, so I'll post it here.
This took place back in Delaware, when my father was living at Catherine's. Catherine had a sort of boarding house/ nursing home, taking people in to her home and taking care of them. She called me and asked me to see some people with medical problems living at her house, when I first opened my practice. She took good care of those people, while planting a huge garden and raising pigs and chickens and distributing food bags and raising children. I had never seen that in the city, but in the country I took care of patients in a number of people's homes. Catherine's was the best, though, and when my father became homeless in Philadelphia, I asked Catherine if she would take him in. My father was a risk; he tended to fall asleep with cigarettes in his hand. He burned a few holes in Catherine's chair and carpets, but she kept close watch on him.
This also took place after I had given up the practice, having found that private practice did not work as a single parent. I had naively thought, when I adopted Diane, that I would take a month off from the practice and three months off from the hospital, and then go back to doing everything: office practice, patients in the hospital, medical call, ICU call, covering for other people, and we would adjust. Didn't work. I looked at Diane 7 months later, at 2 in the morning on the third night that week that I had had to go in, and told her that her mother was not this crazy. I quit the hospital the next day. After a year of office only, I was bored out of my skull, and when I was offered an ER job, I took it. So I was working the emergency room at Nanticoke Memorial Hospital.
Rabies was a problem in Delaware then. This had been made clear to me in my first week in practice, with the story being told of a house on my block with a barn out back. The owner found several dead bats in his yard, so he sent them off to the state lab to be examined for rabies. They were positive. The state came and cleaned out the barn, taking all the bats. They also took the owner's cats, who were in the barn. After a couple days, the man called the lab to find out if the cats had tested positive for rabies. He was told that they hadn't been checked: everything from the barn was cremated. The man explained that the cats had been in and out of the house, and his children played with them, so what should he do? The public health doctor said the father would have to decide whether to give the children the rabies immune globulin and rabies vaccine, which would be six injections over two weeks, since he couldn't tell what the risk was. If they decided not to take the shots, the incubation period could be as long as 60 days (actually it can be longer than that), and there is no known cure if they actually developed rabies.
The man was furious! Delaware is a small state, and it's pretty easy to find out who the officials are and to talk to them. He got the address of the physician who was in charge of the public health department and went to his house. When the doctor was called to the door, the man shook his hand, then pulled his arm up and bit him! He told him he didn't know whether he had rabies or not, but he was going on a two month vacation, and the doctor could decide whether to take the shots or not. It got to court and the judge threw it out!
I had a patient in the office who was bitten by a bat. Fortunately, he managed to kill the bat and it tested negative. A woman gardening, bitten by a raccoon in broad daylight, wasn't so lucky. She had managed to kill the raccoon and it tested positive, so I gave there the shots in my office. I also gave them to a Boy Scout, who was hiking with his pack, when a skunk came out of the woods and bit him on the foot through his sneaker. Fortunately he didn't get sprayed. Unfortunately, he had to get the shots. Skunks usually spray, they don't usually bite. Problems I never thought about in my city life!
Catherine had some trailers out back for the more independent of her residents. They fixed their own breakfast in the trailer, and got on the bus to go to the senior center for the day. Clark, a fairly independent old guy, was sitting outside the trailer one night when a skunk came out of a ditch, bit him on the foot, sprayed him and ran off. Clark didn't know what to do, so he went to bed. In the morning, wearing the same clothes, he got on the bus for the senior center. The bus driving delivered him there as quickly as possible, reeking of skunk, and walked him in to explain. The director of the center immediately walked him out, and down the half block to the fire hall. Unfortunately, it was a volunteer fire department, so no one was there. They came back to the senior center and called Catherine. By then, she had been in the trailer, so she knew about the skunk. Catherine suggested that they call me in the ER.
So they did. I told them to call 911, that the emergency service would have to deal with it, that they would strip him and bag his clothes, wrap him in a sheet and bring him down to me. And that is what they did. So I cleaned the wound and injected rabies immune globulin into the top of his foot, all around the bite wound. I gave him the first of the 5 rabies vaccine shots he would get, and I trashed his clothes.
He still stunk of skunk. Everyone seems to know that the best thing to get rid of the odor is tomato juice, lots of tomato juice. So when we knew he was coming we called the kitchen to ask for two gallons of tomato juice. What I forgot about was the reality of the modern hospital kitchen. They sent me two gallons of tomato juice, in 6 ounce cans! 64 six ounce cans! Fortunately, I had a great orderly who took Clark into the shower, popped the tops on 64 little tiny cans and showered Clark with the tomato juice! Followed by a soap and water shower, of course. It really does get rid of the pervasive odor of skunk! We dressed Clark in a set of OR scrubs and Catherine came to pick him up. She would also bring him back to the ER for his four more rabies shots.
Which is why, for Regina, whose dog was sprayed by the skunk and went and laid on the furniture, I was less than helpful. There are just some things that can't be cleaned with tomato juice.
This took place back in Delaware, when my father was living at Catherine's. Catherine had a sort of boarding house/ nursing home, taking people in to her home and taking care of them. She called me and asked me to see some people with medical problems living at her house, when I first opened my practice. She took good care of those people, while planting a huge garden and raising pigs and chickens and distributing food bags and raising children. I had never seen that in the city, but in the country I took care of patients in a number of people's homes. Catherine's was the best, though, and when my father became homeless in Philadelphia, I asked Catherine if she would take him in. My father was a risk; he tended to fall asleep with cigarettes in his hand. He burned a few holes in Catherine's chair and carpets, but she kept close watch on him.
This also took place after I had given up the practice, having found that private practice did not work as a single parent. I had naively thought, when I adopted Diane, that I would take a month off from the practice and three months off from the hospital, and then go back to doing everything: office practice, patients in the hospital, medical call, ICU call, covering for other people, and we would adjust. Didn't work. I looked at Diane 7 months later, at 2 in the morning on the third night that week that I had had to go in, and told her that her mother was not this crazy. I quit the hospital the next day. After a year of office only, I was bored out of my skull, and when I was offered an ER job, I took it. So I was working the emergency room at Nanticoke Memorial Hospital.
Rabies was a problem in Delaware then. This had been made clear to me in my first week in practice, with the story being told of a house on my block with a barn out back. The owner found several dead bats in his yard, so he sent them off to the state lab to be examined for rabies. They were positive. The state came and cleaned out the barn, taking all the bats. They also took the owner's cats, who were in the barn. After a couple days, the man called the lab to find out if the cats had tested positive for rabies. He was told that they hadn't been checked: everything from the barn was cremated. The man explained that the cats had been in and out of the house, and his children played with them, so what should he do? The public health doctor said the father would have to decide whether to give the children the rabies immune globulin and rabies vaccine, which would be six injections over two weeks, since he couldn't tell what the risk was. If they decided not to take the shots, the incubation period could be as long as 60 days (actually it can be longer than that), and there is no known cure if they actually developed rabies.
The man was furious! Delaware is a small state, and it's pretty easy to find out who the officials are and to talk to them. He got the address of the physician who was in charge of the public health department and went to his house. When the doctor was called to the door, the man shook his hand, then pulled his arm up and bit him! He told him he didn't know whether he had rabies or not, but he was going on a two month vacation, and the doctor could decide whether to take the shots or not. It got to court and the judge threw it out!
I had a patient in the office who was bitten by a bat. Fortunately, he managed to kill the bat and it tested negative. A woman gardening, bitten by a raccoon in broad daylight, wasn't so lucky. She had managed to kill the raccoon and it tested positive, so I gave there the shots in my office. I also gave them to a Boy Scout, who was hiking with his pack, when a skunk came out of the woods and bit him on the foot through his sneaker. Fortunately he didn't get sprayed. Unfortunately, he had to get the shots. Skunks usually spray, they don't usually bite. Problems I never thought about in my city life!
Catherine had some trailers out back for the more independent of her residents. They fixed their own breakfast in the trailer, and got on the bus to go to the senior center for the day. Clark, a fairly independent old guy, was sitting outside the trailer one night when a skunk came out of a ditch, bit him on the foot, sprayed him and ran off. Clark didn't know what to do, so he went to bed. In the morning, wearing the same clothes, he got on the bus for the senior center. The bus driving delivered him there as quickly as possible, reeking of skunk, and walked him in to explain. The director of the center immediately walked him out, and down the half block to the fire hall. Unfortunately, it was a volunteer fire department, so no one was there. They came back to the senior center and called Catherine. By then, she had been in the trailer, so she knew about the skunk. Catherine suggested that they call me in the ER.
So they did. I told them to call 911, that the emergency service would have to deal with it, that they would strip him and bag his clothes, wrap him in a sheet and bring him down to me. And that is what they did. So I cleaned the wound and injected rabies immune globulin into the top of his foot, all around the bite wound. I gave him the first of the 5 rabies vaccine shots he would get, and I trashed his clothes.
He still stunk of skunk. Everyone seems to know that the best thing to get rid of the odor is tomato juice, lots of tomato juice. So when we knew he was coming we called the kitchen to ask for two gallons of tomato juice. What I forgot about was the reality of the modern hospital kitchen. They sent me two gallons of tomato juice, in 6 ounce cans! 64 six ounce cans! Fortunately, I had a great orderly who took Clark into the shower, popped the tops on 64 little tiny cans and showered Clark with the tomato juice! Followed by a soap and water shower, of course. It really does get rid of the pervasive odor of skunk! We dressed Clark in a set of OR scrubs and Catherine came to pick him up. She would also bring him back to the ER for his four more rabies shots.
Which is why, for Regina, whose dog was sprayed by the skunk and went and laid on the furniture, I was less than helpful. There are just some things that can't be cleaned with tomato juice.
We had a huge skunk population at Tyndall AFB in Florida. I don’t know why I never got skunked outside at night trying to coax the wrong animal in (here kitty kitty!). But the dog got it twice.
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