Babbling About.... Rabies Math And A Chihuahua With a Tin-Man Ear

A quiet walk should not end with blood on white fur, a puncture wound in my leg, and me doing rabies immune globulin math on my phone, but that’s exactly where my week went. I’m telling the full story of what happened when my chihuahua, Kricket, ran up to my neighbor’s porch, a cat hissed, and everything escalated in seconds. If you’ve ever had a pet emergency, you already know how your brain goes straight to worst-case scenarios.

We unpack the play-by-play of the attack and the immediate triage decisions: getting Kricket away, finding the source of the bleeding, and figuring out whether we needed an emergency vet. You’ll hear what the veterinarian found when they sedated her, why exposed cartilage matters in a dog ear laceration, and what aftercare actually looks like when stitches get itchy and your dog wants to scratch, rub, and paw at everything. There’s also a surprisingly smart trick from the clinic that helps you tell if your pet is messing with their wound while you sleep.

Then we get into the human side of animal bites, because cat bites are not “no big deal.” I talk about infection risk, why antibiotics often become necessary,  and how the 10-day rabies observation rule works when an animal’s rabies vaccine is expired by just a month. It’s practical, a little nerdy, and very real if you’re trying to decide what to do after a bite without spiraling.

If this story helps you feel more prepared or just gives you a laugh, please subscribe, share it with a fellow pet parent, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s the scariest pet moment you’ve ever had, and what did you learn from it?

Transcript

Welcome Back And What Went Down

Johnna 0:00

What is up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of the Babbles Nonsense podcast. This week you're getting to hear all about my chaotic last week. So if you're into that, it's going to be involved with cat bites, dog attacks, your pet having surgery, all the things. So stay tuned.

Meet Cricket The Friendly Chihuahua

Johnna 0:46

All right, guys. Welcome back to the podcast. So I had every intention of doing like a follow-up on everything last week with like the hair and all the stuff, but then I just had a chaotic week after the podcast released. So if you're new here, you probably don't know that I have a dog. She's a little chihuahua named Cricket. And she's the most well-mannered Chihuahua. I know a lot of people say that about their dogs, but she really is. People, when they meet her, are very shocked that she's a chihuahua. And she is a plump chihuahua. She's a little overweight. Well, she's where she needs to be. She's on the upper end of her weight category. So the vet wants her under 10 pounds. She's 9.8. We're not pushing it. She'll be 13 on September the 1st. So she's a geriatric dog, but she still has a lot of life in her, acts like a puppy, um, for the most part. She loves all humans, goes to every human being possible, wants you to pick her up, wants you to hold her. She also loves every animal. Um, and a lot of that had to do with when I got her, my aunt had a very loving chihuahua. And that was the only time I had met a nice chihuahua, was through my aunts. And I was like, How did you get your chihuahua to be so well-mannered and like people? And she was like, Well, you just have to socialize them very young because chihuahuas can be a dog that can become territorial. And a lot of people, because chihuahuas are so small, will hold them. And like, if people go to pet them, like kind of either turn their arms and stuff like that. So chihuahuas just learn, okay, this is my person, got to protect them, and we don't like anybody else. So with cricket, I did the opposite. I did what my aunt told me as soon as I got her. I socialized her with every friend, um, friend's dog, most of my friends' dogs were larger dogs, larger breed breeds. And so she just all of a sudden, I guess, thought she was a larger breed dog. But that helped a lot, like because, like I said, she's just a very friendly chihuahua. Now, of course, she barks when people knock on the door and things like that, but for the most part, she is really good, well-mannered, and just loves people.

Leash Freedom And The Neighbor Cats

Johnna 2:54

So last week, um, and this is all for my perception and what I what I recall and um the events that took place because for me, in my side of the story, it was very traumatic. Um I have a neighbor who has cows. I've interviewed her on the podcast. We're good friends, and Cricut loves them. Cricket just loves going over to her house. Um and Cricut has mostly for like gosh, 75% of her life now has been on a leash. And ever since I moved into the house, she was still on a leash because she just she she she's just crazy and she um can run very fast and I cannot catch her. Well, the past two years, I was like, I wonder if she can go outside without a leash. So it started in the wintertime because she she doesn't like the cold, and I would let her go outside and go to the bathroom because she comes right back in because it's cold. And then in the summertime we started going for a walk, not like in the neighborhood, but the way she goes to the bathroom is like we go um out my you know backyard and there's like a side road that we can go down, but we go past my neighbor's backyard, and she's done really well with it, other than she will occasionally, you know, go outside and go straight to my neighbor's house, or like if we're coming back from the bathroom to go home, she'll also go straight to my neighbor's house. She doesn't really go anywhere else other than my neighbor's. There's been a couple times she'll run around the neighborhood and she thinks you're playing a game of tag, you're it, or whatever, because she's running around in circles thinking you're just playing a game with her, and it's very frustrating. Anyways, so last week I had gotten off work and I took her out to go to the bathroom and was walking past, you know, my neighbor's house. I was on the phone with my aunt. Um, she had some very serious news to tell me about her health, and so I was on the phone with my aunt as we walked outside. I was um, I can't remember if I was holding cricket or not past um my neighbor's house. I try to do that because my neighbor got cats not too long ago, um, maybe over a little over a year, maybe two years now. And Cricket, like I said, has a bad habit of just running over to her house because she used to not have cats, or she did have one cat, but it would always be gone or it would be up on its little cat stand. And um Cricut likes to go on her back porch and stand at her door and wait for her to open her door because she really likes my neighbors. Um, and she's done well with the cats. Um, she'll like I guess my like you never know what an animal's thinking, but in my opinion, I'm like, she's probably like, these cats are my size, somebody I can finally play with because, like I said, all my friends have bigger dogs, they don't have small dogs. So she's used to being around bigger animals. Um, but she still never really tried to play with the cats. Like she's ran up to them before and sniffed them, and um, I end up being the one that freaks out and I'm like, get away from the cats. Number one, because I'm terrified of cats. Um, I just feel so if you if you listen to this pod and you have a cat and you love cats, I just they're not my cup of tea. Like they're cute. I'm not trying to pet them, I'm not trying to hold them because I personally feel like cats just they don't warn you when they're mad and they just attack for no reason. And um, maybe that was from a bad traumatizing experience when I was a kid where a cat was just sitting in my lap and I was just sitting there doing nothing, and all of a sudden it just bit me on my nose, and I was like, what is going on? Um, but anyways, last week when I was walking my dog past my neighbor's house, we went to the bathroom, she did her thing, it was fine, and so we're coming back, and I didn't really pick her up because I didn't see the cats on the porch on the way out to the bathroom with my dog, and I I was still on the phone with my aunt, and so I saw her run up to her porch, and then I did see the cats, and I was like, cricket, get off her porch.

The Porch Hiss And Sudden Attack

Johnna 6:43

And I went to find her, like she didn't go up to the cats or anything. She went up to my neighbor's back door, standing there waiting for my neighbor to open the door, just wagging her tail. So I come up behind her to pick her up, and of course, she's running like it's a game of tag, and she runs around me to go back home because she does listen to me. She was going home like I told her to. Um, and I don't know if this is where she got too close to the cat and the cat felt cornered or what, but she ran by the cat. I heard the cat hiss. She kept going. She's halfway to my house in the grass, and then all of a sudden I see the cat just beeline towards her. And then I panic. I start freaking out. I'm like, cricket go, cricket go, screaming. Like, and then I see the cat pounce on my dog, and I'm like, get off my dog, and I take off after my dog. And then I feel another cat come up behind me and bite me in my leg, but I didn't have time to worry about that. I just kept going. I was like, oh my gosh, let's keep going to my dog because she was on top of my dog. And I've seen these cats, they'll catch birds, rat little bunnies, and stuff like that. And my dog's kind of the size of a rabbit. So I'm just like, this dog, this, this cat is gonna kill my dog. So I get up to the to the um to the fight, and I I pick up my shoe because I'm like, I don't know how to get her off of her, other than I'm gonna have to interfere with my shoe. Sorry if y'all think that is wrong, but this was my dog's life. Um, and I pick up my shoe and I drop it, and I see the cat, it startled, like it distracts the cat. So the cat looks at me and then cricket's able to get away, but she's like yelping and there's blood everywhere. My dog is white, um, black and brown. So all I see is blood all over her white fur, and she's running towards home, but she's like not moving very fast, and my dog is very fast. So I'm like, oh my gosh, she's injured. And then I turn back towards the cat, and it's coming after me at this point. Um, so I take off my other shoe, and as it comes towards me, like it's gonna bite me, I have to hit it to knock it away. And when I hit it, it runs off. So I run to my dog, and I'm like trying to get close to her, but she's obviously scared and sh she doesn't realize it's me at first. So I had to like give her a minute so that she wouldn't bite me. And then I sat down on the grass and I was like, come here, cricket, it's fine. And she's just crying and yelping, and I'm trying to figure out where this blood is coming from. And I'll tell you this: even though I'm healthcare, I'm not a veterinarian. Like, I'm just like panicking. Also, like if you're in healthcare and you've ever tried to treat someone you're close to, it's very emotional and it's hard. Everything just goes out the window. And so I can't figure out where she's bleeding.

Triage Panic And Calling For Help

Johnna 9:20

I can now feel my leg at this point throbbing, and I'm like, okay, let's just go in, figure out where where you're bleeding from. And so I can put her on my counter and I call my friend, and I was just like, hey, like this is just what's happened. What what do I do? And she's kind of walking me through everything since I'm like in hysterical panic mode. And then I finally find um that Cricut's ear is split in half, and um she won't obviously let me look at it very well because she's yelping every time I touch it. And I am very fortunate and very blessed that I know a lot of people in my life in different places because her vet is actually one of my good friends' um twin sister. And I texted my friend and I was like, I'm so sorry to have to ask you this. I know it is so unprofessional because I try not to do that. Like, I try to, I don't try to like get advice or something from someone's profession because I know how it feels when people do it to me and you're not really close to them. Because I never want someone to think like I'm trying to abuse like their position or their profession and not like have to pay for it. But I was mainly concerned, like, do I need to take her to the ER? Because it was obviously after five. Usually this that's how these things go. And um, I was like, or can I can I bring her in tomorrow? Like, what do I need to do? Because my friend was actually telling me that I think one of her dogs or cats like had the same thing, but the the vet really couldn't do anything, and it was very like clean cut, so they just monitored her. Um, but anyways, I texted my friend the pitcher and I was like, so sorry to ask you this, but can you let me know if I need to take Cricket to the ER or do I need to take her um to y'all tomorrow? And she responded back and said, as long as the bleeding is controlled and she's not in a lot of pain, then you can just bring her in tomorrow morning first thing and we will look at her. But don't feed her because we're probably gonna have to sedate her and look at the laceration well really well and just make sure it doesn't need anything. Um and I was like, okay, so did all that, got her cleaned up. Um, then late like after that, like probably 30, 45 minutes later, I'm assessing my leg, which probably should have done once I realized my dog was okay.

Cat Bites Antibiotics And Rabies Math

Johnna 11:29

Um, because cat bites, if you didn't know, are very dirty. They carry a bacteria in their mouth, and I'm gonna probably butcher the name, but it's called Pastorella Multicida Coda, I don't know. Anyways, but basically it's a bacteria that can cause rapid cellulitis within 12 to 24 hours. And so you have to end up getting um antibiotics and then a tetanus shot, obviously, because it punctured the skin. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, like I hate taking antibiotics if you know anything about me, especially because I'm in healthcare, but I'm also like very passionate about gut health and functional medicine and not using overusing antibiotics, which that's a whole you know what? Now that I think about it, I think we do need to do a public service announcement on antibiotics. So maybe that'll be next week's episode because I think so many people misunderstand what antibiotics are used for and they're often overused, which creates a whole nother problem. So, yes, put a pin in that. We'll probably follow up with that either next week or in the within the next few weeks. But, anyways, how to get some antibiotics, super upset about that. Um, and then the biggest thing, if you ever get bitten by an animal, you want to know about the rabies vaccinations because if the rabies vaccine is expired and then the the animal cannot be monitored for 10 days, then the recommendation is to give a rabies vaccine because who wants to die rabies? Nobody look it up, does not look pleasant, does not look fun. But the theory in the medical literature says that if the animal can be kept for 10 days and monitored, if they have no symptoms of rabies by the end of the 10 days, then you're fine. You don't need prophylaxis because usually if they bit you because they're rabid and have rabies, then they will pretty much die within 10 days because that means the rabies virus was already in their brain and in their saliva. That's from the research I did this past weekend. I know we used to give rabies vaccines a lot in the ER, but I didn't really understand the risk versus not risk and things like that. Obviously, I know no one wants to die of rabies. Like, can you imagine if I ended up with rabies, guys? Like, that's the way you know what it still could happen because we're not 10 days post-exposure yet. But um, unfortunately, the cat that bit me rabies was um expired by a month, and the cat that got cricket, and I don't know if it was bite or scratch, um, because that does make a difference, but regardless, my dog is vaccinated for the rabies and it was up to date. And that cat, the one that got my dog, their rabies was up to date. And I'm like, of course, it couldn't have been the other way around. Not that I want my dog to be bit or scratched or anything, but why couldn't the one that bit me, since we both got attacked, be the one the rabies was up to date? So my neighbor can monitor the cat um for 10 days, so that's great. I don't have to go get the rabies vaccine yet. I'll let y'all know when that expires because I think we have until next Saturday or maybe this Sunday. I think it's this Sunday. So by this Sunday, as long as the cat's not showing any signs or symptoms of rabies, then I'm good. I don't have to get vaccinated. If the cat runs off and she cannot find the cat, then I have to go get a rabies vaccine. So y'all all be praying for me for that to not happen because I don't know if you've ever seen a rabies vaccination be given, but essentially the first shot is a lot. It's the most painful. Like if you're thinking just a little typical vaccine in your arm, no, no, no, no, no, honey. It's a lot of um, I'll actually, you know what? I'm gonna look that up for y'all real quick. Okay, I'm glad I looked it up because I remember there was two shots that we gave. So the vaccine is just that normal one milliliter or mil mls um in the muscle, usually the arms, but it's the rame rabies immune globulin, um, the H-R-I-G that's given that first time, and you have to do it per body weight in kilograms, so it's 20 units per kilogram. So then let's see, how much would I get? So I weigh today at the doctor, I was 127 pounds, and you divide that by 2.2 to get your kilograms. So I'm 57.7 kilograms, and then you're gonna multiply that by 20. So I would get 1154 units, and so however that is, you know, in milliliters, but I know it's a lot. So when we used to do it in the ER, that first dose could be like 10 mils, it could be like 15 mils. Obviously, it depends on your body weight, and you have to put as much as you can around the bite itself, um, um, or bites if you have it, and then as much as will fit, and then after that, whatever is left, you have to divide into different muscle groups pending the IM injection. So you have to inject the rest of it in a muscle, whatever wouldn't fit around the bite. And so sometimes that's two shots in each arm, sometimes that's a shot in each arm, a shot in each hip. And so it just doesn't look fun. And then after that, you have to go every seven days for another injection for a month. I ain't got time for that. I gotta work. So the vaccine I'm not worried about it was that immunoglobulin that I was like, mm-hmm and again, very blessed and fortunate because you used by used to working in the ER, I have a lot of ER friends that are doctors, and so what do I do? I messaged Dr. Silise, who has also been on this podcast, and I was like, hey, here's what happened. Um, the rabies vaccine is only expired by a month. What are you thinking? And he was like, I think you're fine to just monitor the animal. He said it's not a no-risk, it is a very low risk. Um, because number one, do we do vaccines really expire on the day that they say they're gonna expire? Who knows? No one knows. They only do the testing for how long they're good for. So that's that's good news that it was only one month expired. And then two, they said it's very rare that cats get rabies and there's not a lot of documented cases on it, but still still makes it a low risk, not a no-risk. And then three, they can monitor the cat for 10 days. So he was like, I wouldn't. I would just wait until the end of the 10 days. You know, if the cat runs off, you gotta go get it, or if they start showing signs or symptoms, you gotta go get it, get it. Because apparently we have a little bit longer from the bite, like we have a couple of months. I think it said one to two months pending from the research that I could find. Um, and then of course the tetanus shot, which hurt like a bea bea. I don't know what it is with tetanus shots, but I hate them so much. Um, which makes no sense to me because to me, like when you look up tetanus, it's supposed to be like old rusty stuff because tetanus is in dirt and I got bit. I don't think a cat is out eating dirt, but whatever. I was always tall that it was like either rusty, crusty nails, you know, when you get cut with something that's dirty. But that's what I was told to do. I was told to go get a tetanus shot, and so that's what I

Vet Repair Aftercare And Silver Spray

Johnna 18:25

did. I took Cricut into the vet the next morning. She was fine. So she hurts her back sometimes because she has arthritis, because she's old, so she has some just as needed doggy motron from the vet. Um, and so fortunately I was able to give her that for pain control when it happened, and that controlled her pain all night, and the bleeding did stop, so I didn't have to take her to the ER. We took her in the next morning. I think the most thing that she was mad about that day that I took her to the vet was that she had to fast and I couldn't feed her in the morning. So she was like, I don't understand why you're not feeding me. Feed me. Um, took her to the vet and um they ended up having a sedator and repairing the ear because the cartilage was exposed. So then she also got put on antibiotics um for the cartilage being exposed just in case to prevent any infection. And then um, I think they said when they got in there there was actually two splits, so her ear split twice, so they had to repair both of that, and that was last week. And then she has this dissolvable sutures in stitches, sutures, whatever you want to call it, that should um dissolve, they said, within 10 days, but if not, then I could take her back in and then we'll just cut it out. And they just obviously told me to not let her like mess with it. And I was at the time thinking like she can't, like I was thinking like licking, right? Because dogs will lick wounds and um stuff like that, like when they get fixed. And um, I wasn't thinking about her pawing at her ear because if you've ever had stitches, you know, you know, on that second, third day they start getting really dry, they get really itchy. Um, and then of course it's on her ear, so it probably feels really heavy to her. Um, I don't know how many stitches she has in because when I picked her up, they they um sprayed her ear silver. Get to that in just a second. But um, actually, let's just talk about it now. So when I picked her up, we were talking about the not letting her mess with her ear. And I was like, okay, she should be fine. They're like, we could give you a cone, but we think she'll be fine. If she starts picking at it, you can go anywhere like pet co, pet smart, pick up a cone. And I was like, okay. Um, I was like, surely to got you on. But then she was like, and this silver, so basically they sprayed her ear silver in like a really shiny metallic. It almost looked like the Tin Man. I was like, that's kind of cool. Like, can we do that for Halloween? Or is that dangerous to do her whole body in? But um, but it was really bright and shiny. They said this serves no purpose other than it will let you know, like if you wake up um and you see some of it missing, that means she's messing with her ear. And I was like, oh, that's really smart because how would you know in the middle of the night if you're sleeping or if you have to go to work or whatever? And so she started messing with it, of course, um, yesterday, um, by day two, about that itchy time. And that's what mainly what it was. Like, she kept trying to paw at it or scratch it with her back foot, and I'd have to stop her, or she would try to run her ear up and down the carpet. I don't know if you've ever had a dog that will like glide their whole body across the carpet. She does that a lot. So I had to stop her from doing that, and she just doesn't understand, which is, you know, funny in a way, but it's not. But uh overall, she's doing good. She's not in any pain. She only had to take her little Motron pain medicine for two days. Um, she definitely will not let anyone get near that ear still. Um, she's very protective over it. I know my friend Ivy always comes over on Saturdays for coffee in the mornings and she brings her um baby over. He's not even a year old, and of course, the first thing he did was grabbed her ear. I was like, oh my god, because Cricut just put out this huge yelp. And um, I looked, it's fine. She didn't pop a stitch or anything. But I mean, you can't blame a baby for grabbing something that's shiny, right? Right. Um, and as far as the cat attack goes, like I don't blame the cat because animals are animals, and you know, I was in her yard and cricket did run on my neighbor's porch, and um animals are gonna do what they're gonna do. And I don't feel like this was like a rabies, like rabid cat. I feel like it was just maybe potentially cricket got too close to her and the cat was just felt cornered or something since um she was trying to get off the porch and the cat was in between me and her when she was trying to get off the porch. I don't know. Um, it is what it is, but needless to say, she will be either carried past the house or at least from now on because now I'm super terrified of cats, now being bitten by one and my dog being attacked by one. And I'm not even gonna lie about how traumatic it was.

Trauma Replay New Rules And Goodbye

Johnna 22:46

Like, I need to seriously, I'm not, I kid you not, make a therapy session because for whatever reason, and I don't know if this is what PTSD is or what, but I keep replaying the incident in my head and I'm like, this could have been so much worse. Like she literally could have died, and it makes me so sad. And I'm like, but that didn't, I keep telling myself, but that didn't happen. She's fine, it was a minor injury. We're thankful for that. You know, everything is fixed, it's good. Just waiting on the 10-day mark for her stitches to dissolve and the 10-day mark for the rabies vaccine or the to the cat to be monitored for for rabies so I know if I have to get the vaccine or not. And yeah, that was my end of last week. So then of course I had to like watch her over the weekend and stay home, and I had to miss my friend's gender reveal, which sucked, but I really had to make sure she didn't pull her stitches out or anything like that. Um, because I didn't have a cone yet. So then I went and got a cone so that if I saw her doing that when I went to work, I could put it on her. But usually if I'm not home, she doesn't do any of that. She sleeps the whole time. It's usually when I'm home, it's almost like she's taunting me. Like I'm gonna do this just to taunt you. She probably is because she's a lot like me, if I had to guess. Um, but yeah, so that's what's been going on in my life. And I just thought I would share that because I thought it would make a good story for the pod. But yeah, I really think I am gonna have to educate the population on antibiotics. Okay. Maybe that's next week, maybe in a few weeks. I don't know. But thank you if you stayed this long listening to that story. And until next time, guys. Bye.