Girl attacked by rabid beaver

Sunday Gazette Mail ^ | 7-27-03 | AP

[steveo]

SHANNONDALE, W.Va. (AP) -- An 8-year-old girl had reconstructive surgery on her hand after being attacked by a rabid beaver in Jefferson County earlier this month.

Robin Hays' said her daughter, Maddison, was playing along the Shenandoah River behind their Shannondale home on July 11 when the attack occurred.

"We were getting ready for a pig roast, and she was down there playing,'' Hays told The Journal in Martinsburg. "Suddenly, I heard a blood-curdling scream.''

Hays saw the beaver clamped onto her daughter's hand, then shook her arm to get it free, grabbed her daughter and ran.

The beaver chased them, she said, and two men attending the pig roast cornered the animal and killed it with a shovel.

Hays' daughter, who suffered bites on her leg and hand, was initially treated at Jefferson Memorial Hospital.

A specialist at Loudoun County Hospital in Virginia provided treatment on her hand that included reconstructive surgery on the tendons, nerves and veins, Hays said. Maddison's hand was in a partial cast, and she could move her fingers but not her thumb, Hays said.

"She's doing very well,'' Hays said.

State Division of Natural Resources officers took the dead animal, Hays said.

The animal's brain was sent to the Jefferson County Health Department, and then to a lab in Charleston where it tested positive for rabies, the newspaper reported.

While rabies is common in that area, beaver attacks are rare, said Lisa Dunn, the health department's sanitarian supervisor.

AP-ES-07-27-03 1206EDT

[Robert A Cook PE]

We reallllly, realllly shouldn't poke this hot beaver thread any further.

It might get holed.

Or turn into somethong else.

[Petronski]

The only think worse than a dead skunk on your piano is a diseased beaver on your organ.

That is SO true. You should have t-shirts made.

[Jay D. Dyson]

Everything tastes like chicken. The matrix has us. :)

Mmmm...I suddenly have a craving for TastyWheat.

But every time I try to eat it, there is no spoon.

;)

-Jay

[Jay D. Dyson]

Can you imagine what this thread would be like if it had been a moose?

No.

-Jay

P.S. -- A moose once bit my sister...

[Petronski]

[Robert A Cook PE]

The only think worse than a dead skunk on your piano is a diseased beaver on your organ.

De cease!

De cease (and desister) with this nunsense!

Else, we shall not resister.....

[Petronski]

I bet you never thought you'd see an old school Freeper post a graphic of a shaved beaver, and get away with it.

[chuckles]

Here I am, clicking my mouse with tears running down my cheek as I chortle, and my wife is wondering what the hell I'm reading. I'm not sure what to tell her. How can a little girl bitten by a rabid animal be so funny? I'm not sure I can explain it.

[Jemian]

I think it's still a series of shots right in the stomach...

I don't think so. My family underwent the rabies vacine about ten years ago. We all had three shots in the arm and were told that if we were bitten by a rabid animal it would be two more in the arm. There is a window of opportunity in which the shots must be given between the bite and the shot.

Since the girl is under doctor care I'm assuming she has received this series. I hope the men that handled that beaver also have received that series. I understand after rabies develops there is still no cure.

[SeaDragon]

We reallllly, realllly shouldn't poke this hot beaver thread any further.
It might get holed.

One can only hope.

It just needs a little poke.

;-)

[dfwgator]

"Gee Wally, life sucks."

[AdA$tra]

I've dealt with rabid beavers before. I just wash 'em, shave 'em and eat 'em. Where's the problem?

Somewhere, somehow, there is going to be a price paid for this thread.

You can always tell when someone has had moosehead:



The antler marks on their stomach.

[AdA$tra]

How can a little girl bitten by a rabid animal be so funny? I'm not sure I can explain it.

It happens here. Nobody can explain it. Perhaps it is best if we don't. The fact of the matter is that a bite like that could be quite series. I think I might go get in the shower.

[AdA$tra]

This calls for a long overdue tagline change!

[dr_who_2]

Mmmm. I take it you're quite accustomed to having them around.

[vetvetdoug]

I have been through the post exposure rabies vaccination regime twice. The first time was in 1975 and I got the immunoglobulin and sixteen injections of the duck egg rabies vaccine. I took them everywhere there was a muscle. It was painful but my titer against rabies was greater than the average titration. The second time was in 1982 and I received the six human diploid rabies vaccine at a half ml each injection. It was a piece of cake (except expensive as hell). I would worry for the little girl, rabies can show disease up to a year after exposure. Very few survive once the disease is exhibited and those that do are not the same mentally. The girl is also lucky the beaver did not do more damage; I routinely see dogs that have been attacked by beavers and those that survive have some really large scars, especially around the throat. Beavers go for the carotid arteries and jugulars and lacerate them in one bite.

This thread lends itself to some really good jokes but the seriousness of the situation keeps me from repeating my beaver jokes.

[Tribune7]

Last year in my relatively urban county, a fisherman was attacked by a rabid otter.

[AnnaZ]

How sad it is that, while the first reaction to this story should be empathy and prayers for the poor little girl who has suffered rather severely, one instead reads the title and, well, can you really blame one for, at the very least, snickering?

[Atlas Sneezed]

Cuuuute!

[Luis Gonzalez]

This happened to me once as well.

Fortunately, penicillin took care of it.