I thought I had my adventure with first aid on Thursday with the formalin incident. I was very, very wrong. I woke up Friday excited about rounds at the aquarium and quickly finished the water change on my fish (second day of no mortalities!) before heading through the blackberry-lined route to the aquarium. I spent a little time writing on my favorite palate of bricks while I waited for the veterinarian to arrive. I had even remembered to bring chai tea in my nalgene so I was feeling altogether good about the day as the veterinarian and I walked toward the otter enclosure. I wasn’t so sure how my nalgene full of tea would be received by the marine mammal keepers so I left it outside with the rest of my stuff and followed the veterinarian (who was still carrying his steel coffee mug—this detail will become very important shortly) toward the gate. Aialik, one of the otters, was in the water right by the gate entrance. I liked Aialik—I would usually shake his paw as he stuck it though the fence when I left the otter enclosure, but I knew he was going to try and escape. As the veterinarian walked through the gate Aialik started to get out of the water and I tried to quickly follow the veterinarian through the gate and shut it behind me to prevent Aialik’s well-planned escape. Unfortunately, this decision left me between Aialik and freedom with a wall on one side and water on the other. As soon as I pulled the gate shut behind me I realized my mistake. Aialik was out of the water now and climbing up my legs. Now otters look very, very cute but they are really vicious wild animals and I knew as soon as Aialik started climbing that I was going to be bitten. Aialik extended his hind legs, coming up to my chest. We made eye contact for a second as I froze in terror then he struck. After the first bite, I started to turn because I decided I would rather be bitten on my back then my front and as Aialik struck again the veterinarian saw what was happening and hit him on the head with his coffee mug, causing Aialik to slink back into the water. The funny thing is that there is nothing I could have done to prevent the bites. I had nothing to protect myself with when I entered the enclosure so once I was blocking his exit I was pretty much doomed. I now however have some pretty cool bite wounds on my chest and back as well as scratches from his claws on my stomach. The bites hurt but all I could do was laugh as for the second day in a row I filled out an accident report. At least this time I didn’t have to go to the emergency room, too. The response of the nurse I called at my insurance company to find out if I needed any vaccinations or treatment for sea otter bites was priceless.I think my phone conversation went something like:
Me: Hi, my health record number is 475 82 84 and I am calling because I was just bitten by a sea otter and I was wondering if there was any special treatment I should receive.
Nurse: You were bitten by what?
Me: A sea otter.
Nurse: Um, where did this happen, in the ocean?
Me: No actually all the wild sea otters in Oregon have disappeared due to overexploitation and the removal of their major food sources. This was, uh, at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.
Nurse: Um, what were you doing to get bitten?
Me: Oh, well I was on rounds with the veterinarian and….
Nurse: Well, I have no idea what you would do for a sea otter bite.
Me: Well do you think you could check with someone who knows. I don’t know if I would need antibiotics or a rabies vaccination or something else. I have been cleaning it with chlorhexidine scrub but I don’t know if there are other tings I should be worried about.
Nurse: Well honestly no one here would have any idea what you would need. We’re not used to seeing sea otter bites. I don’t think they are very common. I am looking at your record and it says here that yesterday you splashed formaldehyde in your eye. Is that right?
Me: Yeah that was me. It’s been a rough week. Well, thanks for your help. I will call back if I start to see signs of infection.
Nurse: Yeah, I guess that would be good. Bye.
5 comments:
This reminds me of a classic movie where an unfortunate band of knights were set upon by a killer rabbit.
Otter bites sound pretty nasty. Google "otter bites" and several stories come up. One story had someone's bitten hand swelling and for a while they thought there might be permanent damage. I think you should find someone knowledgable about it ASAP.
Always the boy scout, that Gavin... don't you know how to treat Otter Bites? You'd think you would've gotten a badge for it or something!
Otter bites. I know I should feel bad for you, but I'm just so amused! And now I have to go google "otter bites".
Thanks for the advice, Gavin. Yikes, there are some pretty nasty stories of infected otter bite wounds! Fortunately, I am currently going through a rabies vaccination series for Ecuador and I had my doctor look at the wounds today and he is just having me continue to wash them with chlorhexidine. Personally, I think the whole ordeal is hilarious, too.
You blog has become far more entertaining these days. But is it worth it?:)
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