Dog Bite In Time Of Pandemic

Just last week, our gentle shih tzu had accidentally bitten my eldest. He was sleeping on a rug which was in the middle of the room so my eldest tried to fix the rug. Maybe our dog got surprised by the movement and panicked, and bit my daughter’s toe.

My daughter, remembering how we taught them how to manage wounds, immediately went to the bathroom and washed her feet. Unfortunately, when she told us, we didn’t know how the wound bled so we couldn’t assess how deep the wound was. So what we did, since it was already in the middle of the night, we decided to clean the wound further and put antiseptic and scheduled to see my daughter’s pediatrician in the morning.

Fortunately, my daughter’s pediatrician was available the next morning. It was the first time for all of us to go to a hospital since the pandemic started.

When we got to the hospital, there’s a line of people heading to a covered booth where a nurse asks questions. When we got in front of the line, the nurse asked if we had an appointment. Since we didn’t have one, she gave us a number where we can call and ask for an appointment. The hospital connected us to my daughter’s pediatrician’s assistant which in turn texted us a confirmation message for the appointment.

The hospital was not as full as when we were there last time during my mom in-laws’ hospitalization. And the clinic area was not full as well and I was thankful for that because I fear a lot about getting COVID. There were lots of free alcohol to sanitize our hands, fortunately.

After more than two hours, the pedia had seen my daughter’s wound and she told us that though rabies is fatal if the dog is owned and kept at home, they are unlikely to have rabies. But even though, we need to be sure that my daughter will be safe from rabies.

My daughter needed 3 anti-rabies shots (if our dog will not get sick in 4 days), and 5 shots if our dog will get sick). I am hopeful that our dog will not be demised as he is still playful and acting normal as of the time of writing.

The anti-rabies shot prescribed was called Speeda and it costed P1,119 in Mercury Drug. The pedia did not have stock of the anti-rabies shot and the hospital did not have one as well. We had to find a branch that has stocks and fortunately there was one nearby. The pediatrician’s consultation fee was P400 so it means in total, we will be shedding out P4,500 + gasoline fee because of a single dog bite.

My daughter had learned her lesson not to fuss with a sleeping dog and we had always told her not to be too aggressive in playing with him. She still have 2 more meetings with the pediatrician for her 2nd and hopefully last shot.

In this time of pandemic, getting sick or getting into accidents when you need to go to the hospital seems to be more expensive. We really need to be more careful and mindful of our actions. We also need to be more thrifty because sometimes, accidents happen and we need to have the funds to spend for them quickly.