Apparently, mice in the NYC area are not a rabies risk.

[conuly]

There is, however, a risk of lockjaw if you got bitten by one. Or, perhaps, prodded one with a too-short stick to see if it was actually dead.... Yeah, not one of my brighter moments. And this was outside, too - there was really no reason for me not to be minding my own business. Stupid mouse seems to have a broken foot, to my untrained eye, which explains why it was still in the place I'd flung it long enough for me to stick it in a coffee can, chuck some french fries after it. If it starts frothing at the mouth or anything, or *I* do, I'll get somebody to kill it properly and check out its brains. But I'm pretty sure that, like the other mice in the area, it's not a rabies risk.

And unless somebody in the area is desperate to make a wild mouse with a broken foot (but probably not rabies!) a pet, I guarantee, I don't care enough to keep it alive. Thing *bit* me! (Mind, it was scared, but that's not the point)

Comments

[aquamizuko.livejournal.com]

Ouch.. Feel better soon. Here in Alberta we have mice with hantavirus. >< Dunno about the risk of rabies and such..

[conuly]

I feel fine, other than my persistant fear that my limbs are stiffening up and I'm about to die of tetanus (or rabies?). I have to get a tetanus shot now. Dammit!

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

When is the last time you got one?

I'm about due, it's been 10 years... :/ Bleah.

[conuly]

Well more than 10 years ago by now.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

Er... he has a broken foot anyway?

Why not just do him in and stick him in the freezer in case you turn into a zombie or whatever you're concerned about.

[conuly]

Because I hadn't thought of that. And now he's peacefully eating my french fries, and I'd feel bad. But you're right, I ought to kill him the nicest way I can - honest, that was my plan before I got bitten! Now I'm just watching to see if he manifests signs of rabies before morning.

[nerdinium.livejournal.com]

A coffee can will not hold him without a top in place (with air holes). I caught mice in a havahart trap, and tried putting one in a 2 gallon plastic jar. I just laid the lid on top of it and didn't screw it down so it could breathe, and by morning it had jumped up 15-18 inches, knocked the lid off, and escaped.

I ended up putting all the mice I caught in an aquarium with food, water, and an exercise wheel with a rock on the screen on top, and taking it 10 or 15 miles away into the woods and emptying it when I got over 5 or 7 mice in it.

[conuly]

It's got a top on it, with air holes. But broken foot, remember? It hasn't tried jumping at all - I'm not sure it can. There's possibly more wrong, I don't know. I know I can *see* the foot is misshapen, but whatever else there is, I can't.

[sicpuppy.livejournal.com]

Generally, animals like mice and rats don't carry rabies. This is for two reasons. First one is that they have a dry bite, meaning their teeth are so far forward in their mouth that they get little if any saliva into a bite wound. Though there is speculation about whether this is true and they do actually have a dry bite or not.
Secondly, in order to contract rabies, the animal has to be bitten by another animal with rabies. Something like a mouse is so unlikely to survive a bite from a bigger animal like a cat or dog that chances of them being able to survive long enough to pass anything on to anyone are slim. This, coupled with the dry bite theory (which I personally believe is true, having been bitten by a few rats in my life) means you probably don't have to worry about rabies at least.

As for the mouse, thats a tricky one. My cat brings them in from time to time and I always release them and let nature take its course, but I've never had one with an obviously broken limb before. I guess if no one wants to keep it as a pet (which is probably a bad idea anyway) then it would be more humane to kill it, I just don't know what the most humane way to do that is.

[conuly]

At this moment, it appears to have died in the night anyway. I'm not terribly surprised - it looked, aside from the broken limb, like it hadn't been eating. That, coupled with the broken leg and what I can only presume must have been a traumatic situation involving me, it ate some of the french fries, then....

I haven't poked it with a stick, though, and don't intend to. I suspect the most humane method of making sure it's dead is the one suggested above - freeze it.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Bah, you beat me to the dry bite thing!

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Maybe the french fries plus the cardiac strain of (what he thought was) avoiding death caused his heart to give out?

If he's alive still, though, sticking him in a freezer is one of the most horrible ways you can kill an animal. Freezing to death is slow and excruciatingly painful.

[conuly]

You think so? I'd heard it was fairly pain-free, that's why I thought of it.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

No, not for warm blooded animals.

FREEZING

Hypothermia is neither short nor painless. Some time ago on the rats list, Brian Lee detailed an experience in which he almost died from exposure. He went through it step by step for us so we could all understand how inhumane this method truly is. Yes, in the end, a person or animal who has died from exposure appears to have died peacefully, but the steps leading up to that death, as described by Brian, are horrendously painful.

Think about how your bare hands begin to feel in the winter before they go numb. It is pretty painful. Imagine how you would feel if someone you knew, loved and trusted put you in a giant freezer, turned out the light, locked the door and went away. Imagine how terrified you would feel! What an agonizing and lengthy way to die. It is not my idea of humane, and that is exactly what your beloved pet would experience. Who could live with their conscience after using this method?

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/euthanasia.htm

[conuly]

Ouch. Got it. Well, it was well-meant, anyway.

[aquamizuko.livejournal.com]

Ouch.. Feel better soon. Here in Alberta we have mice with hantavirus. >< Dunno about the risk of rabies and such..

[conuly]

I feel fine, other than my persistant fear that my limbs are stiffening up and I'm about to die of tetanus (or rabies?). I have to get a tetanus shot now. Dammit!

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

When is the last time you got one?

I'm about due, it's been 10 years... :/ Bleah.

[conuly]

Well more than 10 years ago by now.

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

Er... he has a broken foot anyway?

Why not just do him in and stick him in the freezer in case you turn into a zombie or whatever you're concerned about.

[conuly]

Because I hadn't thought of that. And now he's peacefully eating my french fries, and I'd feel bad. But you're right, I ought to kill him the nicest way I can - honest, that was my plan before I got bitten! Now I'm just watching to see if he manifests signs of rabies before morning.

[nerdinium.livejournal.com]

A coffee can will not hold him without a top in place (with air holes). I caught mice in a havahart trap, and tried putting one in a 2 gallon plastic jar. I just laid the lid on top of it and didn't screw it down so it could breathe, and by morning it had jumped up 15-18 inches, knocked the lid off, and escaped.

I ended up putting all the mice I caught in an aquarium with food, water, and an exercise wheel with a rock on the screen on top, and taking it 10 or 15 miles away into the woods and emptying it when I got over 5 or 7 mice in it.

[conuly]

It's got a top on it, with air holes. But broken foot, remember? It hasn't tried jumping at all - I'm not sure it can. There's possibly more wrong, I don't know. I know I can *see* the foot is misshapen, but whatever else there is, I can't.

[sicpuppy.livejournal.com]

Generally, animals like mice and rats don't carry rabies. This is for two reasons. First one is that they have a dry bite, meaning their teeth are so far forward in their mouth that they get little if any saliva into a bite wound. Though there is speculation about whether this is true and they do actually have a dry bite or not.
Secondly, in order to contract rabies, the animal has to be bitten by another animal with rabies. Something like a mouse is so unlikely to survive a bite from a bigger animal like a cat or dog that chances of them being able to survive long enough to pass anything on to anyone are slim. This, coupled with the dry bite theory (which I personally believe is true, having been bitten by a few rats in my life) means you probably don't have to worry about rabies at least.

As for the mouse, thats a tricky one. My cat brings them in from time to time and I always release them and let nature take its course, but I've never had one with an obviously broken limb before. I guess if no one wants to keep it as a pet (which is probably a bad idea anyway) then it would be more humane to kill it, I just don't know what the most humane way to do that is.

[conuly]

At this moment, it appears to have died in the night anyway. I'm not terribly surprised - it looked, aside from the broken limb, like it hadn't been eating. That, coupled with the broken leg and what I can only presume must have been a traumatic situation involving me, it ate some of the french fries, then....

I haven't poked it with a stick, though, and don't intend to. I suspect the most humane method of making sure it's dead is the one suggested above - freeze it.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Bah, you beat me to the dry bite thing!

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

Maybe the french fries plus the cardiac strain of (what he thought was) avoiding death caused his heart to give out?

If he's alive still, though, sticking him in a freezer is one of the most horrible ways you can kill an animal. Freezing to death is slow and excruciatingly painful.

[conuly]

You think so? I'd heard it was fairly pain-free, that's why I thought of it.

[xiggaroo.livejournal.com]

No, not for warm blooded animals.

FREEZING

Hypothermia is neither short nor painless. Some time ago on the rats list, Brian Lee detailed an experience in which he almost died from exposure. He went through it step by step for us so we could all understand how inhumane this method truly is. Yes, in the end, a person or animal who has died from exposure appears to have died peacefully, but the steps leading up to that death, as described by Brian, are horrendously painful.

Think about how your bare hands begin to feel in the winter before they go numb. It is pretty painful. Imagine how you would feel if someone you knew, loved and trusted put you in a giant freezer, turned out the light, locked the door and went away. Imagine how terrified you would feel! What an agonizing and lengthy way to die. It is not my idea of humane, and that is exactly what your beloved pet would experience. Who could live with their conscience after using this method?

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/euthanasia.htm

[conuly]

Ouch. Got it. Well, it was well-meant, anyway.