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NervUs
18-04-19, 23:56
I resisted posting, but I have been thinking about this frequently since it happened...so...

yesterday at day care, some kid dared my kid to eat bird seed off a bird feeder, and she did it. She is 5.
The bird seed was pasted on with soy butter.

My thoughts are going not to spoiled food she consumed, but to all the germs that must be deposited there, both from birds but also raccoons. I know, I know.
Full disclosure- I am a periodic rabies worrier, prompted by years of ridiculous run-ins with wildlife, i.e. getting into my house, getting into my car, leaving a giant shit latrine under my deck. I live in the USA in an area where rabies is not at epidemic levels, but we are on the border of a state with a lot of raccoon rabies.

This is the deal...rabies can live a while on a damp surface like soy butter. (like maybe 24 hours) The feeder was out in the sun, but it was not particularly hot yesterday. Of course, being a hypochondriac, I know a lot about rabies. Like how few studied there really are about it. Like about the nonbite transmission of rabies. Like how it passed from a surface in at least one case. How it is known to spread orally (from breastmilk!!). Like how incredibly unlikely transmission this way is. Like how it would literally be 1 in a katrillion for her to pick up rabies from the birdseed.

She's my little girl though.

Why would you not worry about this? The thing about hypochondria is that the statistical improbability isn't a compelling argument for a mind that wants to catastrophize. I feel like I just have to sit here for 3 months and wait (and it's not even over then because of the incubation period, but a lot less probable).

Maybe stories of other people eating ridiculous stuff would help me. Part of my HA, I think, is feeling like I am the only one dumb enough for this stuff to happen to. Maybe it's a way for me to punish myself, or demean myself.

But, then there's that part of the brain that says, your kid just ate god knows what that could give her any number of gnarly and possible fatal diseases!!!! It's like an endless loop.

LouiseAndy
19-04-19, 00:07
Well! I can recount many stories of eating things to you and being fine! I grow up on a farm with a brother close to my age. I was dared to eat-touch alot of nasty things and I'm still here! One time I ate a open bag of horse oats that was opened in a middle of a shed that had rats/ god knows whats in there! That was a highlight. Or one time my bother accidentally drank mouth of river water that had god knows what chemicals going through it after falling in while trying to cross the river!

My friend one time ate four slugs because she thought they were candy :roflmao:

I don't know alot about rabies tbh! Sorry I can't give you more details! I saw the eating strange things stories and I was like...my time to shine x

NervUs
19-04-19, 00:56
I don't know alot about rabies tbh! Sorry I can't give you more details! I saw the eating strange things stories and I was like...my time to shine x

:emot-giggle:

You are so ridiculously cute. That made me smile :-)

ErinKC
02-06-19, 21:14
I don't know alot about rabies tbh! Sorry I can't give you more details! I saw the eating strange things stories and I was like...my time to shine x

:roflmao:That cracked me up.

I also have a 5 year old daughter who has always and continues to eat disgusting things! I remember one day she was mad at me and didn't want to go out and so she LICKED THE BOTTOM OF HER SHOE.

But, the worst one was when she was about 2.5, playing at the park. Our park has a hill down to a soccer field and at the bottom of the hill is the end of a drain pipe that I assume originates at the road that's like 100 yards away. I was sitting up on the top of the hill and she was walking up and down it. She had her back to me and when she turned to come back up there was something orange in her mouth....

I ran down the hill and found a few orange tablets (like the consistency of a Tums) on the ground right outside the drain pipe. Long story short - called poison control, brought one to the pharmacy, called the pediatrician, no one knew what it was so we took her to the ER where they had to put a tube down her nose to give her activated charcoal since no one knew what she's eaten. It was A NIGHTMARE. But, she was fine. That tablet must have been tossed on the road, traveled down a 100 yard drainpipe full of dirty rain water, car exhaust, animal feces, god knows! and then laid on the ground for who knows how long until my child ate it... EW. But, no ill effects whatsoever.

NervousinSLC
03-06-19, 00:13
Unless the animal just barely slobbered all over the birdseed within the previous ten minutes then I wouldn't worry to much about it.
Possible? sure.
Probable? Absolutely not! Rabies is a very vulnerable and weak virus and will die within ten minutes of being exposed to sunlight.