Rabies in Chins / Small Animals

So, the other day, I'm driving home from a doctor's appointment and I get a phone call where the caller identifies themselves as a nurse practitioner from a hospital.  Ok.  And...?

Apparently, someone adopted a chinchilla from the rescue and it bit them, so they went to the hospital, and gave them my number to call me. 

The NP wanted to know if a chinchilla could have rabies.  I told them, no, and explained that chinchillas have been domesticated for something like 80 years now, and are all captively bred.  These aren't wild-caught chins from South America.  They are not known to carry rabies.  Actually, learned from a vet years ago that it's super unusual for small animals to even have rabies and even more unusual to transmit to humans (see CDC website, here -- https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/exposure/animals/other.html -- actually, the important sentence is -- "Small rodents like squirrels, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, chipmunks, rats, and mice) and lagomorphs including rabbits and hares are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to transmit rabies to humans.").  Honestly, they wouldn't typically survive if something with rabies... such as a rabid dog or fox bit them.  Not to mention, how would the pet chinchilla even be in a situation where it would be bit by a rabid animal?  Not quite sure.

Anyway, I told them, chins don't carry rabies or really anything harmful to humans.  The worst that can usually happen is that if the bite is a deep bite and isn't cleaned  (think of like a kid who gets bit and then goes plays in the dirt and grime or whatever) then it could possibly get infected.  Same as how a papercut can get infected.  So I told the guy, typical protocol for a bite is wash the area with soap and water, put on a bandaid if necessary.  I explained that it's rare to need stitches, most bites aren't that bad.  If they are... most often when I've been bit bad, I've been asking for it... it's rare that a chin just lashes out that badly... They didn't volunteer info (HIPPA laws, you know), so I don't know if it was that bad of a bite, or just someone overreacting... but it would have to be quite the bite for stitches to be required.

They thanked me for my help, and that was that.  Now, to wait and see if I get a phone call or email from someone about this...