My tiger bite story

So here’s a bizarre bit of information about me.

About 5 years ago (Late November, 2004), I was bitten by a tiger.

Yes, I mean that completely literally. A tiger (panthera tigris) bit me.

Here’s how it happened:

In Missouri, certain kinds of people or organizations can get wildlife permits. The obvious examples of course are zoos or wildlife sanctuaries. Sometimes, private citizens can get these permits, though I will admit I am shady on the details.

A friend of mine were hanging out conversing, when he mentioned on an offhanded sort of way that a friend of his owned a tiger. Surprised that he said this, I asked him to back up and tell me more. He told me that his friend and her husband happened to have this young female tiger in a sanctuary on their property.

I told him in a matter of fact way, that I wanted to pet this tiger. He looked at me, picked up his phone, and called his friend.

An hour later we were in her house: it was filled with furs, faux-tiger striped fur bedspreads, leather, etc. It was honestly kind of cheesy. Out back, there was a barn and a tall fence to keep the tiger in.

For some reason, the tiger (who was a little 150lb female juvenile) had no fur on her body – just some on her head. Apparently she had an allergy to something that had made her fur fall out. Apparently tigers have striped skin, as she was striped despite her lack of fur.

I went near the cage and the tiger jumped up, putting her paws on this divider in the door. She sniffed me. I petted her massive paws. She growled – not at me, but at the two large male friends of mine who had come with me. Apparently she was afraid of most men.

Her owners entered the cage and were applying baby oil to her skin, apparently to treat her allergy. The tiger was very restless and kept growling at the boys and pacing around, and once or twice it even leapt at the barn doors at them. They asked the boys to leave the barn, and they did. The tiger calmed down, they invited me in. I stepped into the cage.

The tiger sniffed me all over while I rubbed its head and took a few pictures. Its owners were letting the tiger play with them by sticking their arms in its mouth, just behind its canine teeth. I let it playfully but gently clamp its mouth around my arm, too. Its grip was strong but not painful.
The tiger slowly and thoroughly sniffed my legs while I gently touched it. When it got to my shoes, it very carefully closed its mouth over my shoe. This actually kind of hurt; it was like a vice slowly closing.

I knew that if I startled the tiger, things might turn out so well, so I continued petting it, and instead just remarked, very calmly, “Hey cat. You’re going to ruin my shoes.”

The tiger let go of my shoe, sniffed up my leg, and closed its mouth on my shin. Unlike when my arm was behind the canine teeth of the tiger’s mouth, this time I felt teeth sinking into my leg.
I didn’t freak out. Instead, I kept my hand on the tiger’s body, said, “Okay, you just bit me, we’re done petting”.  When she let go, I walked out.

We walked inside so that I could survey the damage. There was an obvious tiger-canine sized puncture wound in the back of my lower leg (through my calf muscle), and another wound on the front where the tiger’s teeth had crunched into my shin bone.

I wanted to know how deep this wound was so, after irrigating it, I cleaned my hands very thoroughly and carefully stuck my pinky into the wound. My pinky went in past the first knuckle and I felt bone.

I didn’t want these people to get in trouble – after all, it was my own damn fault that I had intentionally stepped into the cage with a live tiger, so we agreed that they would pay my medical bills, should I chose to go to the hospital.

I went home and like any good little scientist who thinks she does not have to stand on the shoulders of actual medical professionals to solve problems, looked up what to do in the case of severe puncture wounds inflicted by animals. I got conflicting advice, but the advice was generally to irrigate the wound and leave it open so it can heal from the inside out. I irrigated the wound some more in my bathroom – which hurt far more than the actual bite – covered it in a thick layer of gauze, and went to bed.

The next day I woke up with blood on my blanket, but I went to work. Once at work, I realized that I was an idiot. I could barely walk. I worked at a school, so I went to the school nurse. The school nurse remarked that she was probably the only school nurse to ever treat a tiger bite. She told me to go to the ER, which I did.

I told the ER docs that a dog had bitten me. They asked me to identify the dog, and I refused. They gave me some antibiotics and a fresh Tetanus shot and sent me on my way.

Unfortunately, I am apparently rather sensitive to strong antibiotics, as they made me sick. I made an appointment with my primary care doctor, told her that I had been bitten by a tiger, again refusing to give them any information to lead them to the tiger. The staff doctors and nurses all had to come take a look, and they actually had to consult a medical book to decide which would be the best antibiotic to treat a tiger bite – I think they settled on an antibiotic recommended for “cat bites”.

Thankfully, I actually had medical insurance. The whole ordeal cost me $40 for antibiotics.
This may sound bizarre, but though I can’t recommend being bitten by a tiger, the story is totally worth it.

Here are some lovely pics of the wound on the process of healing – all that’s left is a little, barely noticeable scar, but like other puncture wounds into muscle, you can press down on it and feel not muscle, but scar tissue and bone. Click the pics for a bigger version. I probably don’t need to tell you that these pics are a little graphic.

Incidentally, if you look at the first picture (showing my foot), you’ll notice a wound on the bottom of my foot. That was from stepping on something sharp. It happened the same day that the tiger bit me, so I almost wonder if it bit that leg because it smelled the fresh wound. I’ve got pictures of the tiger somewhere, but I can’t find them!