Found a dead mouse in garden

[reachermarry]

Posting for traffic sorry!!

recently moved into a new house, around a month ago, today we went out and cut the lawn and let our 5.5 yr old DD go out and have fun, was rolling around in the garden, however we have a concrete square on the side of the garden, and she went to roll over onto it, I’ve stopped her and told her no, it’s concrete, but I’ve spotted a dead mouse right where she was rolling.

It was fully decomposed, paper thin. DH didn’t believe me, said it was probably dried leaves but awkward shape. He then proceeded much to my dismay to pick it up. It is infact a dead mouse ( I already knew this )

aibu to worry about any illness my daughter could pick up from rolling around in that area? I’m sorry if this sounds silly, but recently with gene hackmans ongoing stories, I can’t help but have that in my mind and how I’m panicking. I do understands it’s probably been there for a long time, rain, sun what not. But I can’t help but feel a little bit sick.

any advice or information is helpful. Thank you guys so much.

think about it. She had on clothes. Possibly 2 layers. 3 if you count her underwear. And you are worried that a bit of what? Virus? From a dead mouse would survive on the concrete, pass through 3 layers of clothing, pass through her skin, into her blood stream and cause an issue?

she’s fine: it’s not a problem. At all.

You know that mice, rats, cockroaches and birds have all done wees and poos on the grass your daughter is playing on, don’t you?

It’s just life.

@PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister

no completely understand where you’re coming from, but her hands were out all over the grass, and she was rolling so face is pretty close to the ground too, I did bring her straight in and put her in a hot bath and give her a good clean, ugh I don’t know what it is, just really panicked me.

Wash her hands. Move on

She will be fine.

I found a dead rat in our garden once.

Picked it up
Put it in the bin

You are massively, massively overreacting

Without wanting to make this worse, out in the garden there is poo and wee from all manner of animals and will be mice, voles, shrews, birds and all sorts out there just hiding from you. She’s touched nothing more than she touches every time she goes outside and plays on the grass.

Don't give this another thought. If you take her on public transport, guaranteed she'll come into contact with a lot worse!

Did she lick it? Doesn’t sound like it. She’ll be fine. As others said, wash hands and move on with your life.

@reachermarry if you really bathed her to within an inch of her life from simply being outside where a mouse had died, you really need to take a breath.

I have mentioned many times on here how my eldest daughter had a pet hen when she was small, and she used to lick the chicken's head. She also used to hide out in the chicken run and emerge COVERED in chicken poo.

Children are very very resistant, your DD will be fine. You, on the other hand, might want to talk to someone about anxiety. Children pick up all kinds of disgusting stuff (see daughter licking hen) that you won't even see or know about and you will make yourself ill if you worry to this extent.

Dramatic over reaction.

Talking of disgusting things in the garden, I once found toddler DS1 attempting to eat a snail. DS was absolutely fine and is now a strapping young man, sadly the poor snail didn't survive the ordeal.

OP, don't worry. Your DD will be fine.

Mine tried to eat one once that the cat brought in. I got it out of her mouth but it was gross. She was fine, don’t worry!

I used to eat bird poo when I was small. It fascinated me. I've survived to old age adulthood.

Taking her in and putting her in a bath is a huge overreaction. I have pretty severe contamination OCD and I wouldn’t have considered doing that.
I think if you react in this way frequently you will pass your anxiety on to your DD, which could lead to huge problems down the line…ask me how I know! 😞

As others have said, your grass will be covered by a number of things as mice, foxes etc are everywhere. As long as your DD washed her hands with soap and water afterwards she will be fine. Scrubbing her in the bath was an overreaction. You sound as though you have cleanliness issues or health anxiety OP. Maybe get some help for those rather than instil the same issues in your child.

I too am a survivor of childhood misadventure. As a toddler my mum found me in the shed having a good chew on a paraffin covered paintbrush. She and my DGM both thought the other was watching me, but I somehow evaded them both 🤣

If you really brought your DD inside and gave her a bath because of this, then you need to go and get some help before you instil the same issues into her.

Thanks for the comments.

Bath was already a given for today as we’d been outside all day, and it’s hair wash day anyway so I didn’t give her a bath purely because of that. Did I push it forward an hour? Yes, I did.

I guess my health anxiety is prominent in the post I made, but my daughter doesn’t pick up on these things. I didn’t make a huge deal, I just told her let’s head inside and have a bath then our ice cream treat today. Then dealt with it with DH.

the reason for panicking is i dont know if anyone will remember but I posted not long back, we lived in an apartment infested with mice, that took our whole sanctuary and we ended up needing to move out as we was told once they was in they weren’t ever going to leave, due to living in a multicomplex. They would’ve needed all tenants to of paid the pest control fee, which wasn’t going to happen.

so to have to uplift and move out because we was isolated in 2 rooms because of mice, and then to try and settle into a new house, far away from home ( couldn't afford the up in rent where we was living prior ) then trying to find a new routine, with work life home life. Then this today, hit me a lot harder than this would’ve 6 months ago, because before this I’d never encountered a mice, until I lived with them for 2 months and they ripped apart at every inch of my being.

then recently on the news hearing about gene hackmans wife and hantavirus, did put a scare in me, cleaning up after dead rodents I’m used to, however my daughter rolling her face around them, I am not. So yes, I did get scared, and I came here as I’ve been helped many times before, I don’t have friends I can’t turn to at any given time due to busy lifestyles, and as I say; moving away from them all.

thanks to all the commenters though, it could be an overreaction but I won’t apologise for panicking over something that essentially fucked my life up for a substantial amount of time.

Please get some therapy - your excessive anxiety WILL affect your daughter. What will you do when she picks up a dead bird? Collects pigeon feathers? Strokes a random flea-ridden cat?

... plus, mice are everywhere, and so are their droppings. Rats too, both brown and grey. And foxes.