Dog Bite Infections Are a Serious Risk
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the risk of dog bite infections sends 880,000 people — or approximately 20% of the 4.5 million victims of dog bites every year — to emergency rooms.
(Since most victims of dog bites do not seek medical attention and never report the attack, that number is almost certainly an underestimate.) Over 33,000 of those individuals go on to require some kind of reconstructive surgery, while between 15 and 20 of them actually die.
Children Are the Most Common Dog Bite Victims
The most common victims of dog attack are children between the ages of five and ten. Children in this age group are naturally drawn to animals, and have not yet learned the important lesson that not all animals are friendly.
If you are the parent or caregiver of a child in this age group, the most important thing you can do to prevent dog bites is to teach your charge proper behavior in the presence of dogs. This includes never exciting the animal unnecessarily, and never approaching an animal without first checking with the animal’s owner.
Rabies: the Most Serious of All Dog Bite Infections
If a dog bite does occur, the victim and the animal must be separated before further damage can occur. Rabies is by far the most serious of all potential dog bite infections, and so the rabies immunization status of the animal must be ascertained from its owner immediately.
If there is no owner present, then that information will need to be tracked down either by animal control or law enforcement officials.
Early signs of rabies include flu-like symptoms – headache, muscle aches and spasms and high fever. Hydrophobia (an aversion to water) is considered a diagnostic symptom.
In instances when the attacking dog’s rabies status can not be verified, the animal may be euthanized and its brain tissues or cerebrospinal fluid examined for the presence of Negri bodies.
Unfortunately these are present in only about 80% of all infected animals, so the dog bite victim may end up undergoing prophylactic rabies treatment – a long and painful regimen.
Medical Treatment
Common dog bite infections include tetanus and septicemia. An anaerobic microbe called clostridium, commonly found in the soil, causes tetanus; the best protection against contracting tetanus is a tetanus booster shot, administered every five to ten years.
Septicemia is the most common of all dog bite infections. Early signs include redness and swelling at the site of the skin break which generally develop between eight and 24 hours. The swelling can be accompanied by fever and a foul-smelling discharge.
Chills, fever and fatigue follow as the infection becomes systemic. Untreated, this infection can go on to develop into meningitis (an inflammation of the tissues around the brain) or even an infection of the heart so it is critical to seek medical attention immediately in these situations.
Dog bites are never a casual occurrence. Even when the injury does not break the skin, the rounded shape of a dog’s teeth when combined with the pressure exerted by its jaw can cause serious damage to tissues underlying the skin, including muscles, tendons, blood vessels, nerves and even bones.
All dog bites should therefore be accessed by a medical professional who can determine the degree of injury and provide prophylactic treatment that will prevent dog bite infections.