Status: 07/17/2023 09:51 a.m
Dog or cat bites can lead to blood poisoning and amputation. Those affected should definitely go to the doctor to avoid long-term effects. Surgery can often prevent serious infections.
Many people like to scratch the neighbor’s dog or pet a trusting cat. But that can have bad consequences: In Germany, health insurance companies record up to 50,000 animal bites per year. The hands are mostly affected. The number of unreported cases is probably even higher, because many do not go to the doctor with a bite wound. Animal bites can lead to severe blood poisoning (sepsis) and limb amputation.
Dog bite: Tissue is often bruised
Dogs often tear and crush the entire tissue with one bite. In addition, the wound can become infected through introduced germs. Cat bites are deeper and therefore more insidious.
Cat bites particularly dangerous
After a cat bites the hand, 30 to 50 percent of those affected develop serious infections. The problem: Cats have teeth like hypodermic needles that penetrate deeply when they bite. The upper layer of the skin heals quickly, but in the deeper layers, inflammation can develop unnoticed, for example with the dangerous germ Pasteurella multocida.
Animal bite: Antibiotics often do not work quickly enough
The germs can multiply rapidly in the tissue. What is special about cat bites is that the infection occurs very quickly, sometimes within a few hours, and the condition of the wound quickly deteriorates. Antibiotics often don’t work fast enough – the inflammation gets out of control. If the bacteria have already caused tissue damage and tissue has died, the infection can only heal if the dead tissue is surgically removed beforehand. Because no antibiotics can penetrate dead tissue, the bacteria continue to spread unchecked.
OP can avert serious consequential damage
Again and again it happens that doctors underestimate animal bites and do not treat the wounds properly. In these cases, many of those affected end up in the clinic later with an infection that has already spread. In the case of bites on the hand or typical symptoms such as hot swellings, blue or red stripes on the skin, an operation is necessary immediately:
Surgeons open the skin with a large incision, peel the wound, and remove the germ-infested tissue. The patient then receives antibiotics via a drip for a few days. In this way, the inflammation can usually be suppressed. In the hand, important tendons and joints lie directly under the skin. Deep cat bites quickly lead to damage that has to be repaired. If the animal has also injured nerves, they have to be sewn back together in a complicated operation. In very serious cases, doctors have to amputate limbs – for example the entire forearm – to prevent blood poisoning (sepsis).
Animal bite sepsis: These are the symptoms
According to the Sepsis Foundation, blood poisoning (sepsis) is always caused by an infection. The following symptoms are typical but do not have to occur:
Fever, sometimes chills Unusually severe feeling of illness Fatigue, apathy Sudden confusion Rapid, difficult breathing Increased heart rate Severely reduced or low blood pressure Cold, patchy skin on the arms/legs
Avoid long-term effects: go to the hospital immediately after a dog or cat bites
Permanent damage, such as pain and restricted movement, often remains after an animal bite. Such severe late effects can be avoided by treating the bite immediately. After a bite from a dog or cat, those affected should go to the hospital immediately – preferably to a clinic with hand surgery.
Visit surgical department
Surgeons are best able to assess whether the wound is in a dangerous area and what the risk of serious infection is. It depends on whether the wound just needs to be thoroughly disinfected first, or whether surgery is required to deeply irrigate and clean it to prevent worse.
Expert on the subject
Executive Physician and
Head of the Hand, Micro and Replantation Surgery department
Clinic for accident, hand and reconstructive surgery
Schillingallee 35
18057 Rostock
hand surgeon
Osterstraße 116
20259 Hamburg
Further information
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Visit | 07/18/2023 | 8:15 p.m