ANIMAL BITES

If you’ve suffered lasting pain or deformity due to an animal bite, please Schedule an appointment with one of our orthopedic specialists as soon as possible.

What are Animal Bites?

Animal bites occur when an animal uses its teeth to puncture, tear, crush, or break a person’s skin and underlying tissue. Dogs, cats, wild animals, and household pets can cause these injuries during play, fear, defense, or aggression. A bite may create shallow wounds, deep punctures, or severe damage to muscles, nerves, tendons, and bones. Bacteria, viruses, and other harmful microorganisms from an animal’s mouth can enter the body through the wound and increase the risk of infection or disease. The severity of an animal bite depends on the type of animal, the force of the bite, and the location of the injury.

Causes of Animal Bites

Animal bites happen for many reasons, often because an animal reacts to a situation that triggers fear, stress, or aggression. Common causes include provoking or startling an animal, approaching an injured or sick animal, protecting food, territory, or young, rough play with pets, and interrupting animals while they eat or sleep. Wild animals may bite when people enter their habitat or attempt to feed or handle them. Poor training, lack of socialization, pain, illness, or previous abuse can also increase aggressive behavior in domestic animals. Children face a higher risk because they may misread animal behavior, make sudden movements, or approach animals without caution.

Symptoms of Animal Bites

Mild Symptoms: Mild animal bites often cause pain, tenderness, redness, slight swelling, and minor bleeding around the wound. Small puncture marks, scratches, or shallow cuts may appear on the skin. Some people also experience bruising or mild discomfort during movement near the injured area.

Severe Symptoms: Severe animal bites can cause deep puncture wounds, heavy bleeding, severe pain, significant swelling, extensive tissue damage, and difficulty moving the affected body part. Signs of infection include increasing redness, warmth, pus, foul-smelling drainage, fever, and swollen lymph nodes. Numbness, loss of sensation, weakness, or uncontrolled bleeding may suggest damage to nerves, tendons, or blood vessels. Animal bites from rabid animals can also expose people to rabies, a viral disease that attacks the brain and nervous system. Early symptoms of rabies include fever, headache, fatigue, and tingling or burning around the bite wound. Without prompt treatment after exposure, the disease can progress to confusion, difficulty swallowing, muscle spasms, paralysis, seizures, and coma. Rabies almost always leads to death after symptoms begin, so anyone with a possible exposure should seek immediate medical care for evaluation and preventive treatment.

Treatment for Animal Bites

Mild Treatment: Clean the bite immediately with soap and running water for several minutes to remove dirt and bacteria. Apply gentle pressure with a clean cloth to stop minor bleeding, then cover the wound with a sterile bandage. Replace the bandage daily or whenever moisture or dirt affects the dressing. Over-the-counter pain relievers can reduce pain and swelling. Monitor the wound for redness, warmth, pus, increasing pain, or swelling, and seek medical care if these signs develop.

Severe Treatment: Seek emergency medical care for deep wounds, heavy bleeding, bites on the face, hands, feet, or genitals, or injuries that damage muscles, tendons, nerves, or bones. Healthcare providers thoroughly clean the wound, remove damaged tissue when necessary, control bleeding, and close selected wounds with stitches based on the risk of infection. Specialists may prescribe antibiotics to prevent or treat infection and provide a tetanus booster when vaccination status requires an update. Medical providers also evaluate the risk of rabies based on the type of animal, the animal’s behavior, and local public health guidelines. People with possible rabies exposure receive rabies immune globulin and a series of rabies vaccines to prevent the virus from causing disease. Surgery may become necessary for severe tissue damage, fractures, or injuries involving major blood vessels, nerves, or tendons.

If you have any questions for our Texas-Based Orthopedic Specialists, give us a call at 817-697-4038, or contact us online. Telemedicine appointments are also available.